This Guy whom i recently interviwed on my community Orkut's Hall of Fame is among some craziest creature in the world who is full of passion, knowledge and confidence in himself and his love for sneakers, He is popular among sneaker crazy communities as a Sneakerologist and its fact too. I never came across such a super sneaker man who knows deep deep about sneakers and only sneakers. I am sure that every one who will read this interview will surely get impressed and may be shock by his answers to me.
Well if you don't believe in me than read out yourself.
INTERVIEW OF SNEAKEROLOGIST
Zazo: Everyone on orkut who has passion and craze for sneakers must be knowing 
Sneakerologist, he is highly active and respected in communities dedicated to Converse, Adidas, Reebok, Nike, Puma and recently he has started his own review web site www.solereview.com
Sneakerologist is caught by me on Hall of Fame ! and I am going to ask many questions to know more about this sneaker crazy guy.
Welcome Sneakerologist!
Sneakerologist: Thank you, Zazo. It is a privilege.
Zazo: Please tell us about your family and background i think many of your friends and fans still dont know much about you.
Sneakerologist: Ah Zazo, this is a tricky one. I would be unable to divulge any personal information about myself for reasons I'll keep to myself, but I can shed some light on my background and how I became a "sneakerologist", of all things.
I have been interested in Sneakers aka athletic footwear or sports shoes as long as I can remember. Even when I was in eight standard, I started noticing how different and beautiful a typical pair of sports shoe was as compared to a normal black and brown shoe. Of course, there was no way I could afford a pair at that time, so the first pair of sneakers I bought with my pocket money were actually Adidas fakes. But that was my first and last pair of fakes sneakers, and I have stuck to the original stuff since. As the years went buy, I got my first pair of Reeboks and then added a Puma to my collection. And all through the years, I kept track of the sneakers brands in 
I joined Orkut last year and quickly joined many sneaker communities where I became the self proclaimed "Sneakerologist". Of course, I was ridiculed initially but when I started answering the queries in the best way I could (on communities and my scrapbook), I managed to make many friends on Orkut. Overwhelmed by the interest level of sneaker/Sports shoe fans in
Apart from being the "Sneakerologist", I work a regular 9-5 job in a typical Indian company, and a part of my salary and savings funds my website.
Zazo: Do you own any communities on orkut? Are you active in any other social networking site?
Sneakerologist: Yes Zazo, I own the following communties:
Nike (5000+ members)
EA Sports (3000+ members)
Adidas (1000+ members)
Nike (846 members)
Converse (380 members)
I also moderate quite a few sneaker communities and keep them free of spam and also answer questions from time to time:
Adidas shoes (41000+ members)
Adidas Superstar (7000+ members)
Reebok (14000+ members)
rBK-"I AM WHAT I AM" (9000+ members)
Converse - A statement (1200+ members)
There are a few other sneaker communties apart from these, but these are the major ones.
Zazo: Tell us about your interests and passion other than sneakers, i think people are more interested in knowing that what sneakerologist likes other than sneakers?
Sneakerologist: I like reading a lot, landscape and macro photography, travelling, researching what's new on the internet, gadgets and technology, aircrafts and automobiles, watching movies and playing sports, including hitting the gym, to name a few.
Zazo: This is the question i was dreaming to ask you since i know you. which is your favourite, most HOT and high technology sneaker ? and how many you own? any new collection in recent days?
Sneakerologist: That's a tough one - the Adidas a1 (intelligent shoe) is the most high tech shoe available in the market today, but it's not my favorite.
One shoe which I dream to possess is the Nike shoe which featured in Steven Spielberg's movie "Back to the future II"...I have a picture of that shoe in my Orkut album and I hope Nike launches it someday with all the features which the shoe had in the movies.
http://www.orkut.com/AlbumZoom.aspx?uid=9081490438101130142&pid=1&aid=1
Out of my current collection, it's tough to play favorites, but I would put my Graffiti Chuck Taylors, Adidas Superstars and the Nike AF1 as the shoes I like most. I keep buying shoes for my reviews, so I have plenty of new ones. But I will ultimately end up giving them away to members of my website, www.solereview.com.
But as of now, I own close to 60 sneakers of different types, from recent to rare.
Zazo: What are future plans for solereview.com, What are the features of your site and how many members are there right now?
