I am a sneakerhead episode 177 - @Sneakerracer
Could you please introduce yourself?
First off thanks so much for allowing me to share my story with you. My name is Brian Mullaney. I’m 40 years old and a lifelong resident of the state of New Jersey in the United States. I live here with my wife and young son. I’m also a FedEx driver and have been doing that for 17 years now. As someone who is constantly on their feet, my pairs that hold up the best to my everyday rigors are definitely New Balances. Believe it or not, I also drag race. I’ve been involved in the sport my entire life and had a lot of success at it. People I’m closer to know all about my affinity for buying lots of shoes, but most of the racers there would probably be surprised to know my shoe collection exceeds their own wives ’ or girlfriends’ lol.
Do you remember when you first got into sneakers? What was the pair that caught your attention?
To go back in time a little bit, I was always into shoes that not necessarily everyone always liked or wanted. Even as a kid my mom said I would only wear Sperry topsiders, go figure. When I first started taking note of sneakers though I was probably in grade school. I remember one pair sticking out to me that I had, were these Reebok Pump low top off-season sneakers in black and white. I believe they were Bo Jackson’s shoe. I was never into high tops or basketball shoes really, which seems funny coming from someone that grew up in Jersey City, around a lot of hip hop and streetwear. I just always had a thing for trainers, especially low tops. I had a brief stint of being into skateboarding shoes like the chunkier Vans and some Airwalks, but my true sneaker love was always the low-top, more running-inspired silhouettes.
How many pairs do you currently have? Are there any favourites, perhaps both brands and models?
My current sneaker collection is filled with Nike and New Balances almost exclusively. I even have half a dozen of the Cole Haan wingtips with the Nike Lunarlon bottoms. I love ‘em. Counting those wingtips I’m over 50 pairs easily. Picking a favorite is almost impossible, but I will say that the Collabs have really hit it out of the park for me recently. I love my Salehe Bembury “Water be the guide” NBs, Bodega “Here To Stay” and “Better Days” the latter being a 40th birthday present from my wife and son, the OW Dear Summer dunks that I was lucky enough to score on, the Aime Leon Dore NB 550s and the Sacai Clots that just dropped recently too. Something about the details, be it the materials or the pops of color, the designers are certainly firing on all cylinders. I also love when they throw in multiple lace choices. Something fun about being able to keep it neutral or experiment, with one pair of shoes.
Have you bought anything for your kid yet?
My son is still a touch on the young side to have bought him a ton of expensive sneakers, between growing out of them super quick or his ability to destroy them, it just doesn’t make a lot of “sense”. That said, I always try to have at least one complementary pair for us to rock. We each had a pair of navy Allbirds wool sneakers, I had bought him the toddler version of the Airmax 270 React in Bright Violet to match my own pair in the same colorway and the Toy Story Adidas ultra boost that looked similar to my Lava Lamp Nike Presto Reacts. Most recently I snagged him a pair of the Clot Airmax 1s to complement my orange blaze Sacai Clot collabs. Even got us both a bunch of fun colored socks to go with the clear and translucent toe boxes. He’s also got a pair of Adidas X Lego Superstars ready to be worn any day now.
What's on your radar currently? Is there anything particular from 2021 you really liked so far?
On my radar in the coming months are some of the fun colorways and collabs dropping from both NB and Nike. I have my eye on those Christmas Dunk SBs and the Where the Wild Things are Jordans. Even though I’m not a basketball shoe fan per se, Maurice Sendak is by far and away my favorite illustrator due mostly to his work on the book the shoes are inspired by. I also can’t wait to finally take delivery of my blue and grey Sacai X Clot waffles. I loved both colorways when I saw them rumored back in the spring/early summer. I always loved both originals too, just never quite bit the bullet on them. I actually like these even a little more, which seems sacrilegious to say. I was glad to finally score a Sacai after taking L’s on all the prior releases, so to score both for retail was awesome.
Do you have an all-time grail?
If I could own any single pair of shoes (shocker I can’t pick just one lol) I would take any of these:
The Newcastle SB Dunk lows
The Tiffany SB Dunk lows
The “10” Offwhite Prestos or the white on white OW presto
Thanks again for allowing me to share some insight into my love of all things sneakers. Be safe and well everyone.
Make sure to follow Brian on Instagram: