Black Lives Matter was founded in 2013 after hearing the verdict for Trayvon Martins death. The movement was founded by three radical Black women, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi. The movement is a global organization whose main goal is to “Eradicate White Supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on the Black Communities by the state and vigilantes. By combating and countering act of violence, creating space, imagination and innovation, and centering Black Joy, we are winning immediate improvements in our lives”. Black Lives Matter Support Black queer and Trans, disabled, undocumented, people with records, and all Black Lives on the spectrum. (blacklivesmatter.com)
Hey Everyone! It has been a lot of fun interviewing everyone about sneakers and learning the ins and out of the sneaker game.
I’ve learned a lot over these past few months, not just about sneakers but about learning how to interview people. I plan to end this blog but eventually start another, I’m not sure what my focus will be yet. On the sneaker side of things, I learned the ins and outs of the resell process and learned some different techniques when it comes to customization.
This project has taught me a lot, I understand how hard it came be to actually find a someone willing to be interviewed, people have busy life’s. I’ve had people agree to an interview and then never respond to me again. Always have more than one back up plan.
Another thing I learned is a interview won’t always go the direction that you plan so sometimes you have to just go with the flow. Your subject won’t always be comfortable right away but you shouldn’t push, let them get comfortable on their own.
Thank you to everyone that helped me with this project this semester, I really appreciate it. It was not easy but Im happy, I actually learned a lot from this. Ill be posting my new blog information on here when everything is ready. -Cierra
Tmeyah Lawrie “Ty” was born in Westmoreland County, PA but raised in Southside Jamica, Queens. New York , Stand up! Lawrie is a junior at Rowan Univeristy, majors in Criminal Justice with a minor in Physchology.
“Ty Talks” is an idea that Lawrie started on Instagram where she would post questions in forms of polls or a discussion. She would ask her audience what topics they would like to cover this week, read through her submissions and post a poll for her audeince to choose the topic.
On Ty Talks, the topics vary… You can be talking about Black family structures, consent, dating in this genertaion, or making friends. Lawrie has not touched Politics becasuse she feels though that Politics are very senstive at this time but hopes to one day get there.
The name ” Ty Talks” came from her nickname “Ty” and shes very talkative. She has the ability to talk about anything with anyone. She a very intelligent, out going young women with a bright personality. She wants her blog to be a platform for young black men and women to talk about their everday life and their experiences. You will remain anonymous when your expeince is being discussed.
Once a question is posted, Lawrie goes through every single response and will post a photo of her reaction and disuss your reponse with Instagram.
As of right now, Ty Talks is only on Instagram but one day she plans to turn TyTalks into a podcast or a segment on youtube. She wants the podcast to be very interactive, she wants to hear what everyone has to say. In the Black community, mental health is a big issue and a lot of children feel as though they cannot talk to their parents or family. “TyTalks” is a safe place to get answers to your questions, or just to discuss somethings that are going on in your life.
Nancy Quiroga is a Burlington County native that has been collecting sneakers for over ten years. Quiroga has over 90 pairs of sneakers in her collection and every sneaker holds value. The collection doesnt include your everyday sneaker, they include every sneaker that had some type of crazy release story such as Yeezy’s, SB Dunks, and the Neon 1’s. Quiroga talks about being a women in the sneaker culture and the difficuties she faces getting sneakers, what ruins the culture and some of her favorite kicks.
Regina Cho 24 from Cliffside Park, NJ is a young resilient journalist with a bubbly personality based in New York City. Cho has pushed the pen for some of the top Media Outlets in the country such as Billboard, Genius, Hot97, VIBE, DJ Booth, and Complex. The young writer has always had a gift with the pen, but it wasn’t until highschool that she started writing about music on a few different blogs. While in college in 2015, Cho and some peers started the first Hip-Hop magazine in existence at Syracuse University. She was the executive editor for the magazine, and this experience showed her how dedicated and passionate she was to push the culture and herself.
