Welcome to our inaugural SoleStyle feature! SoleStyle will include interviews, opinion pieces, and other editorial content that will explore the intersection between sneaker culture and the wider gamut of streetwear, fashion, and style.
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We’re living in peak mood board culture. The tastemakers have evolved from celebrities, artists, and athletes, to Instagram pages filled with pictures of sneakers, clothes, cars, and everything in between. While most of these accounts don’t self-identify as “mood boards,” a few notable names in this niche have certainly created the template for what a successful one looks like.
The goal of these pages is pretty simple: maintain an aesthetic that conveys taste and an understanding of the “culture.” We got the opportunity to talk to one of the contemporary tastemakers, @oldmanalan, about all things sneakers, style, and mood boards. Check out our conversation below.
Dean: I think most of our audience will be familiar with you, but for those that aren’t, introduce yourself.
Alan: My name is Alan. A lot of people know me as @oldmanalan on Instagram and Twitter. I started a few influential early Instagram pages in the sneaker, photography, and fashion worlds.
D: We met through @boostvibes, and that was probably the most popular one just in terms of following. What prompted you to start @boostvibes, and how did we get to @seereverseforcare?
Alan: Yeah. So @boostvibes probably started just from purchasing a pair of adidas Boosts. I think it was a PureBoost, which was the predecessor of the UltraBoost. There was nothing as comfortable as that ever.
Anytime anybody first purchased that shoe and put it on, it was mind-blowing. And around that time, Instagram was not as big as it is now, but it was taking off, and people were excited to join the platform. At the time, there was nobody doing anything on Instagram like that. So I just thought – why not see if anybody else had a love for that shoe and that technology. I just created a community to piggyback off of that. And a lot of people agreed and enjoyed the shoe and everything that went along with that whole wave. That’s how that took off and how it rolled into what we’re doing now with @seereverseforcare. It’s kinda just a progression and just a different tree branch of what I do.
I also started @filmwave, an online community for film photography that’s also completely taken off. It’s actually gotten bigger than @boostvibes in its own way. These are just different things I’ve been interested in and have created organic communities that people really gravitate towards.
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D: It’s interesting to see starting from @boostvibes that you can almost catalog moments in the culture where things began to get traction. When @boostvibes started, that was my personal indicator that ‘adidas is here.’ And with @filmwave, that was also around the time film photography was coming back into the mainstream for many. And even now with @seereverseforcare with the nostalgic imagery and inspiration.
I’m glad you brought up the community aspect. It’s something that has really gotten lost in sneakers. What do you think about where sneakers are now, compared to where it was five years ago when you first started @boostvibes?
Alan: I don’t even know if I can really answer that, to be honest. I feel like I’m pretty far removed from the ‘hardcore’ stuff. Where are sneakers at right now, in your opinion?
D: In some ways, there’s never been a better time to be into sneakers. Right now, all the brands are putting out great products. There was a time when only one brand really dominated the space, but now you can get a “cool” shoe from Nike, adidas, New Balance, or even Reebok.
On the flip side of that obviously is the commoditization of sneakers, making it harder for people to buy what they want to wear. I think there’s a lot to be done in terms of, you know, bringing it back community and all that. That’s what our mission at SoleSavy is.
Alan: I definitely see the sneaker stuff peripherally every day, but you’re right.
As a consumer, this is like the gold rush of sneakers, right? I mean, you can find whatever you want online. As you said, there are so many good options too. Not just options from Nike or adidas either. You have options from weird companies that aren’t even in a sports lane. There’s Merrell, I also just bought three pairs of Keen slides the other day.
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D: Did you get the Engineered Garments x Keen’s?
Alan: *laughs* No, I just got the regular ones. I’m not that advanced yet, but that just shows you the diversity of footwear options now. Somebody asked me yesterday what my all-time shoe would be, and I don’t even think it would be a shoe necessarily.
Since the pandemic, I haven’t bought that many sneakers. So I told them my choice would probably be a Birkenstock Boston. I just went on a four-day vacation and ended up wearing those most of the time even though I packed three pairs of sneakers.
D: Bostons really took off recently. With the pandemic, comfort became paramount. It’s something you can get in and out of pretty quickly, and it definitely helps that Stussy collaborated on it.
Alan: Everybody used to look at me sideways whenever I used to wear them. And you’re right; the perspective has changed.
D: I may have fallen into the hype and bought into them with the Stüssy collab.