Sneakerologist: I created www.solereview.com because there is simply no resource in
Solereview's purpose is to review the latest shoes available in
Apart from the shoe reviews, www.solereview.com has a full scale bulletin board (forum), high resolution images of shoes which I have reviewed (wallpapers) and a collection of Youtube videos on sneaker brands and athletes. Many of the questions on Orkut are about "where to buy" types, so I have compiled the addresses of all the Adidas, Nike, Reebok,Puma and Converse stores under the section "store locator". Since there is no company supporting me at this point of time, my list might not be complete, but I have tried my best.
In the future, I hope to get support from sneaker brands who can provide the shoes for reviews and give me updated information on sales, store openings and events in
Currently there are 51 registered members but since the website's launch last month,I am getting around 40 unique visitors everyday, which is pretty decent.
Zazo: After sole review do you think your activity in orkut went down? Do you have any appointed staff for solereview? Who is the another best person on orkut knows so much about sneakers?
Sneakerologist: On the contrary, I am more active on Orkut now after solereview. I have no staff and I do everything, right from managing the website on a technical front to buying the shoes and reviewing/photographing them myself. It is tough...
So far, I haven't come across anybody on Orkut who is as crazy as I am - yet.
Zazo: In
Sneakerologist: Great question, Zazo. Sneaker and sports shoe sales in
Having said that, I would like to point out that things are changing slowly. A big change is the how the standard of living has gone up as far as the Indian middle class is concerned. A good example of this is how the growth of industries like BPO, IT has fueled the rise of disposable income. A high number of the working young with more than average salaries, combined with fashion awareness which comes from the media has been nothing but good for the sales of athletic footwear. Price does not seem to be an obstacle for these people - I have seen people of on a salary of 15000 carrying a cellphone of the same price. No rationale to it, but that's how it is.
Besides, a lot of people are now into personal fitness, so I see a lot of people in the gyms wearing branded sneakers who know the value of quality footwear when it comes to their workouts and runs.
In the future, one big thing which can push the sales of athletic footwear is the drop in the import duty. If you have been tracking the cell phone industry closely over the years, you'll know exactly what I mean. Cell phone is now within the common man's reach, just because the cellphones cost Rs. 2000 instead of Rs.20000 and the call rates have dropped from Rs. 16.80/min to 50p/min.
Zazo: By your experience and knowledge which Indian sneaker's brand can really compete with there western and European rivals? Do you have any Indian brand sneakers?
Sneakerologist: I do not think that there is any Indian brand which can compete with western or European brands. The biggest reason behind that is the lack of creativity in the Indian footwear industry. Most of the designs sold by Indian brands are nothing but imitation of shoes the Indian 'designers' see at trade shows in Frankfurt or Milan and as far as sports shoes are concerned, they also seem to take a lot of Bappi Lahiri style 'inspiration' from Adidas, Reebok or Nike...
Also, in my opinion, Indian sports shoe manufacturing is still in its infancy, so that does not help either.
But things should change in the next seven or eight years, when we should see an emergence of Indian sneaker brands. For now, I would say that brands like ID, Lee Cooper are not doing a bad job at all in black and brown sneakers.
And I do not own any sneakers by Indian brands at this point of time.
Zazo: What you were if not Snearkerologist?
Sneakerologist: Interesting one, Zazo. I think I would have been a 'foodologist' (chef) or 'Aircraftologist' (Pilot)...:)
Best,
Sneakerologist
Zazo: Thank you so much Sneakerologist for giving your precious time and contribution to make this interview so great and informative, i learned a lot and hope our readers will also get benefit.
All the best for Solereview.com and future projects!
Sneakerologist: The pleasure was mine, Zazo. I truly believe that "Orkut's Hall of fame" is one of the most interesting communities I've come across in a while - great job, and wish you good luck for whatever else you do in the future.
For people who want to see my first "Ask the Sneakerologist" forum on Orkut and see the Q&A over the last few months, visit this Converse community:
http://www.orkut.com/CommMsgs.aspx?cmm=544846&tid=2549774716953142182&start=1
Or you can always swing by www.solereview.com and post your question on the website forum.
http://www.solereview.com/forum/
Best,
Sneakerologist
1 comment:
he is definately not an human body how can some one be such a through pro with such a vast knownledge bout his professin
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