In a candid moment, Cho spoke about the most challenging thing about being a journalist in the music industry is dealing with the rapid pace of content consumption and how people are always attracted to the more “scandalous” topics rather than indulging in deeper, longer stories. “My passion is telling meaningful, inspiring stories.”, Cho explains. Often the stories that get the most clicks are about dating and drama, so that’s what the outlets mostly put out. However, Cho feels as long as you keep your mission in mind, it becomes easier to keep your integrity and continue to pursue the stories that matter.
Although Cho’s output is mostly through online articles, she does see the potential in expanding to on camera interviews. The visual element will generally make it easier for her personality to shine through. One of Cho’s favorite moments this year is when she interviewed mogul Rihanna. It gave Cho reassurance about her place in journalism. Cho was supposed to be covering the event that night but got to interview Rihanna in the process, one of the biggest artists in the world, and Cho interviewed her with ease. Cho held her own composure and realized she can handle anything in the industry no matter the pressure, preparation time, or magnitude.
When entering the world of journalism you need to focus on a few things: how to file your taxes,your ability to trust the process, and engaging with others while making them feel comfortable. Cho cites tax season as a source of anxiety each year. She says, “If I was taught more details beforehand it would have been way smoother.” When being in the journalism world, you must trust the process and understand real success takes time. All the people you look up to in Journalism put years and even decades to climb to where they are. Always shoot your shot, whether it’s in terms of internships, interviews, connections. The worst someone can say is “no.”
Lastly, remember the truth is the most important part of your job, as a journalist, no matter how cool or trendy the story, even or news is, never lose sight of how the truth is what you need to spread. When an interview subject isn’t being open, Cho explains the best thing to do is not to push, nine times out of ten the conversation will move on and the subject will eventually open up if they are comfortable enough, if not take what you have and make the best piece you can make.
Nancy grew up in Central Jersey, and later relocated to South Jersey in Burlington County. Shes a young women with many goals, Nancy is a Lash Tech, Real Estate Agent, A Make-Up Artist, and a Instagram Influencer. She has a really dope sneaker collection, she has over 80 pairs of sneakers that every sneakerhead would kill for. She has been in the Sneakergame for over 10 years, she became intrested in sneakers in Highschool when her sister’s boyfriend would always purchase her sister sneakers and urban wear. Nancy would sneak and wear her sisters sneakers to school and hurry up and put them back before she got caught. Nancy’s sisters boyfriend bought her a pair of all Black Jordan 10′s for her birthday, They were her first pair of Jordans. From that moment forward, she bought what she could afford and the rest is history. Nancy and I sat down and talked about her craziest experience getting sneakers, her hate for Yeezy, how to get your hands on your favorite sneakers and the resell process.
Nancy Quiroga Craziest Sneaker Moment
The Resell Process/ How To Get Sneakers when they drop
Magda Colon “Maggie”, of Camden New Jersey began collecting sneakers when she was in Highschool and later began to do customs. Maggie has well over 150 pairs of sneakers from The Concord 11’s to the Aqua 8’s. She doesn’t just customize sneakers, she also airbrushes T-Shirts so she pays a lot of attention to detail. The artist loves when customers just give her a theme of what they want and let her do her own thing.
Maggie’s Sneaker Collection Photo Taken By Cierra Bosarge
Wet Paint Studios is actually a place in Maggies basement where she has a room set up with desks, organized paint and an incredible wall of sneakers. One day she hopes to have her own studio.
How did you get in the Sneaker game?
My collection that I have now is pretty much built off of when I got a job and I was able to pay for all the sneakers that I wanted. So I use to like look at Sneaker Blogs online and follow like, um, like there use to be Sneaker Forums instead of like crazy facebook or whatever. Like you know facebook groups or whatver there was sneaker forums like niketalk.com and it was literally kinda like a reddit but for sneakers specfically. So i use to be on there all the time and thats how I paid attention to what shoes would come out. Like I could see whats coming out but my mom was a single mom raising me by herself so I wasnt getting everything that I wanted but I just always paid attention to the cuture and all of that so once i got my job it was just like… that was it. Everything that I paid attention to when I was growing up now I can do it myself.
