For the launch of the Air Jordan 1 OG High ‘Rebellionaire’, we tapped Timi from Pure Kicks to talk about his journey and history into footwear and his love of basketball – as well his lover of peanut butter cups! Pure Kicks is a channel where Timi and close friend review not just sneakers, but more specifically, performance basketball sneakers. Something we don’t see a lot in the UK! Like most the Air Jordan 1 silhouette is many consumers and collectors go-to and the latest ‘Rebellionaire’ rendition will only be a part of that lineage.

PLEASE TAKE TIME TO READ THE BELOW!

The London In-store draw is now CLOSED!

ONLINE draws are over on the Footpatrol app, CLICK HERE to download!

To enter, you’re required to sign up via the above forms, these WON’T be available in-store to sign up on. 

In-store winners will be contacted via email informing them of their win. Within this email, winners will be given a set of dates in which they must collect their win from our London store. To collect, you will need to provide the winning email and a valid photographic government ID matching the winners name. NO ONE can collect on the winners behalf. Failure to provide this, or failure to collect within the given dates will mean failure to purchase your win.

To sign up to the Online raffle, you will need to download the Footpatrol Launches app and complete a pre-authorisation payment of the retail price of the product plus shipping costs. This will be held until raffle completion. Those successful will have their raffle win posted out to the address entered during sign up. Those unsuccessful will see a return of their funds, this can take up to 5 working days from when the winners have been drawn. The raffle is limited to one entry per household! Multiple entries will be cancelled!

Timi, pleasure to have you here! Before we get into things, how are you?

I’m doing good, navigating things nicely as we come out of the last couple years we’ve had.

Tell us a bit about yourself and your earliest memory of sneakers?

Earliest memory was asking my parents to buy me a pair of Black Cat AJ3s from a “website” because I had seen someone famous wearing them…they were £36…you can guess how that went…

Was basketball a huge influence in the sneakers you got into?

It still is but growing up my idols were players like Kobe Bryant and Allen Iverson so as I mentioned earlier all I wanted to do was to like like them on and off the court, if I couldn’t get the sneakers, I’d get the long chains, if I couldn’t get them then the XXXL t-shirts would have to do.

You have a rich background of basketball, was basketball always the sport you wanted to play in?

Being born and Raised in the UK no, Football was the very first choice being that all my friends played and my dad enjoyed watching, however, I just wasn’t very good lol. So after my primary school playground had a makeover I decided to switch things up and give Basketball a try on the newly installed hoops…the rest is history.

You worked for Niketown London – was that a place that taught you a lot about product as well as networking yourself with people related to what your passions like basketball and 

footwear?

Most definitely during my time there, NikeTown became a well known and trusted spot for on court performance sneakers as well as off court, so looking after that section of the store I became immersed in the product and community that was already established – launches were VERY different back then lol!

Pure Kicks is a Youtube channel you and your good friend created what was the idea around it?

The idea was to shine some light on the game from an angle that isn’t about talent or God-given pshyique but instead the sneakers you choose to play in, one thing we all have in playing the game we love. We also just wanted to let the world to know that the UK’s got Hoopers!

In the UK, Basketball doesn’t get the same light as the usual sports like football and rugby, respectively – so as far as sneakers go, did you feel that some light needed to be shed onto performance basketball footwear (& lifestyle)?

As I mentioned a second ago Basketball gets the misconception that you HAVE to be over 6ft to even play but it’s no secret the sport transcends across music, fashion and culture as a whole the list of “cool” things inspired by basketball is damn near endless. So the channel has become a platform to champion just that through both performance and lifestyle.

We really appreciate your time spent with us Timi, before we let you go is there anything you would like to share with the Footpatrol readers and community?

Thanks for dropping in with me, this has been fun! From me all is like to say is…wear you sneakers!