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  • 4/18/2025
“Getting that sneaker smell is unbelievable.” Sneakerhead Rannvijay Singha tells Brut how sneakers became a cultural icon for Gen Z.
Transcript
00:00When your parents ask where's all your money?
00:02This
00:14I have more than I need, less than I want
00:18I like to have a separate space for my sneakers, where all of them are sorted. This is one of them. There are many rooms for my sneakers
00:48Storing is very important. I try to store them in a cool dry place, getting them in and out of storage and getting them a little light sometimes, wearing them, all of that is part of keeping your sneakers
01:18There's Kanye West with his Yeezys, there's Travis Scott with his Nike collaboration, there's J Cole, there's J Balvin, there's even Beyonce's got her line, Rihanna's got her line
01:48If you buy a sneaker on retail price, eventually some of them, they go up in value, like stocks
02:09One such sneaker is the Air Jordan 1 Chicago Off-White that I have. I got it for a decent value and today it's gone up in my size to $4,500 to $5,000
02:39I used to play basketball. The first time I saw the dream team, which happened in 1992, the USA basketball team which went for the Barcelona Olympics
03:07I fell in love with the sport. Once you fall in love with the sport, the ancillaries, you start loving players, you start loving teams and in basketball you end up loving the sneakers and at that time Michael Jordan was the Michael Jordan era
03:37The common factor that binds so many different subcultures is sneakers. A sneakerhead is somebody who's passionate about a culture, some form of art, music, sports, fitness, superheroes and he or she finds the way to express themselves through their sneakers
04:08You can wear sneakers with even your suits, people wear them to offices now, I mean when they used to go to the office
04:15It's just more than when people say you like shoes, no it's not that, it's my personality, it's one of the things that defines me

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