Alan: Hey, it’s a good piece of footwear. What can you do? Yeah, it’s a hype shoe, but it’s hype for a reason. Hype is okay, as long as it’s justified. “Hype” gets thrown around a lot in the sneakers as a negative thing. Again, there’s nothing wrong with being into something that’s super hyped or popular, as long as it’s justified. Yes, there is some hype stuff that gets pumped up that isn’t good and gets hated on, and deservedly so. But the good stuff should be hyped for sure.
D: Going away from that for a second, I saw those ASICS Gel Kayano 14s on your feed, and it made me regret passing on them even more so. I’m always trying to find good GRs for the SoleSavy community, so I wanted to ask you what sneakers you’ve been wearing in the GR department.
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Alan: Reebok Club C’s. I have so many pairs of Club Cs. I have the JJJJounds, but I mostly wear the regular ones. There’s one called the TV that has better leather. What I do is I cut the labels off the tags so that the tongue is clean like the JJJJound pair. I’ve also been cutting the tag off of the side internally. If you take an Exacto knife and slice it deep enough, you can take the Reebok branding out.
D: I cut out the tongue on my Club Cs when I saw you do it. It makes the shoe infinitely better looking.
Alan: Yeah, that’s a great shoe. I wear that shoe so much. I literally wear them like a slipper sometimes. They go with everything. Besides that, back to Birkenstock Bostons, the “Taupe” ones specifically. Chuck 70s, you also can’t go wrong with those. You can get them pretty much anywhere.
It’s weird because I have a pair of the Made in Japan Converse that obviously aren’t a GR but I’ve had a couple of conversations with people from Japan who want the regular Chuck 70s that we get here. It kind of shows you, you know, we’re all thirsting for that Japan pair, but people over there want the regular GR from the malls here.
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D: There’s this interesting relationship between North America and Japan. We look at them aspirationally, but at the same time, they are doing the same thing to us, in a way.
Alan: They do everything better than everybody, in my opinion. They always set the standard for all of that stuff. There’s no arguing that. But yeah, those three shoes or pieces of footwear, I’m trying to think of anything else – I mean, you can’t go wrong with a classic Air Force 1 either.
D: As the person who influences others, what informs your tastes?
Alan: My whole thing is being comfortable, first and foremost. If you’re not comfortable with what you’re wearing, then don’t even bother. What’s comfortable for me could be different for somebody else too. But as far as what I look for – timelessness, classic silhouettes, classic cuts materials. Everything I gravitate towards is just based on that.
Levi’s 501s, Carhartt double knees. Those have been out forever. They’re still as popular as ever. I’m sure even more popular than they’ve ever been with the whole vintage wave that’s going on now. Stuff that has a hard time aging visually is where it gets stale.
Vintage has been a big influence within the last few years for me, and I’m sure for other people. That’s what I’ve gravitated towards recently.
D: That’s a great segue into something I wanted to ask you about. Why do you think vintage is where it’s at right now? And in your case, what is it that draws you so much to the clothing, so much so that you’ve started your own online store of curated vintage with @Toyojis.
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Alan: I think a lot of people do gravitate towards the sustainability aspect. On the other side of that, I noticed that many of my favorite clothing articles were heavily influenced by vintage pieces. The Detroit Jacket from Carhartt, for example. To me, that’s the perfect silhouette for a jacket that you can basically wear year-round.
If you just flipped the materials and fabrics on that same silhouette, you can make it work in so many different ways. And with vintage Carhartt jackets, They’re almost one-of-ones with all the different fades, washes, and distressing on them.
Even with some of the new brands that do amazing stuff, you just can’t replicate that vintage feel. Just the way it fits and lays on your body. It’s different, you know? That being said, it’s good to mix in some newer brands like ALD (Aimé Leon Dore) along with all that other stuff.
I don’t see it ever really going away. You can reference all these periods if you want to get into military stuff that goes back into the fricking fifties and stuff that you can find all the way up to the nineties car jackets.
It’s so interesting just looking back at the references that influence all of the stuff we purchase and that we thought were new.
D: Diving into your personal style a bit more, what do you find yourself wearing these days? How did you come to find what you like now?
Alan: It goes back to that whole thing about being comfortable. I don’t even like having that much stuff, to be honest. It stresses me out when I have too much stuff. I’d rather have a smaller amount of things that I love and get to wear all the time.
I stuff that I don’t ever really have to think about putting on because they all work together. It’s just about wearability and, and keeping it, keeping it short and sweet. You don’t need 10 pairs of the same thing. We don’t really need that much stuff. Don’t let any of these people on the internet fool you. Don’t let ME fool you.
