WATCH: Calgary sneaker fans are prepping for a celebration of sneakers, and those that love to flaunt the footwear. Doug Vaessen reports.
CALGARY – Andrew Phung has been collecting running shoes for over a decade, and now has 250 pairs. He can’t wait to add to his stash at Calgary’s inaugural Sneaker Expo.
“That was my thing. Whenever my friends were going out, I would be like, ‘I am going to save my money and buy that new pair of sneakers.’”
Phung, one of the expo organizers, says he discovered just how many “sneakerheads” there are in Calgary after helping form Facebook group YYC SOLEdiers about three years ago.
“Our intent was to have a couple hundred members—all of our friends on Facebook brought together—and we starting getting more and more sign-ups,” he said. “It went from 100, to 200, to 300, and right now we are at 3,400 members.”
Last November the city saw shoe store Lexington Ave open to serve the collectors, and on May 30, the Chinese Cultural Centre will host the expo so sneakerheads from all over can buy, sell, and trade.
“The kid in me says, ‘I need to have those,’ and my wife says, ‘Do you really need to have those?’ But yeah, I appreciate them all.”
For more information on the expo, visit SneakersYYC here.
With files from Erika Tucker
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