SOLE SEARCHING: Letter from the Editor 001

Hey, hi, how ya dernnn? I’m Drew, the editorial director here at Sole Retriever. I haven’t really formally introduced myself yet but after like six months at the helm, I figured it was probably time. You may have seen me around though, interviewing some of the best and brightest in the sneaker space, covering elaborate heists, or doing my most passionate work: shining a light on the real heroes: everyday sneakerheads.

I’ve been meaning to kick off this conversation with you, keeping a line of communication open and letting you know that there's a whole kick-ass team of actual humans behind all of these blogs and social media posts. Have to point that out these days because so many of our competitors just post AI slop on their blogs thinking sneakerheads like you won’t care. We care, and we know you do, too. In the sneaker world, we can all get caught up in the colorways and release dates of it all but it’s important to remember what’s most important, and that’s the friends we make along the way exposing scammers on Twitter.

It’s no wonder the scammers are winning, because we’re all overwhelmed and distracted by the world ending, so our guard is down. Even one of the best guards of all time got got.

Steph Curry and Under Armour’s divorce proceedings were going just about how you would expect. Neither was saying anything bad about the other publicly but you could tell which one of them was down bad and which one was shining all over town enjoying the single life. Well, Team Turtleneck got jelly and then got petty, going back on their promise to let Steph keep his Curry Brand and its assets by stealing all of its Instagram followers for their own Under Armour Basketball account. Not on our watch. We witnessed the burglary, broke the story, and as of the writing of this blog, have driven nearly 12k followers back to Curry Brand which was left with just 100 after the heist.

That’s the kind of hard-hitting reporting you get from Sole Retriever. No-holds-barred, straight to the point, perfectly executed KD burner jokes.

Speaking of stealing, Cactus Plant Flea Market’s ACG collab for Lizard People dropped today and they were charging $20 for shipping on a hat that probably weighs less than the box it will be mailed in. The collection wasn’t bad but c’mon, you’re only supposed to do the whole shipping scam in streetwear if you’re not charging a lot for the gear. Once you’re charging a shitload for it AND tripling up the shipping cost, you’re operating what we in the biz like to call… a racket.

Meanwhile, deals aplenty were there to be had at Supreme if you were quick on the draw. A beautiful box logo casket was surprisingly only $4,000, but it sold out instantly. Now you’re going to have to wait until one pops up on eBay for 10 racks or just settle for a normie casket with no faux leopard fur interior like the rest of us. Lame.

We launched a new site dedicated to all things Supreme where you can see early previews of future drops, see everything in the entire upcoming collection, and learn more about the brand’s collaborators. Make sure you check out Supreme Droplist, pin the tab to your desktop, never close it under any circumstances, and smash that refresh button every couple hours like you’re John Locke and the fate of the world depends on it. Can you tell I’m watching Lost for the first time? It’s great so far but I’m in early season 3 and who the hell are Nikki and Paulo and where did they come from??

Blog Roundup

Anyways, lots of other stuff happened on the blog this week. Union Frag 1s and Stranger Things Foams dropped on SNKRS, as well as a Grateful Ducks shock restock. We learned Kobe wasn’t the OG Black Mamba. A Travis Scott Flea 1 got teased and so did a wild new Air Max model you have to see to believe. We spoke to superstar snowboarder Zeb Powell about being the first rider on Jordan Brand and what direction he’d take for his first sneaker. Lots of good stuff, so make sure you read the blog religiously and then follow us on social and comment stuff like “first” and “send me this post” and “Dave makes $35k an hour with this one simple method, DM me to find out how he did it.”

What I Wore this Week

I’m in New England and we’ve been getting dumped on almost daily, so it’s been a lot of duck boots while I’m clearing the driveway. But once I’m out of the deep stuff and I’m just at risk of some slight slush and the occasional puzzle, I’ve been wearing comfortable but weather-friendly kicks like the brown and red Vans OTW Half Cab 33 Trail Vibram and some Gore-Tex NB 2002DX in castlerock grey to match the sky lately.

We'll do this every week if things are slow on Fridays, or maybe biweekly. Either way, nice to finally meet you and thanks for supporting Sole Retriever. We love what we do and hope you're enjoying it, too.

Talk soon...

Drew London

Drew oversees content at Sole Retriever and hates writing in the 3rd person soooo I'm going to stop. Ran The Hundreds Blog in LA for a long time before moving back east to make cool commercials and funny tweets at [insert big agency]. Now I'm doing what I really love: talking sneakers, streetwear, and everything in between. Email me at drew@soleretriever.com with scoops and size 13 heat.