From Kentucky to NYC, Matt Parker has been at a lot of places thanks to his sneakers’ passion. Born in Kentucky, he moved to New York to chase his own dream. His dedication to the game led him to work with Ronnie Fieg at Kith and into being a respected sneakers collector. We talked with Matt about his first pair of sneakers, moving to New York, working with Ronnie Fieg and more, much more.
Hey Matt, thanks for taken the time to gives us this interview. Please introduce yourself.
Hey, thanks for reaching out to me – My name is Matt Parker, I just turned 34 years old, I work for a startup called Nexem and I live in Lexington, Kentucky USA.
When did your passion for sneakers start? Was it at a younger age, or was it something you discovered later on?
Well, I remember when it first hit me how much I loved kicks… it was Christmas of 1992 and my parents got me a pair of Air Jordan 6 “Maroon”… I couldn’t believe it because I’d never even asked for a pair of shoes that costed $100+ back then, it was an obvious “no”. But I believe those went on sale that year so that’s probably why I ended up getting a pair haha.
Now that’s an amazing Xmas gift, I guess you were torn to Bball shoes back then, or was it the MJ effect?
The sneaker game was different back then. Or maybe non-existent is a better term for it… sneakers were always awesome but Air Jordans were the epitome of dope shoes back then. Whenever I went to the local mall stores like Foot Locker, Athletic Attic, etc back then all I looked at were Jordan’s, not runners! Jordans were the highest price and the coolest designs so even tho I didn’t play ball, the Jordan’s definitely drew me in. It’s like if you went to a car lot and u know u cant buy a car and just wanna look, why waste time looking at the cheap shit you see at every stoplight? Show me the craziest cars you have!!!
Yes, you’re right. So when did the all running retro shoe thing hit you?
I just always normally had runners because they averaged about $60-80 unless you’re taking Air Max, those were always $100+ too so sorta off the menu for me too. But Air Max made me appreciate running shoes. Probably a couple years after the Jordans, I started noticing Air Max much more. In 6th grade my friend had the Air Max squared and I was in love with that shoe from that point on.
So the lower range were the options available right, well not available – but like the ones you could buy?
Yes. People will always attempt to live just beyond their means, no matter how much or how little they have. Sneakerheads are actually probably amongst the most guilty of that.
Back then we would only buy what ours parents could afford…
Right. So one pair at a time, whenever it’s worn out you can get a new one.
Now let’s talk this all sneaker game thing, when did it start for you?
Probably 2003 was the first time in my life when I had the means and the desire to purchase multiple pairs of shoes. But I didn’t know how many people were into shoes like that back then so I had always just kept it to myself. I had the Air Max 2003, three pairs of New Balance 574 in different mono colors, a pair of AJ6 that I think were actually fake (lol), and some Vans that I skated in.
So what you saying is that you weren’t really aware of all the sneakers hysteria, collabs, limited editions etc?
Yes, I didn’t know what collaborations were back then (lol). Didn’t find that out ‘til 2010 had just done the Cove GL3. Before I knew collabs I got all my shoes from ebay, normal retailers, and the only good sneaker website I knew at the time was Pickyourshoes. I remember when the Airmax selection there was mind blowing, all the skull pack type stuff just sitting.
This is when you were living in New York right? What happened to make you move from Kentucky to New York, did sneakers had anything to do with it?
So I had a decent sneaker collection by the time I moved.
So I’m from Kentucky. In 2012, I was 29 and I’d been here most my life, I was doing standup comedy locally a few years, working at a restaurant serving tables and just kind of felt like my life got stagnant. I had talked about moving to a large city for a couple years and never did anything so I just got tired of that. I had considered Chicago, LA and NYC. I finally decided it was now or never and chose NYC because it was the home of standup comedy and sneakers, plus it has good public transportation so I could sell my car to fund the move since I wouldn’t need it there. I had no real plan at all. It was just more about getting out to see the world and see what I was capable of. I knew I could do more than wait tables.
And how did you end up working at Kith?
I got into Kith because I already knew about Ronnie Fieg like I said, so when I got to NYC it was one of the first places I wanted to go experience. I had messaged Ronnie briefly a couple times before but he wasn’t quite as big as he is these days so he was more accessible than. One instance where we spoke briefly was when I received the Mint Leaf GL3, I messaged him to tell him how much I loved it and he did reply to a few of those type messages. I ended up working as a barista in a coffee shop when I first moved to nyc. I worked there a few months and realized that being there was expensive, lonely and kind of pointless.
So you reached out to him when you arrived in New York?
I reached out to Ronnie one day right on Facebook messenger. I remember I had only been in NYC a few months but I wanted to leave already. I was actually planning my trip back home when I noticed Ronnie’s name on my Facebook chat window, so I hit him off with a message telling him all about myself, how much I admired his work and that I’d love to work with him, not expecting a reply because again, except for those few brief interactions of “hey man I got my mints in! They’re amazing!!! Keep it up!!” and him replying “thanks fam”, I didn’t know anyone personally at Kith at all. I had been in the shop maybe twice at that point but nobody knew my name or about me really and I had not yet met Ronnie in person so I didn’t expect a response from him. I sent the message, started to close out my computer, and suddenly he messaged me back asking if I’d like to intern for him. I said of course, that’s one of the only thing that would keep me in NYC. So I went and interviewed with the operations manager at the time, Pete Forester. A week later they called me back and offered me the position, a 6 month internship which paid only $14 per day. The first month or so I worked in the store, mostly fetching sneakers for customers and that type of thing, at that point Kith had been open for less than 1 year, opened in late 2011, and this was summer of 2012. Ronnie had already hired and replaced 3 people at that time to run the website (shipping, customer service, etc) in less than 1 year so he came to me saying he wanted me to handle that after about 2 months of interning, so I did. The internship ended in january 2013 and then I was hired full time with salary and benefits as the Kith online store manager.
