The Two Black Creative Directors Changing Sneaker Culture
Song of the Week: Kendrick Lamar (Feat. Dr. Dre) - The Recipe
I think I discovered this song around this exact date 12 years ago. College days — Blog Era. The world was waiting on K. Dot’s debut album. Ironic how the world is waiting on him again at this exact date, no?
Y’all wasn’t outside. Or maybe you were. Either way, enjoy as you read today’s piece.
We’re just over 4 months into the year, and new sneakers have been flooding the market.
Kobe’s, Jordans, Air Max’s, and the like.
But in the past two years, two brands have carved out a strong presence in the market and in sneaker culture conversations. Those two brands are:
New Balance & Crocs.
That’s right.
Crocs have gone from the comfortable shoe worn by nurses to mainstream footwear appreciated by most of Gen Z.
At the same time, New Balance rocked the sneaker (and business) world in Q1 when they reported that they had generated record profits in 2023.
Some of this can be attributed to what they’ve been doing to rebuild interest in the world of sports, but a large part of New Balance’s resurgence in the market has been their push into youth culture via streetwear.
As for the genius behind many of each brand’s most highly sought-after shoes? It’s a pair of creative directors:
Joe Freshgoods & Salehe Bembury
Together, these two Creative Directors have changed the conversation around sneakers while effectively breathing life into SKUs that many would never think of as “cool.”
Let’s talk about both directors and their journey’s in the culture.
Joe Freshgoods
Joe is a Chicago-born and based designer and Creative director for several New Balance campaigns like “Conversations Among Us” featuring Kawhi Leonard.
His journey started shortly after graduating high school when he became an intern for a brand called Leaders.
After a few years, Joe created his first streetwear project and storefront “Don’t Be Mad,” in partnership with a few fellow designers he met at leaders.
Joe became widely popular after launching his next brand “Fat Tiger,” and during that era, he created clothing collections that were met with huge fanfare like the "F**K Donald” t-shirt — a shirt launched after Trump was elected.
He also went viral for his “Thank U Obama” collection in 2017 following that. Both of these can be seen being worn by SZA, and Chance the Rapper, respectively
As for New Balance…
Together the duo has 8 Collections so far.
The first collection was with Joe’s now defunct brand “Don’t Be Mad,” and features red 992’s that still go for pretty high prices on resale sites like StockX.
As of recent…
In December 2023, JFG announced that he had another collection dropping with New Balance — quite possibly his most popular one to date.
As more details about the release came out, it was clear that it was inspired Hype Williams iconic film
BELLY.
The collection featured 3 different colorways of New Balance 990v4 silhouette and the star of show was a location specific release called Kiesha Blue.
The colorway was inspired by Taral Hicks character Kiesha, who Hype Williams famously put under blue light in the film giving her skin an amazing glow to it.
Joe’s most recent collection with New Balance is actually dropping this week.
It includes a pair of New Balance 1000s that call back to 2003 “When things were pure”
Peep the teaser for the collection below:
Salehe Bembury
After graduating from school, Salehe got a job designing shoes for Payless, and after some time with them he secured position with luxury designer Cole Haan.
From there, Salehe’s career evolved into a job with Ye’s brand Yeezy where he designed clothing for Ye’s season 3 & 4 collections.
His work there gained him even more notoriety in the fashion world, and a LinkedIN DM he sent to the higher ups at Versace landed Salehe with one of the biggest brands in the world.
Like Joe, his work with both New Balance and Crocs started as one off collabs and over time the relationships developed into full-blown Creative Director roles with multiple collections in tow.
At New Balance he’s added his spin to silhouettes like the 990v2, and most recently the 1906r — naturally all of his collabs sell out instantly too.
His Croc collabs have also become highly coveted in the sneaker world and can be routinely seen on the feet of stars across the world.
How are They Changing The Sneaker World?
I saw a tweet the other day that perfectly encapsulates what JFG and Salehe are doing that’s revolutionizing the sneaker world.
In essence, the releases are eerily reminiscent of how albums used to be promoted by record labels — it’s a cadence that typically includes a single, a music video, a teaser and finally the album.
Here are a few of the parallels:
A. Content Teasers
JFG leans heavily into this format and has been doing so for many of his collections with New Balance.
For example, the teaser for his 1988 pack is below. It recreates an iconic scene from Belly with budding Chicago artist Smino.
Salehe has also dropped teasers for his 990v2 collections along with vignettes across social for his most recent 1906R sneakers with New Balance.
According to IG, he’s got more New Balances dropping this year.
B. Location Exclusive Releases
Again, something JFG has done recently with his shoe releases.
Chicago is important to the DNA of his brand so to honor the city he’s from, Joe makes certain releases and coveted colorways exclusive to Chicago — in order to win fans have to either live (or be willing to travel) to the city to claim their shoes.
He did it was the Keisha Blues in the 1998 pack, the New Balance 650s Collection that recently dropped, and his most recent pack of New Balance 1000s.
Location specific sneakers are available at his Chicago storefront ‘Every Now & Then’
C. Previews at Fashion Week
Salehe also takes a guerilla approach to previewing his sneakers as well.
At Paris Fashion Week, he showed fans that they can look forward to new releases from Crocs that will come in two different colorways dubbed…
The Junipers
To date, Salehe has shown pictures of him wearing The Juniper on Hikes, in Tokyo, etc. He’s even shown of the various colorways that The Juniper will be offered in, along with the Crocs Saru's that should be dropping very soon.
Anticipation in the sneaker world is growing, and fans are ready for all of the releases he’s teased to drop before Summer.
D. Dedicated Social Posts
For both Joe and Salehe, social media has become a key component to their sneaker releases.
Each release has a rollout that comes complete with teaser posts, visuals fit for OOH on billboards, and enough content for sneaker blogs to speculate on the theme and release date for each shoe.
WHAT’S TO COME?
Joe Freshgoods just dropped a new collection this week (hopefully I can score both pair), and Salehe Bembury has signaled that he’s got more shoes on the way with New Balance and Crocs.
Again, I think it’s worth reiterating that both CD’s have changed the way sneaker releases happen on a marketing level. They’ve allowed lesser known SKUs from each respective brand to become fixtures in streetwear culture.
The future for both Creatives is bright, and hopefully we all get decades more of each of them putting their art out in the world.
I know I’ll be out there to support.
One.
This was a really great read, thanks for sharing! I’ve been a huge fan of JFG’s work for a while now. I have a few pieces from his collection with Converse a few years ago. His marketing is always perfect, very Black, and truly in connection with his customers. I’m a fashion stylist and a goal of mine is to style a campaign of his one day. You can tell how much thought and care he puts into each collection. I can never get my hands on any of his New Balances quick enough lol . I’m not a Croc’s girlie but I also have a ton of respect for what Salehe has done/is doing with the brand. I know people who stop everything their doing when he releases a shoe and the designs & colorways are always fire.