Colorful sneakers are lined up at booths, tables and tarps as sneaker heads milled through the Santa Clara Convention Center for the 15th anniversary of Sneaker Con.
Shoe lovers from all over the Bay Area, and beyond, came out to buy, sell and get their sneakers autographed at “The Greatest Sneaker Show on Earth.”
“It’s a big family,” said Juan Ruedas, 36, who traveled seven hours by bus with his son for the convention. “Everybody supports everybody.”
Ruedas said he likes looking for sneakers as a hobby, because it’s something he can do with his son. They left the rest of the family at home in the San Gabriel Valley this weekend to explore the convention.
Anthony Perez, from Fremont, says he got started in the sneaker community at a young age through thrifting and selling. “We didn’t have a lot growing up,” he said. “Having nice, expensive shoes wasn’t really feasible.”
He joined a Facebook group with other sneakerheads and said he would thrift and trade to get better ones — riding up and down BART in the East Bay.
Perez echoes Ruedas saying Bay Area sneaker fans are a real community. He likes being among others in the sneaker community who are able to talk about different aspects of sneaker history.
Picking up a red shoe, Perez explained that it’s a $300 shoe from 2018, adding “sneakerheads know that.” Perez brought 250 pairs of shoes, but his company has closer to 2000, he said.
At a nearby booth, Jaysse Lopez, from Las Vegas, is being asked to pose for photos. Lopez said his foray into sneakers changed his life. He went from “showering in fountains at Caesars Palace” and working there, to owning a store, he said.
He’s the founder of Urban Necessities and though he no longer owns a store, he now travels around with Sneaker Con. “I’ve done almost 200 shows,” he said. He’s also the subject of a documentary called Sole Survivor.
At his booth he has several pairs of sneakers in clear boxes, including the Paris Dunk. Lopez says it came out nearly 20 years ago. “This is a promo sample,” he said. “This is a six figure shoe.”
