Wipe the drool off your keyboard, go ahead, we'll wait
Clap for Shelflife, go ahead, clap for them.
Why?
Because they were the first in the country to have the Retro Jordan III in the clean white and classic cement grey colourway! And you know how theblagg feels about this brand and this particular gem. So you know we had to hit up the kick-loving clique at Shelflife to place our order, right? Yes, not being in Cape Town when they dropped hurt our hearts, but that's nothing slipping a foot in a fresh pair of Js won't fix. Don't be jelly blaggers and blaggettes, we're paying for ours, we're not Hypebeast yet. Ha!
We thought we were excited about these babies but we have nothing on Nick Herbet. We spoke to the Shelflife label and store co-founder/owner about kicks, the culture and coming up with the cash. Peep:
In their signature mugshot/police line-up style, here is Shelflife'sNick Herbert meanmugging the camera
theblagg: What does it mean for you and for Shelflife to stock the retro Jordan III?
Nick: Last week Thursday was a very special occasion for Shelflife. We got the Jordan 3 classic cement colourway! Roughly [around the time] when Shelflife opened, the Jordan 3 Fire Red's had just come out. But, unfortunately, at that time we didn’t have a Nike account. So I managed to scoop a pair from somewhere. They are my favorite pair in my collection. I’ve always worn them with pride and taken very good care of them in fear they wouldn’t come into the country again, but THEY ARE HERE!!! All the sizes [we have at Shelflife] are pretty much booked out and there aren’t many left, so get at me QUICK if you are interested. Later in the year stay tuned for the Jordan3 True Blues... yes you heard it here first!! That’s going to create major hype!
theblagg: When you are an independent store/label, how hard or easy is it to retain your creative identity in your partnerships with sportswear giants? Especially when your partner is the likes of Puma, whom you've collaborated with in the past?
Nick: Puma understand our market very well and understand our label and store, so it wasn’t hard for them to understand the concept, to be honest we would never put our name on something we felt didn’t best represent our store for anyone.
theblagg: What other brands would Shelflife like to collaborate with?
Nick: The list goes on and on, and I don’t want to mention any names in case it jinxes us (laughs) but we are hoping this will open many more doors!
theblagg's other favourite Jordan III colourway - yes you can have two favourites
theblagg: You're obviously a force to be reckoned with in the sneaker game but it can't have been easy for an independent store starting out. What would you say were some of the growing pains that Shelflife had to experience to get to this point?
Nick:It definitely wasn’t easy. It was a major struggle. We are very happy to be where we are but it certainly wasn’t easy! One of the major problems when starting was getting brands to believe in us, and to even stock us! We were not credit worthy with anyone so no one would open accounts with us, so we started off with minimal stock and slowly built up our store. Promoting and growing the business with no budget was also very difficult. We’ve become masters in guerilla advertising and cutting costs along these lines!
theblagg: Do you think launch parties for internationally designed sneakers are relevant in places other than Cape Town?
Nick: Generally we launch sneakers around the same time the sneakers are launched worldwide, which makes it feel like you are a part of something very big. It’s always great seeing launches in New York that you are launching in Cape Town
theblagg: What would you say you would like Shelflife's legacy to be?
Nick: I’ve always wanted to build up our scene, our street scene and graffiti scene. I don’t want people to see us ever as sell outs, artists to us always come first, and we want to be remembered for this!
Stay tuned to Shelflife on www.shelflife.co.za we appreciate all the support out there especially to the peeps in other parts of the country that can’t even reach the store but still order online and support us!
