Hey, I'm Tim! I'm an '80s kid, so I grew up seeing all the 80s classics, there was always someone wearing something cool on the TV or in movies. I could never afford any name brand sneakers until I had my first proper job as a games tester, so I always got teased at school for wearing Hi-Tec shoes. When I could afford to buy some Nikes, I never looked back! I ended up going to Japan quite a lot and would come back with loads of Japan exclusives, as well as other bits like electronics, records, jeans, toys, then sell them on for a profit to pay for my trip. I opened a record store in the late '90s and sourced a load of vintage Nike Sportswear apparel and sneakers, then later ended up founding a website called Crooked Tongues and ran that for a while, as well as illustrating and selling sneaker prints. I even did one for Nick Diamonds' Diamond Supply Co x Nike SB Dunk release!
Back then pretty much all my spare money went on sneakers, so I had what was classed as a massive collection back then, including loads of vintage. I sold the majority of my vintage around a decade ago, along with a few hundred other pairs, so now I just try to keep what I feel is a 'sensible' amount and limit my collection to a couple hundred. Some guys I came up with now have collections in the thousands, and it makes me anxious just thinking about having to find somewhere to store that many! I've been lucky enough to work with brands such as Nike , adidas , Vans , New Balance and PUMA over the years on illustration and design projects, and now I regularly work with Nike and Foot Locker on store activations and other bits, which keeps my sneaker habit well-fuelled!