March 2020 and the global pandemic hits. And I still don’t have my reply from Josh. I’m taking it personally (although, maybe I shouldn’t)…but…it hurts. Maybe it shouldn’t…or.maybe I just needed to hear this Neal Brennan song:
Throughout the beginning of the pandemic, I need something to focus on…so…you might have heard me talk about making those sneaker cards (and how I was inspired by Topps Project 2020 and then started teaching myself Photoshop and thought I’d start with Dunks but spoke with Nick Engvall - StockX employee number 8!!! - and he suggested Kobes so I created the #824Pack and my life was never the same…something like that)…and that’s mostly what I focused on (outside of my kids). Making cards.
The whole time I was making cards, and thinking of sneakers in a new light, I was still in contact with Nick Engvall and Ramin and we spent just a great deal of time commiserating on what was going on in the sneaker/crypto/collectibles worlds…Amongst a few others, both Nick and Ramin were HUGELY important in my personal quest to build a card set, and both were very instrumental…Nick helped me promote my first set through his incredibly successful sneaker history podcast (a funny story about that episode of the podcast - it was like 500000 degrees in my apartment in Oakland the night we recorded it and I was absolutely DYING sweating from pores I didn’t even know existed - I was sitting in front of a fan and every time they asked me a question I had to turn the fan off cuz it was too loud and then I’d turn my mic on and then I’d answer the question and turn my mic off and the fan back on) and Ramin helped me build the confidence I needed to actually put something so personal out into the world…
Because Nick and Ramin both had very close ties with Josh, they both suggested I approach Josh from a different angle - Nick thought I should try to get the cards listed on StockX. Ramin knew Josh was very interested in cards, so he suggested that I just reach out to Josh again. I wasn’t too focused on the StockX angle, as by that point I felt that ship already passed, but I did think it was worth it to send Josh a few packs…facilitated by Ramin.
I drop the #824Pack cards on 8/24/20 (Kobe Day) and within about 2 weeks, I see headlines on all the blogs that Josh is actually LEAVING StockX. After 5 years - he’s stepping down. Bomb dropped.
A few weeks later I got a couple of texts from Josh - he was more or less asking what my plans for the cards were. At the time - I was of the mind that the cards would be a one and done, almost like…I’d create these cards to show that one could, theoretically, tell the story of a subculture *very* effectively through cards. I wasn’t trying to create a massive company or anything, but I was more trying to just figure out how it could be done and I wanted to prove the concept out. I think I told him ‘if you need help in the future, let me know’. It was a cordial conversation, but…again…it never went anywhere.
A few months later I began seeing the press releases - Josh has started a company called Zero Cool cards…and…goddamit…did I miss another shot? HOW COULD I HAVE POSSIBLY MISSED YET *ANOTHER* SHOT?