Sole Collector x NikeTown Boston Event | Held August 19th, 2005
words & images_Nick DePaula
Beginning in 2005, Sole Collector and NikeTown stores across the country partnered up for a series of events, the first of which was held in Boston. Each event featured a battle of collections including some of the rarest samples ever seen, and at each location, a limited edition collaboration shoe was also released. While a safe Celtics-themed version of the Zoom Huarache 2K5 was on hand, it was the "Cowboy" Zoom Huarache 2K5 that brought the most energy to the Boston event. Former Sole Collector Creative Director Retrokid details just how the "Cowboy" 2K5 came about.
Nick DePaula: So, the Boston 2K5s. Where did the inspiration for those come from?
Retrokid: The 2K5 was picked as the model, and we decided that we wanted to do two different models. One that was going to be pretty safe, and one that was going to be pretty crazy. For the safe one, we wanted to do a classic Boston Celtics version, and we did it forest green and white. For the second one, we wanted to go a little crazier and use really bright colors, and Boston was just going through the big dig and had a bunch of construction going on...
NDP: Still is, by the way. [laughs]
RK: I know right, still is. [laughs] So we wanted to use orange and yellow because of all of the construction, and I always like a third contrasting color. So we picked blue, kind of out of the blue, I guess. [laughs]
NDP: No reason at all?
RK: Nope, no reason. We just kind of mashed it all together, and somehow it actually came out well...
NDP: In theory... [laughs]
RK: No, it's a really good shoe! It was pretty well received. We named it the "Cowboy," because we needed an alias for it.
NDP: And then the "Cowboy" series was started....
RK: We took Chris Scheller's nickname, and he was the guy on the Nike side that we worked on the shoes with, and that kind of started the whole Cowboy series. It was well received though, and the Cowboy colorway sold really well. The other thing we wanted to do was block it in a way that you couldn't do it on NIKEiD, cause the 2K5 was on iD at the time, or that they hadn't done on any of the in-line colors. The rand was all the way to the top, and the Swoosh was blocked differently. There were a lot of different materials that we went through, but we ended up with this nice synthetic upper for the Cowboy, and then a nice suede for the green one.
NDP: And being the first Niketown event with a SC shoe for sale, how many people were camped out at Boston?
RK: Oh man, I don't remember, but it was a lot. It was a good event and great energy, and it paved the way for the next ones.
Images from the event:
