For part 9 we took a look back at quite possibly the greatest sneaker performance review site of all time in Kicksology. For part 10? For part 10 we are taking a look back at and discussing two sites created by one man, mr. Alex Wang.
Alex was (and still is) one of the most respected members of the footwear community and for good reason. A lot of people say their “OG’s in the game” but few have the history like Alex to really back it up. Lets go back. In the mid to late 90’s it was common place for many in the sneaker community to show their passion through sites like GeoCities, Tripod and of course AOL member pages. What made these earlier pages so special is that it really showcased the taste of the individual and not just some regurgitation of what was “trending”. Alex chose the AOL route for his page and thus was born the Jumpmanst AOL page. During this time he would go back and forth between his own AOL page and Nike Park (a site I’ve covered in part 2). Shortly after, Alex’s membership on NikePark evolved into Niketalk and Jumpmanst evolved into Retrokid.com.
It was at Retrokid.com that he took things to the next level. Throughout this time he not only blogged and posted dope detailed photo’s of a lot of our grails on his Kicktionary
but the personality of the man behind the site shined through. Remember the “Shoe Club”?
![Nerds2[1]](https://www.defynewyork.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Nerds211.jpg)
There were photo’s from all the sneaker gatherings he was directly involved with or attended as well as a games section.
He set a prime example of how a decent human being (let a lone a shoehead) should carry themselves within the community both on his site as well as the message boards. You will rarely if ever hear of any big arguments between Alex and some other individual, he doesn’t care for profanity and he’s helped a lot of individuals throughout the years. His site and dedication to the community would eventually lead to a huge feature in issue 2 of Brand Jordan’s 2002 magazine. I vividly remember flipping through the pages and who do I stumble upon? Alex. One by one I stared at each individual shoe wide eyed and thirsty for some eBay action.
Images via Kicksonfire.com
In 2003 he showed up at the FOTB (Fresh Out The Box event) wearing some ORIGINAL (YES ORIGINAL) Nike Air Jordan fire red IV’s that were obviously still wearable (like he was some sneakerhead super hero that had the ability to wear the unwearable). Eventually Alex’s passion would lead him to SoleCollector’s staff and eventually to the ultimate destination,Nike. Although his site isn’t up now (just a homepage) we can all take comfort in knowing that this guy is now on the inside and still as passionate as ever about sneakers.
