CHRIS BLACKSTONE Words : Nick Santora | Photographer : Deven Cucolo
Location : Spring Arbor , MI | Age : 41 | Occupation : CIO at a University Collection : 40 sneaker catalogs + 80 + vintage advertisements
When it comes to looking at images of classic sneakers in the proper context , there are three categories to source from : advertisements , athlete photographs , and catalogs . Popular sports magazines from the 1980s and 1990s , featuring the ads and athletes , circulated to the thousands of households and newsstands and were easy to find . Many of those old Sports Illustrated are now in their digital archive and can also be found through social media platforms and basic Google searches . The catalogs , on the other hand , are a lot more difficult to get your hands on .
The function of sneaker catalog has historically been to present shop-owners with the full range of products each season , for them to choose and sell at their stores . Before everything went digital , these catalogs were literally spiral “ notebooks ” containing up to two-hundred pages , showcasing every sneaker available that season , along with their technical specifications . Before “ lifestyle sneakers ” existed , performance was still the number one focus of every single sneaker that was ever created . Especially back in 1987 , when you had so many new technologies coming out from multiple brands , everybody wanted to know more about the sneakers they were seeing in magazines and on television . It ’ s impossible for me to explain the impact of a shoe like the Nike Air Revolution to anyone who wasn ’ t playing hoops back in 1987 , but consider that it was the first basketball sneaker ever created with a Visible Air bubble . Every sneaker enthusiast had to see this masterpiece in person , learn more about them , get them on our feet , and then beg our parents to buy them for us .
But still , more obscure colorways existed , but seemed reserved for midwest schools in far-away places like Iowa , Michigan and Kansas . Even will all the retro releases and social media platforms , there are still hundreds of great ( Challenge Court , Aqua Gear and ACG ) sneakers and apparel that has never been seen by today ’ s fanbase , and judging by current trends , some of them would do very well if they were reissued . But how can we know what we want , if we ’ ve never seen it ? Fortunately for all of us , I recently put out a random request , and surprisingly received a response from a guy named Chris Blackstone , that made my eyeballs pop out .
Take it from me . It ’ s very hard to find high-resolution digital images of many of these obscure vintage sneakers that I ’ m talking about . They ’ ve never been retroed , and vintage pairs just don ’ t exist anymore ( or so we think ). For years , it has been impossible to search a company ’ s sneaker archive online , but through the power of Twitter ( in an otherwise stressful year to communicate on that platform ), I met an avid collector of vintage Nike catalogs , who was willing to just mail them to me , just so I can finally share them with you . When people ask me questions about “ sneaker culture ,” much of it seems opportunistic , and exploitative , but this type of interaction is what I prefer to talk about .