Much has been deliberated about what makes a good sneaker festival, and judging by last weekends feedback & commentary from attendees to this years 2 day event, clearly its about a) a lot of sneakers and b) good and exceptional company. Sneakerness won over the weekend with only their second London stopover with visitors and participants alike seemingly unanimous in agreeing the event has confidently gone from being newcomers to the UK festival community to owning the day at London’s east end Printworks space. Why it took so long is what it is, 10 years long in Europe, we’re just glad we get to participate in the hugely popular Sneakerness experience, in London, again. Late blooming maybe, but it’s here for another round and it was good. Sneakers and streetwear sellers/traders and collectors alike gathered alongside relative newcomers, the mighty and unstoppable Stock X to the UK sneaker festival circuit. Allowing for quick selling with their drop off service and showcased Manchester’s own micro-dude Nick Glackin’s sneaker/Nike ACG exhibit. Swatch watches hosted live grafitti displays with on-site customisable purchases, live panel talks, discussions hosted by DJ Kish Kash. Footlocker showcased their lego sneaker exhibit while kids of all ages were treated to lego building complete with a lego play pit. Bring the kids they said, it would be fun they said. They did. And it was. More of this please sneaker event people!
Sneaker Freaker magazine launched their newest issue #41 with a choice of dope covers along with their Taschen sneaker tome, if you haven’t by now, you’re def missing out. It’s a veritable, quintessential sneaker bible. If that wasn’t enough, oportunities to get inked, grilled and jewelled (courtesy of lifestyle ambassadors @visionairism) taste gourmet ice cream, and get your sneakers cleaned on-site with Glasgow’s finest lads Sneakers ER. Various guest DJs sounded throughout the weekend, we’d have said you had been waaay too spoilt if anything, it was a quality showing. Blessed with good weather, the outdoor spaces were spacious and chill, with refreshments and food catering for all day replenishment.
Footflow was steadily brisk and busy thoughout the 2 days, the venue layout worked really well and did not overwhelm leaving guests plenty of room for quick entry, which is always overlooked at these kinds of events, leaving more precious time for that all important catch up with friends old and new, all to the tune of much sneaker/streetwear grail hunting. The atmosphere throughout was noisey fun, friendly and overall just relaxed enough. So make room amongst your sneaker boxes, it looks like Sneakerness is here to stay.. .. the mix was right, scale not important, the right people, the right place, the right wares. Very.
Congratulations on a succesful event, and many thanks to Toby, Serge and the Sneakerness team for having us, we look forward to the next one!
Oh and more sneaker lego please!!
(All photography by EU Kicks)
