We invaded the home of the guy who is still kicking it for the sneaker scene in Malaysia, and doing it just cause he loves shoes and not for the fame and hype, Azuwan, founder of KLKiX.
As we scrummage through his shoe collection like we own it, he explains to us the phases that he has been through in his relationship with sneakers.
Tell us about your evolution of sneaker collecting.
At first I started out with collecting trainers, primarily AirMaxs. And when you start, you don’t really do your research and you don’t really have the know how to repair and maintain them. So I got really frustrated after seeing most of them start breaking apart and I sold all my collection, and left only one pair for me to walk around in.
After that I got into collecting New Balance, specifically the 1500s model. I had about 9 pairs of NB1500 back then and they were pretty expensive to collect. They also have a similar characteristic like the AirMax, which is they will crack at the sole area. Replacing a sole would be very expensive because a normal general release of NB 1500 would cost around RM699. After that I sold all my NBs and moved on to Nike SB.
When I started getting into Nike SBs, that time they were still using the black boxes. I had all models that were released in the black box. Pink boxes I had almost all too. Almost. Besides the Dunks, I was very much into the Janoski models and I collected all of it up until the point where I sold all my Janoskis away to an avid Nike SB collector.
Right now I sold off most of my SB collection, and a lot of my other shoes which I don’t really like anymore. Right now I just collect Airmaxs, trainers and anything else which catches my eye or is a limited edition or something very rare. I’m focusing more to QUALITY rather than QUANTITY.
What is your take on resellers?
Nowadays a lot of people are complaining about resellers, saying that it is bad for the scene and all, but come on, resellers are nothing new. They have been around for so long. Ini dah cerita lama.
I honestly resell too. But I don’t line-up overnight to buy an expensive shoe at RM499 and resell it at RM1000. I buy roshe runs that nobody wants for RM99 and resell them online at USD100. Reselling will always be part of the shoe game. As long as the hype is there, there will always be resellers cashing in on the hype.
What’s your take on the current shoe scene in Malaysia?
There will always be collectors, there will always be sneakerheads, and there will always be kids that go like ” Oh Shit! this shit semua orang pun nak, aku pun nak! ” who don’t really care about the history of the shoe or the knowledge about it or even the shoe itself, they just want to look cool. Hypebeast will always be around and that is how it is.
Also, no matter how much we try to spread the love in the scene, there will always be that one dude who will hate on everyone else’s game. “Kasut kau ni tak hype la” or “You just only collected few pairs of shoes nak berlagak otai” ever heard of this kinda phrases before? So everyone just needs to focus and love their own shoes, or the shoes that they are planning and wanting to get instead of hating on other peoples shoes. I believe if everyone does that, the scene will be much healthier.
The shoe is made out of reindeer leather. This particular shoe that I have here is a present from Sneakers ‘N Stuff to their friend Russell. I don’t know who is Russell though.
