This week, Celebrity Sneaker Stalker celebrates its five-year anniversary. Over the course of the column, a number of artists have emerged, entertainers have scored sneaker deals and many iconic memories have been made through photos. Though Celebrity Sneaker Stalker is about the famous people, however one may define ‘famous,’ it’s always been a column for the people. From Macklemore to Darnell Yancey, we caught up with artists, content creators and commenters that helped CSS evolve so far.
The Beginning
Joe La Puma (Director of Content Strategy at Complex, Creator of CSS): I noticed that a lot of people were starting to pay more attention to what celebrities were wearing, and I also noticed that celebrities were taking their sneaker choices more seriously. The column hit perfectly because, as celebrities got in tune with what sneakers were cool, the internet started to care more. I approached Matt Halfhill about doing the column since Nice Kicks was the number one sneaker site and he was with it.
Macklemore (Rapper, 4x Grammy Award Winner, First Guest Editor for CSS): I got hip around 2010 or 2011. I don’t remember the exact shoes I wore the first time I was in it, but I remember finding it and tripping out. It was very similar to the first time our music got posted on 2DopeBoyz because I was a huge fan of the column.
Stalley (Rapper, Former Guest Editor, 2x First Team All-CSS): I was first introduced to Celebrity Sneaker Stalker probably four years ago, somewhere around the time I was at ALIFE. I used to frequent the site and I thought it was dope. You’d always see TMZ or paparazzi catching people in their outfits, but you never really had a platform for sneakers like that.
Joe La Puma: Having a column where you could see it all in one place was something that didn’t exist before. We were gathering images from concerts, leaked photo shoots, and putting it all in one spot. That’s why it was so serviceable to people that were interested in seeing what celebrities were wearing.
(Bun B photo by Levi Chaney, Kanye West photo by PacificCoastNews.com via Zimbio and Jay Z photo by Jeffrey Ufberg/Getty Images via Zimbio)
Trinidad Jame$ (Rapper, 2013 All-CSS First Team): From a fashion standpoint, seeing people rock their kicks and how they were rocking them was getting kind of boring, so I wanted to get into it. I’ve been looking at the column ever since I found out about it, before I even got into music. It’s interesting to see who rocks a kick the best…it’s dope.
Joe La Puma: The goal was always to pit celebrities against each other in a fun way that wasn’t too serious and let the fans support who they wanted to support. As CSS grew, more and more people chimed in and a real sense of community was developed.
Darnell Yancey (Longtime Nice Kicks reader, engaged commentor in CSS): Readers having a voice in the comment section is more impactful than we think. It allows people to give constructive criticism and it allows suggestions to be heard in a sense by the featured celebrities within CSS. In addition, it gives the readers the ability to conduct dialogs amongst each other.
Joe La Puma: Without the voice of the readers, CSS would’ve came and went like the millions of columns that are here today and gone tomorrow on the ‘net. The readers made sure CSS had staying power, and their voice and opinions are what made it such a success. CSS has spawned websites, and everyone started copying what we were doing five years ago. That’s not a shot, it’s just a fact. What, where and when celebrities are wearing has become a major part of sneaker culture and the fact that I feel like we contributed to that is a big win in my eyes.
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Read the rest of Contributors, Commenters & Celebrities Discuss the Evolution of Celebrity Sneaker Stalker (2,761 words)
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