Sporting an ultra-rare set of blue-and-red "Bugs Bunny" Nike Air Jordan VIIIs, Big Boi said he today boasts at least 400 pairs of sneakers, but he rarely pays for them because shoe companies send him pairs.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/L...re/index.html#cnnSTCText
Ultra rare...right....
Matt Halfhill - Nice Kicks: What is your involvement with the Sneaker Pimps?
Dave Jeff - PHLI: I have been the host for the past 3 tours of Sneaker Pimps. I am the MC, I get it crackin'!
DJ Clark Kent: I am DJ Clark Kent, and I am the Sneaker Pimps tour's resident DJ.
Matt: Jumping right into things that people might want to ask. I heard that someone in the crowd at Sneaker Pimps Atlanta was spotted and identified for wearing fake shoes to the show. Is this a common occurrence on the tour?
Dave: Yes it is. Me being the voice of a lot of hip hop and sneaker shows including Sneaker Pimps, DunkxChange, and other sneaker shows, my tag line is that sneakers are a very important part of my life. They are how I eat and feed my family. These shows are official and real sneaker events and if you see someone wearing fakes to a real and official sneaker event smack their %@*. I don't mean in the literal form, but of course let these people know what they are doing and what they are wearing. So that is what happened in Atlanta. The crowd pointed out this person who was wearing some fake, clear Air Force Ones. The crowd pointed him out, I saw him, brought him to the side of the stage and told the dude "I am going to embarrass you" but 9 out of 10 times we have something special to replace their shoes with. Usually its something that isn't coming out for a few months. The point of this is to educate people about fake shoes, where they come from, and why they aren't cool.
Someone from the crowd handed up a lighter to take care of the shoes, but as soon as the flame touched his kicks he got all belligerent, flipped off the crowd, and screamed out that he loved his fake shoes. At that point I told security to get that dude out of the club because that isn't what we were about.
Matt: Alot of people both in the crowd and online who saw photos of Big Boi had some serious questions not only regarding the authenticity of his sneakers, but why he wasn't stopped before taking the stage at Sneaker Pimps in what are alleged to be fake shoes?
Clark: I think that I would like to speak for the both of us on that. We were both DJing and doing our part of the show on stage and Greg Street was brought to introduce Big Boi. Now when Big Boi was introduced, Dave and I were not on stage. We were no where near the stage. When Big Boi took the stage, I was alerted by someone via text message that he was wearing shoes that were looking suspect, so I came out from backstage and looked on from the side of the stage. Now I saw that they weren't right or what I visualized what wasn't right and Dave and I both were like "nah, these aren't right", but at this point the show was already going on. Now my thing is what do you do? Stop him in the middle of performing and say "yo" or do you wait until it's over and then say something. So we waited since he is a professional who is performing and it's part of the show for him to perform you wait until it's over. But what happened was that is after he performed, the club cleared out since he closed the show. There really was no way to rush onto the stage after his set and say "hey man". There was no one to address it to. He finished his stage, got off the stage, and left. So there really was no way to address the situation at the show.
Matt: So Big Boi didn't get a "free pass" because he is a celebrity or the headlining act for the night?
Clark: Absolutely not. Not on my behalf and I think that I can speak for Dave that not on his behalf either. I mean maybe he got a free pass from Greg Street, but he didn't get a free pass on our behalf.
Dave: People who were at the show would have seen how it all happened. The situations were totally different for the two people that the crowd identified and for Big Boi. We had no knowledge of what Big Boi was wearing until the whole rest of the crowd saw them. The opportunity wasn't there to say anything to him. That really needs to be cleared up. I have no problems with telling anybody if they have fake sneakers on. We are men first and I take this stuff very seriously.
Clark: I would also like for people to take a tag off of us calling us the "Sneaker Police." We're not sneaker police, we are just two guys who are passionate about kicks - that's all it is.
Matt: Have you had a chance to speak to Big Boi since his performance at the Sneaker PImps?
Clark: Absolutely not. (laughs) How am I supposed to get at Big Boi? I mean, I know him, but it's not like I have him on speed dial. If I knew Big Boi, none of this would have ever happened.
Dave: I want to say that I think he either doesn't know that the shoes he was wearing were fake or that he does not care, but knowing how much of a fly individual he is in the fashion sense, I am going to have to go with that he didn't know that he was wearing fake shoes.
Clark: I am going to have to agree with Dave. You have to understand that 90% of these rappers have someone dressing them or have someone bringing them clothes. He probably just doesn't know.
Dave: In his mind, he probably thought everything was good that night. He had the Atlanta Braves fitted in a fly colorway, he had the matching glasses, and then had the matching shoes. So in his fly mind he was probably thinking that he was doing the damn thing He just probably didn't know the full story about the shoes.
Matt: A few readers have commented that Big Boi wore suspicious sneakers before in the album insert for Outkast's CD Speakerboxx.
Dave: You can't front. The outfit the dude had on was fly as hell, but the shoes weren't.
Matt: Do you know if there has been any change to the process Sneaker Pimps follows regarding what entertainers wear on stage?
Clark: It's not their responsibility for Sneaker Pimps to worry about the authenticity of every pair worn into the show. But who are we to say you have to wear this or that. We aren't in that position. I guess the way you have to look at it is this. If you're from the hood and stay in the hood, and you start making money, are you still not from the hood? If that's what you understand, its not all about the money you may or may not have. I mean look at it this way, Rick Ross was seen on MTV showing sneakers that never existed. There have been plenty of known artists who have gone onto Cribs or Its' the Shoes with fake sneakers and that's just to say that they didn't know or that they didn't care.
See the difference is that our community cares whether a shoe is real or fake, but does that mean that they have to care.
Matt: Do you think that in order to be respected by the sneaker community it is important for that individual to care?
Clark: Let me say this, they probably aren't looking for respect from this community and this community probably doesn't matter to them. The sneaker thing matters to us so we love seeing our favorite artists wearing nice sneakers, but it doesn't have to matter to them.
Dave: This is like the whole thing of having money and being real. Big Boi is a very talented brother music wise and rap wise. His music is real. Sneakers might not have been as important to him as it was to me or definitely to Clark. Take for example Bun . Bun is from a certain area and certain demographic, but he is definitely into sneakers for real.
Clark: I actually had a conversation with Bun and his homie two days after the show. The thing that you have to know is that certain people really care about shoes and some don't. They look at the colorway of a shoe and just say, "ok, I'm fresh for the night." They don't care enough about the rest of the story of the sneaker.
Matt: Do you think that there is a separation between those who want to wear something fresh and what the sneaker community considers fresh?
Clark: I definitely do.
Dave: In my opinion, I think that it comes down to a lack of knowledge. Me being involved with the brands that I am like Nike, Adidas, K-Swiss, Puma, and all them and growing up in the retail setting with those shoes, I was privileged to knowing all the history and info about sneakers. Not everyone has had those opportunities to learn. When we call out those at the shows with the fakes on, the point is really to inform and educate not only the person on stage but also those in the crowd about everything from where to get official shoes, what are official colors of the shoes, and even some trivia about the shoe. We give the knowledge.
Clark: I grew up on being fresh. Somebody might see those sneaks and automatically think about their outfit before they think about the shoe and I think that's what happens to the average person who puts on a pair of sneakers. They will automatically think, "oh these will match this, this, this, and that, and it will look crazy and no one else will have it" without stopping to think about where those sneakers came from. I think that the sneaker community is much more in tune with the reality of the sneakers than the other dude who is just trying to be fresh. If that was the case, Big Boi probably would have never put them on if he cared about the reality of the shoes and the shoe game. He just cared about being fresh, that's all.
Dave: Two songs into the show, he stopped and told the crowd about how these were his new sneakers and that they came "fresh out the box." He was really feeling what he had on.
Clark: He felt that the shoes were part of his fresh. He wasn't caring if they were real or fake in that moment or the moment that he put them on. They looked ill to him.
Now he had on the matching fitted, and had it all together, but did it really matter to him whether his shoes were real or fake? Probably not, but it definitely matters to the community. There are alot of people who love fresh without loving sneakers.
Matt: It is pretty safe to assume that the two most faked sneakers are from the Air Jordan and Air Force 1 line. What does that say about those two lines that people are willing to wear fakes that resemble those shoes?
Clark: There is no question. The bottom line is Jordans are the most want-able sneakers around and so are Airs. The hood loves Airs and the hood is the less fortunate people who can't afford all the real ones they want. If they can find them for cheaper and care more about what they think is a good deal on a pair of shoes, they are going to buy them. Jordans are, well, Air Jordans. What more needs to be said. The Air Force 1 is the most perfect shoe around.
Dave: The Air Force 1 is a culturally iconic silhouette of a shoe.
Matt: I will give you guys the final word.
Dave: My views and Clark's views are not necessarily the views of the Sneaker Pimps show. I want to put that out there first and foremost. Sneaker Pimps is the best sneaker show going on. But please don't think that entertainers get any special treatment or passes from people in the crowd. And on another note, Clark don't do the work of even looking for fakes in the crowd. That is all from the crowd. They point out the people with the fakes. We are just in the position on stage to elaborate what they found.
Clark: You need to know too that when Big Boi was performing, there were many people in the crowd shouting at Dave, "yo, do you see his sneakers?!" A text message was sent to me and when I came to the side of the stage my face was just like "what the f#ck?" I even said to Dave, "What's up with that?!"
Dave: I just want it to be very clear. Very, very, very clear. Nobody get's a pass no matter who you are.
Clark: Nobody. Not in our world.
looks like they were fakes
Originally Posted by mike2389
even if they are customs, they're