You don’t need that much stuff as long as you’re buying the right stuff.
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D: With all the different influences and inspirations we see on Instagram, it’s easy for people to fall into the habit of buying certain things or looking a certain way just because a particular page might repost them. How do you prevent falling into that cycle and being a “mood board victim”?
Alan: Gosh, maybe I don’t spend enough time looking at other people’s stuff every day. But ultimately, I think a lot of that comes down to just being independent enough to do your own thing. Hopefully, other people see what I’m doing as unique and different. Others just enjoy being a lemming. I agree with what you’re saying. That exists, and it’s never going to change.
Whether the internet existed or not, there’s always been that aspect of people just copying what other people do. It’s just much more amplified now because of social media. If someone sees something that looks good and they want to wear it, I’m not going to hate on them for that. Even if a million people have worn that outfit, it’s not that serious at the end of the day.
D: Outside of the purview of the accounts that you’ve been running, could you recommend any other things to look at? Yeah.
Alan: One of my favorite pages forever has been @gramparents. That page has really blown up big, which made me happy to see. I mean, gosh, there’s not too much out there in our space, honestly.
A lot of the stuff I gravitate to on Instagram doesn’t even have to do with fashion or sneakers. It’s more like stuff that makes me laugh or memes.
Well, I guess – you know what, I’m going to say Throwing Fits. I haven’t listened to them in a while, but every time Lawrence & James – They’re fucking hilarious. They are funny and keep me interested and engaged with fashion.
Yeah. And I don’t know how long you’ve been following them, but when they were doing Fashion bros. That shit was fucking hilarious. They have not changed or the same two guys, you know, arguing about the shit. We fucking it. And it’s fucking hilarious, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s great. So yeah, I definitely retract that previous statement.
If anybody’s doing anything funny and engaging and if you’re into sneakers, go there. You’ll probably think something’s funny. Something will catch your eye, and you’ll get in that lane.
Lawrence has actually been preaching this new thing. Well, not new, but like he, he always says, “let’s democratize good taste”, you know, let’s get rid of all these bad fits.
D: Going back to vintage a bit, what do you think of this trend of aging sneakers?
Custom distressed sacai x Nike Vaporwaffle by Kenji Graphics (Image via @kenji_graphics)
Alan: Well, my good friend @philllllthy actually is probably one of the biggest ones who has done the distressed Jordan 1s. I’ve noticed a lot of people, especially, I think on Twitter of all places, a lot of the older, like sneakerhead, like hardcore sneakerheads. They hate that shit, right?
I definitely don’t. I don’t think it’s stupid, especially if it’s done correctly. There are definitely some bad ones out there. So maybe they’re talking about that but what Phil and some other customizers do look better than some things Virgil puts out with Off-White.
D: I share the sentiment. I don’t feel as strongly about some things as others. And to your point, there are some good ones for sure. We don’t need to be distressing Dior 1s or Sacai’s though.
Alan: Well, that was also probably done just for Daniel Arsham. That was to get everybody’s attention. So at the end of the day, that was super successful. That was a success. You know what I mean? It got everybody looking at what he’s doing. Even though nobody would probably wear that. It’s a one-off. It’s a cool 1-of-1, I think, you know what I mean?
Who the fuck else would have the guts to distress a pair of Dior 1s? Whether you like the shoe or not, that’s an expensive piece of art.
Custom Distressed Dior 1 by @philllllthy (Image via @danielarsham)
D: Are there any brands you’ve been paying attention to lately that you’ve been weaving in with the rest of your vintage stuff?
Alan: You know, one brand I love that I don’t understand why they don’t get more attention is Adsum. They have really good stuff. I’m friends with a couple of people from over there. They, they’re kind of in a similar wave with ALD but different at the same time.
Their stuff to me is a little bit more toned down. They use great materials. They always use very good branding, just classic stuff that never is going to go out of style or, you know, look stale in a few years.
Nobody’s really putting them on like that. I know they have collaborations with Reebok but they should be much bigger than where they’re at.
To be honest, there’s just so much stuff now. Everybody has their own brand now, you know what I mean? Not that it’s a bad thing, but it can become overwhelming with so much choice.
D: Yeah definitely, and it’s created this whole niche for curators like yourself. And with everyone creating now more than ever, it’s just as important for curation to be present. Thanks for chatting with us today. Where can everyone follow you and your pages?
Alan: You can find me at @oldmanalan on Instagram. All my other pages are listed there as well. Pleasure talking to you too!
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
