On Wednesday October 27th, thegoodlife. was filled with sneaker enthusiasts, budding talent, industry veterans, and even a literal OG brand founder, demonstrating that sneaker culture and community spans generations and transcends boarders.
The community event hosted by thegoodlife. and adidas was a conversation with Chris Law – legendary footwear designer, crooked tongues founding member and creative director (ex adidas – Global Senior Director of Design) was seamlessly moderated by Dan Greenpeace – music industry specialist, hip-hop connoisseur, and sneaker aficionado.
The talk took us through Chris’ experience in the early days of sneaker culture, in a time before digital media, his inspiring start in graphic design leading him to pursue a career in the footwear industry, starting with creative advertorials, and eventually sneaker design. The anecdotes shared all had the underlying humble tone of “how did a lad from Bedford, UK end up here?” From designing sneaker collabs for Snoop, to working at factories in Vietnam developing new silhouettes to seeing his sneakers being worn by multiple Londoners on the tube.
The message was clear to all community members in attendance, keep pursuing your passion and interests – sneakers, music, design, and embed yourself in the culture and you’ll eventually break through.
Towards the end of the evening, the floor opened to the audience to ask questions, and none other than the Reebok founder, Joe Foster, took the mic to discuss sneaker design. He was in town and heard about the event, so signed himself and his wife up. It’s a surreal moment when you have generations of OGs discussing their contribution to the sneaker industry and culture in the arts district of Dubai, in attendance by current and future sneaker and culture contributors.