Do you remember the first pair of sneakers that you ever got?
So specifically the first pair of Jordans that I remember is the Flint 13’s, its a pair of 13’s that are white, grey with some navy blue. I got two pairs or something like that, they’re right over ther actually, These. They came out in 1998 and my cousin bought them for me for my birthday. That was my first pair of jordans and actually one of my favorite models. So when they released on Novemeber 26th or 24th of 2010 I made sure I got two pairs.
What advice would you give someone that wants to start a Sneaker collection?
Buy what you like! I started with the sneakers before it became a big thing not to say it wasnt always a big thing because it always had its sub culture,but before everyone was doing it. I think the sneaker that set that off was the Concord 11 release in 2011. After that you couldnt see a Jordan sitting on the shelf and people were buying everyhting just to be with the hype. I feel like the biggest thing is buy what you want, not what you think is gonna be hyped. Prime example, litereally one of my boys just had money so he bought everything like every relasse that came out and I would be like why are you buying that? You dont even like the shoe. He would be like”so what blah blah blah.” Thats the biggest thing to me just buy what you want, buy what you like if you wanna be proud of your collection when you look at it and be like yeah, I like everyone single one of these sneakers in here. Honestly that’s biggest thing I can say is buy what you want, to buy what you want your collection to say about you.
Whats yourfavorite pair in your collection?
I can’t pick one but the Flint 13’s is obviously in my top 5. Aqua 8’s, they’re black turquoise and purple, and Jordan 1’s like just that model itself its so clean it go with everything. So if I had to do a top 3 specifically. I cant just pick a certain one that I love so i would just say Jordan 1’s, Flint 13’s and the Aqua 8’s.
When did you start customizing sneakers?
I started customizing sneakers my Senior year in High school, I read an article on customization and what types of paint to use. A friend of mine wanted to get a pair of sneakers done for his girlfriend and he asked me to do them. I told him in theory I knew how because I read an article but I never did it before. So he was like , “Well do you know where to get the paint?” He gave me the money to buy the paint and was like ” I feel like youre going to do well, I’ll buy the paint for you, just do it.” So, He bought the apint for me and it was over since then.
Can you tell me a story about your favorite customization that you have ever done?
Two of my favorite customs both garnered attention from Sneaker Blogs and I actually got reposted a couple times on them, I actually have one here that I can show you in a second. The one that attracted the most attention both negative and postive was, I actually made a Jordan 4 modelled after NewPort cigarettes. So the laces were brown ,the pods on the side where brown, and the back piece had the striping thats acually on the box so it faded from dark teal to light teal. You can see the representation of a cigarette on them so of course you had the“ oh cancer, blah blah blah! ” Then you know other people just saw the artistic piece of it, like yo you really took all the aspects. You know what it is without physically writing Newport on the shoe. So that one, and the other one is Tiffany 4’s. Diamond Supply, Nicki Diamonds came out with a Nike SB, the Tiffany Dunks super sought after, Its like a metallic silver check on it, beautiful Tiffany blue and black with Croc skin. So I took a Jordan 4, painted the same colors on it and then I hand burned croc skin on the shoe.
Custom Jordan 4’s “Newport” Picture taken By Maggie
What are some suppies that every sneakerhead should have?
Sneaker cleaner, I can’t stand dirty laces. What do you use to clean your laces? To clean my laces I use water proofer actually to maintain them from the beggining. You gotta waterproof them first but if they do happen to get dirty then obviously, you gotta clean the whole shoe. As far as sneaker cleaner, I like Crept.Snipez just came out with their own sneaker cleaning line, and we got this thing called a multi-clean bottle and its got the little brush on the top, I dont know what in that solution but like I’m amazed by it, I had to buy it as soon as I tried it.
