Are you obsessed with wearing and collecting sneakers? Then Foot Locker has a website you will love.
Hundreds of sneaker fans from around the world will meet up in New York City tonight to celebrate the launch of Sneakerpedia.com, a social platform, designed for the quirky passion of the sneaker community.
The site is powered by Foot Locker, and the event will take place at Hudson Hotel’s subterranean nightspot, Good Units. Some of the most prominent names within the sneaker culture are expected to attend; they’ll celebrate the site launch and take part in a real-life experience of the platform.
Famous rapper Bun B, DJ Clark Kent, Greg Street and Mayor from the Addicted to Fresh (ATF) sneaker crew, will provide the night’s entertainment. In addition, well-known personalities within the sneaker culture, including Bobbito Garcia, Elliott Curtis, Jonathan Mannion, Marco Colombo, Jay Smith, to name a few, will be there.
Sneakerpedia was initially launched at a beta event in London in December 2010; the platform will feature unique styles, never-before-seen treasures and the largest independent collections by some of the world’s most rabid sneaker fans. Utilizing a wiki, the content which fuels Sneakerpedia.com is provided, monitored, and shared by the user. Just don’t expect them to share their $500 pair of shoes.
Pulling the strings is global footwear giant, Foot Locker, building the foundation of a user-generated collection of sneaker knowledge. Foot Locker designed the platform as a gift to the community it has milked cash out of for over 35 years, allowing collectors from around the world to meet and share their love of sneaker culture.
“By fueling this project, we are bridging the gap between continents and raising awareness of a shared passion for sneakers,” said Stacy Cunningham, Corporate Vice President of Marketing, Foot Locker, Inc. “This community of sneaker enthusiasts can now share their knowledge, interest, and expertise of the products that unite us.”
Sneaker enthusiasts around the globe are encouraged to share their personal collections within their individual profiles by providing product photos, detailed information such as brand, color, stitching, release date, etc., as well as, personal stories relating to the shoe. Users have a bottomless virtual wall of sneakers, each one clickable, opening to the product’s profile. A map of collectors who own the shoe or have contributed to the sneaker’s information will be displayed in the right-hand side of the page, creating a social experience in which users can view and interact with other sneaker lovers’ pages and collections.
In the early stages, people were recruited from the world’s sneaker elite to fill the wiki with some of the rarest and coveted (overly expensive) sneakers. Today, the collections of Kish Kash and Ghettrocentricity from the UK, Jay Smith of France, Marco Colombo from Italy, DJ Clark Kent and Bobbito Garcia from the US, and many others are available to view and interact with.
No word on whether or not the profiles will display the astronomical cost of each member of the sneaker elite’s collection. Athletic shoes made in third world countries aren’t cheap you know…
The sneaker community can upload their collections or just check out the collections of others by visiting www.sneakerpedia.com. Sneakerpedia.com news is also available via its blog and on Twitter @Sneakerpedia.
