1 Love (by Russ Bengtson) Pg. 34 Kicks Magazine Issue 8
The Air Force Messiah lives in South Ozone Park, Queens, and thanks to a renovation project, his home is a mess. The bastment, the only part of the house that appears lived in, is infested with shoes. Piles of tan and orange boxes lurk in every corner like lethargic ghosts. But the true show is in a locked room on the ground floor. Theat's where custom shelving holds 56 Air Force 1's from his collection; a glass case off to one side displays four more pairs.
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But understand, Dontay, aka DJ Don Handz, isn't just a collector. The shoes themselves are immaterial. It's the passion that spills forth unbidden in sentences and fragments and shoutouts to stores new and old, collectors of all stripes, and advice for Nike (kill the mids, use better materials). He repeats his hatred of fakes, variants, whatever-and what they've done to ghe game. You'll only get a fraction here. Just know: This is a love story.
"Biz Mark got me into collecting-I spent the night at his house back in '92," Doug says. "He game me a pair of Jordan VIIs-the Bugs Bunnies."
It started long before that, of course-when a young kid in Harlem working at Woolworth's could afford Air Force 1's but not Jordans or adidas shell-toes. "Air Force 1's was for the rich drug dealers. They were rockin' em, puttin' the Gucci on sneakers down at Dapper Dan. That's what made it popular, because that was the only sneaker that had the paneling the way it does to put Gucci on it."
The Air Force became known as the Uptown because it was not only worn there, but that was the only place you'd find them-at long-gone stores like Jew Man's, K.P. Cons, Moe's and Vet's, all of which Dontay frequented for that next pair. "Comin' up, livin' in Harlem, I had to keep up."
He's done more than that. Exact counts aren't available-and trust me not necessary-but he's still got 1's in the quadruple digits. "It's not who's got the most," he says. "It's about who knows the history. I lived in that era. I remember Slick Rick driving up and down the street in the Benz playing his own album. Doug E. Fresh walkin' through Lincoln projects like it's nothin'. It's not just a sneaker, it's what's behind it-the people who took that sneaker to the next level."
He's 35 now, made connects at Nike, gets some pairs for free before they drop-if they ever drop at all. But the thruill is still in the case. "I'll never do eBay. It goes back to originaltiy. Anybody can sit on eBay and click. I'm gonna go out, drive, and go cop."
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Shoes spooted in his collection: Chamber of Fear: Hypes, Haters, Envy, Complacency, Temptation, and the others ones; easters, Mr Cartoons-mexico edition, 2k5 All-Stars, 40/40 club's (both colors), Encore hyperstrikes, seamless, black htm's, JD Sports Swoosh Series: cavs, black stealth, portland, Curry forces, roosters, brooklyns, mitas, olympics, remix da kicks, lebrons, chi-town, red sheed low, .jp knicks, .jp lakers, 3m, snakeskin, jd pink, nyc black low, black/yellow mids, black patent matrix low, brown snakeskin, harlem, graphites, and more....
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