Tell me the craziest experience you had trying to get Sneakers? And what were the hardest Sneakers toget your hands on?
The craziest experince would have to be the Tiffany Dunks, I did get the Lows but when the Highs release that might have been. Thats actually the only sneaker that I’ve paid over retail for. I dont remember what the retail price was but I think I paid like $160-$170. I had to get up at 4 o’clock in the morning and I dont call it a camp out because we sat in the car. Our pair was locked in I just had to pay more and just sit in the car and make sure we are there. Like it was a legit back door process, we literally went around to the back door of the store, I dont know the name of the store, it was a friend of mine that he had the hook up with that spot.. I think it was somewhere in Willingboro? maybe, I dont even know where we went I just got in the car, Im just sitting there at four in the morning like “Ok, What are we doing?” But I left with the shoes in hand so…
Do you have a strategy for finding Sneakers? Do you have any tips for anyone that wants to get into buying Sneakers?
EBay is actually stepping up as far as sneakers are concered, If im not mistaking ,I dont know if they’re doing it anymore but they were trying to get more poeple to buy EBay. You know Stock X and Goat came on the scene, so they were offering people like $20 0ff if you were buying a pair of sneakers for over $200 or something like that. I’ts harder when you wear Grade school sizes, if you’re looking for older shoes. That was always my problem because Grade school sizes are kid sizes. So when these shoes orginally came out in 2000-2002 if they were being purchased, they were being puorchaed for kids who would trash the shoes. So the chances of me finding a decent pair or even something that is repairable were very slim to none. Thats why if anyone out there has a pair of Cherry 16’s in 6.5, Ill take them, but anyway Ive been looking them for 10 years.
You can find the rest of Maggie’s customs at @Jays_on_deck15 or @wetpaintstudios on Instagram.
Air Jordan 7 Retro White/True Red-Light Silver Tourmaline Creases already removed. Taken By Cierra Bosarge-Fussell
Every Sneakerhead hates when we crease our sneakers… It makes you never want to wear that pair of sneakers again. Some people try to walk weird to prevent creases, others just buy a whole new pair. Here are some tips to prevent creases and if you already have creases in your sneakers how to remove them. Please understand this is not the only way, you can do what works best for you.
Always store your sneakers in a cool, dry, place in some type of storage container (or the Shoe Box).
Use Shoe Trees, Sneaker Shields, or put plastic in your shoe so that your sneaker can keep the orginal shape.
Plan Ahead! Always check the weather, If its going to rain, DO NOT wear your favorite sneakers outside.
Shoe Horns are also very helpful, they keep you from creasing the back of your sneaker, they make it easier for your sneaker to glide on. Sometimes if you just go to a sneaker store and ask for one, they will let you have one.
Buy your leather sneakers kind of tight around the toe area because leather stretches and will leave less from for creasing.
To uncrease your sneakers you will need :
Iron
Towel
Water
Wash Rag
A T- Shirt, A sock, or Paper.
Put the Iron on the Cotton Setting. While your Iron is warming up Fill your sneakers with the T-Shirt, Sock, or Paper whatever you like the best. Make sure the toe of your sneaker is as hard as possible, you want it to kind of look like a bubble starting to form.
Try to get a wash rag that is either the same color as your sneaker or very old so it wont bleed and stain your sneaker. Put the was rag in water and ring it out a little bit.
Put the washrag on the creases in your sneakers and Iron small sections back and forth for 10 seconds. Dont go to close to the sole, its made of different material. You might have to repeat this process mutliple times.
I hope this will help you guys with preventing creases in your sneakers and removing creases from your sneakers. Everyone has different techniques, there is no right or wrong, just do what works best for you.
Air Jordan 7 Retro White/True Red-Light Silver Tourmaline Creases already removed. Taken By Cierra Bosarge-Fussell
This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.
You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.
Why do this?
Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.
The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.
To help you get started, here are a few questions:
Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
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If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?
You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.
Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.
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On My Sole 