(5/11) The following morning, I set out to get there early again. Despite the prior night’s festivities, I was still a bit anxious. Why? I don’t really know… I had woken up super early, but didn’t want to be late for this next part: my very first visit to Nike’s Beaverton campus.
Wifey offered to drive me, but I saw in the group chat that folks were carpooling and decided to take a gamble. Early. I threw on my Safari 87’s and took a few shortcuts to the hotel. I saw a handful of dudes in the lobby and asked the first group if I could tag along—and they said yes. I didn’t know it at the time, but it happened to be the @retrotalkforum guys. We hopped in the rental and started our journey.
I don’t remember exactly how it happened, but Outkast came on the radio and we started talking about all kinds of random, obscure tracks. Instead of sneakers… we bonded over music. One and the same. By the end of the ride, one of them goes, “You’re from the mountains of Northern California and you know THESE tracks?” I was like, “Music is universal!”
We landed at the Nike campus quite a bit early, but we weren’t the first ones there. We pulled up to the gates and a bunch of dudes were trying to snap pics in between waves of uninterested employees just trying to get to work. It was kind of a scene.
They handed out name tags and it was good to finally put some IG handles to real faces. I sat and talked with @pgknows for a bit, chopped it up with @dontchargeabdul , and when @m.tomamichel showed up I was genuinely hyped to see him. I met him at ComplexCon a couple of years back and he’s helped push my little ideas along. He’s got a great aura.
Had a couple fun interactions with @brendandunne and @welcomemyfranz , and thanks to @riffenburgh84 , I finally got to see the campus. It was dope—though kinda tough with a group of ~70.
After the tour, we hit Joanie’s (the main food hall on campus) where I introduced myself to @esymai and thanked her for inspiring me with her Topps Project 2020 work. Talked shop with @rchrdp305 and @dunksrnice . It was just cool to talk with folks.
On the way back, we hit @backtothebasketdotcom and that place felt like a trip back in time…
