A familiar face around the streets of Soho, for our next Footpatrol Meets we pop round the corner to Jason Markk London and enlist Geoffrey to take us through his top 5.
Normally taking care of our sneakers, it’s now his turn to have the camera on him and show us what he has within his collection. Collecting ever since his parents told him not too, Geoffrey has amassed a wide array of sneakers. Below he takes us through his sentimental top five!
Footpatrol: Always great to have you with us Geoff! Before we start, could you share a brief introduction about yourself?
Geoffrey: Likewise! But for anyone who doesn’t know me I’m Geoffrey, I’m 29 and work for Jason Markk looking after the UK store operations and the marketing coordination for the brand also in the UK.
FP: So, what created this love for trainers that you now have today?
G: I got into sneakers because my parents didn’t let me buy trainers when I was a kid! So when i started making my own money, i really started getting myself into the groove for getting some form of a rotation or some form of a collection going just because i was always such a fan of loads of colours and loads of materials. At the time when I got into trainers, a lot of different brands were using a lot of materials and colours towards it, I used to match up my outfits with my trainers but it then all spiralled off into a massive collection now!
FP: Now you have got a crazy amount of shoes here! How was it trying to pick a Top 5 out of all this heat?
G: Picking my top 5 is probably the hardest thing I have had to do in a long time. It’s simply down to the fact I have so many trainers that I love and there’s always some form of a story to the majority of the trainers I do have. The reason I have decided to choose the 5 that I have today, is all of them in their own right have their own story behind them and how they I obtained them was special and sentimental to me. So that’s why I chose them, I believe trainers mean something very different to every person depending on what you went through to get it. This is more of a sentimental top 5 than a ‘hype’ top 5.
FP: Okay well let’s jump into it see what you picked! Where would you like to start?
G: Starting from 5, the Comme Des Garcon x Nike Mowabb. The reason I picked this shoe is because I’m a big fan of the Mowabb, so when Comme des Garcon reconstructed this shoe with the materials they chose and left the off-cut edges and different panelling, I was a really big fan of that. The material is also very interesting, it’s almost like suede which means it’s actually a lot more cleanable. I like the detailing also where the CDG replaces the ACG in the same font – nice and subtle. It’s a really good cream white shoe, perfect for summer.
Coming at 4th, my Nike Dunk Shima Shima took me a long while to get a hold of it and I got them for a good price. Originally it was thanks to @Archive.DNA for posting the shoe up and connecting the social media community together. So ‘Shima Shima’ means ‘Stripes Stripes’ in Japanese, so that’s shown by the Pinstripe detailing on the inside of the shoe and it also says ‘Shima Shima’ on the tongue. I actually got these for what was supposed to be £45 but the gent I got them off found out it was my birthday and knocked off a tenner, so I got these for £35 practically DS! This is a really strong 4th because I really like the light colour way, hits of the yellows, the leather is also quite interesting as well because it’s not a solid blue it has a sort of crackled finish to it which gives the shoe a really nice character.
3rd is the Nike Air Force 1 CVS from 1997. So this shoe was actually gifted to me by an old friend. He actually was trying to find a pair of Air Forces from the year I was born, he actually gifted these to me because I did him a favour – which I’m not gonna talk about haha! The detailing on them is insane, the swoosh is really fat, these are from the times Air Forces were still made in Korea and being from ‘97 they are holding up quite well. Still very wearable, the shape is just amazing and the detailing is all still there.
Coming in at 2nd! The Nike Footscape Woven ‘Pink Pack’, I actually really love this shoe and how I got it was quite a story in itself. I actually started trying to clean the shoe for one of my friends called Jimmy and he said a mad story behind it where someone stepped on his shoe and tried to clean and made it worse! He then dropped them to me to clean for him and I did the best I could. The part of the shoe that I love the most is the star perforation and during the cleaning process because the stain that he bought to me was to long, it didn’t completely lighten up as much as he would have liked it to but after I cleaned them and repelled them and he came to collect them he just said to me ‘You can just have them’. I lost my mind! But yeah, the perforations, the pinks hits on the lace, the heel and the iced pink outsole on the original Footscape sole made them really special for me and the fact they were free was a definite bonus. One of my all time favourites for sure!
Number 1! The 2001 Nike Air Force 1 Co.JP this is my all time favourite Air Force ever, in fact I love it so much that I have…. 2 pairs! A lot of OGs have been after this shoe for a long time like myself, luckily both pairs came to less than £100. I’m really lucky and really happy to have them. I like the Atmosphere Pink on the Swoosh, the linen leather and overall the shape of the Air Force from 2001 was really nice which isn’t so much shown on current day Air Forces.
FP: Geoffrey thank you again for giving us some insight into your Top 5 and the stories that came with them!
G: I hope you guys enjoyed it! Thank you guys for having me. It was a pleasure! For anyone that is looking for me, you can find me in Jason Markks on Carnaby Street when you guys have the time to pop by. Peace!