And how about Ronnie, easy to work it or…
He’s an intense guy sometimes… intimidating because I knew about all his accomplishments and I wanted to make his brand better. He can also be a very down to earth, cool relaxed guy sometimes. He can be very giving at times too, but (probably because it was a work environment) mostly he just made me nervous as fuck lol.
We know each other a couple of years and I knew you as one of the most active Kith members, and it sounds like you were having a good time working there. what changed that made you quit?
Maybe the best job I ever had. Well, I didn’t wanna just ship boxes and answer emails… I had come so far! I’m a creative type person so although I was very happy in a sense to just be working somewhere exciting and relevant to me but all that boring stuff is kinda where I got stuck by Ronnie and I get it – it was a startup and that position was a lot of responsibility.
And you wanna be a part of the creative process..
Yes. So I always hoped Ronnie would soon let me transition out of the customer service and shipping side of things and bring me in to help with the things I’d be good at. It just never happened…
Did you approached him or you just got tired of waiting?
I tried talking to him many times but he never took it seriously and, in his defense, he needed me where I was at back then. Because I really cared about Kith and I tried to do a good job and make it a better place, so I was good with talking to the customers on the phone and via email. But still, after 2.5 years or so it started getting frustrating. Not just to be working for someone I greatly admired and succeeding in NYC, but just not feeling very appreciated in general. You gotta understand, the online shop is 80% of the business for kith and for the first 6 months or so, until Adam Stubbs joined the team to help me handle all that, I was doing it all by myself from Neptunes to Selvedge Denim.
And what then, you moved back to Kentucky?
Nope. Left kith in December 2014 and a few months later got picked up by Extra Butter. worked there 6 months and the owner told me he couldn’t keep me on. I think he was hoping Ronnie had given me the “secret recipe” for success or something and when I didn’t turn Extra Butter into a Kith, he just let me go. At the moment I was doing the same job as Kith basically but I was on the verge of doing an Asics collab thru the store. To have the chance of getting your hands on a collaboration and then in the end doesn’t happen. Basically, a few weeks after they had gave me permission to start working on it and they liked my idea, plus I was friends with the former head of Asics collaborations who had left Asics the same time I left kith, and was sort of coaching me on how to approach the whole thing.
I went back to Kentucky in April this year and worked for Oneness, the boutique here. Worked there about 4 months and they let me go also.
Back to sneakers, I see you have a really eclectic collection, do you have any favourite brands? Or it’s all about the shoe no matter what the brand is?
I try to have variety. I mainly mess with Asics, Nike, New Balance, Puma and adidas, but I have some cool stuff from other brands like Saucony, Avia, Brooks, Le Coq Sportif, etc. It’s all about how the shoe looks to me. No brand is off limits!
I’ve also noticed that besides your passion for sneakers you developed also a passion for photography, and seem that you have cool fan base.
Sneaker photography was a passion before NYC or instagram even, probably started doing that the same time I started buying more shoes than I needed, around 2009. And working at Kith definitely helped get people interested!
I like that you take shots, of beaten pairs, usually everything is too new, like when people wear them for the picture they take…
Thanks! I try not to get to hung up. Sure, there are a few high dollar pairs I have in near perfect condition that would probably be pretty annoying to fuck up, but at the end of the day, they’re just shoes. Most of them look better with some signs of wear in my opinion anyways. But yea, a lot of dummies seem to only buy rare shoes just for the purposes of taking a picture, posting it online and then urgently trying to sell it as “brand new condition” so they can do it all again! Wash, rinse, repeat.. That shit is called fronting and it’s just sad!
So you offer yourself a pair of the original Nike Max 2 Light from 1994, was this your ultimate grail? And what other shoes are you still on the hunt for?
Actually no! My all time grail was the original Air Max 2 (squared) which I just picked up an OG pair of on 9/23/16! They looked perfect but upon the first few minutes of wear, began to crumble lol! Wear at your own risk! As far as hunting for other grails, I’ve really been selling more stuff off lately than picking up. I’m always on the lookout for a few things like the Patta x ASICS Gel Lyte III and the New Balance 670 x Wood Wood, but the prices have gone up so much on these that it wouldn’t really matter if I find my size…. I’m not willing to pay the price of a cheap car for another pair at this point. I’ve had some of the hottest pairs that ever existed along my path (and still do!) so it almost seems like once you’ve had it all and sold it, you don’t care as much. I would like to get a few pairs back someday, like they RF x ASICS GL3 “Cove” and the Solebox x New Balance 1500 “Purple Devil” but if I don’t ever, that’s ok too!
Ok Matt, thanks a lot for taking the time to share a bit of your life and passion about sneakers!
Thanks for including me!