Jed Likos
Jed Likos: I remember when the Air 180 came
out, but more-so with the Command Force
and that side pump. That just did everything
for me. The “David Robinson,” with the full
air unit. Between the pump, the colorway, and
the marketing, it was just insane. I actually had
those. They were like $150 or $175, and in
1990, and spending that kind of money on a
basketball shoe was just ludicrous, but it was so
awesome. Everything about Robinson. He was
the man.
I was looking at some of my Aqua Gear and
realizing there was no gentle opening to that
whole vibrant color thing. It just came out
of nowhere and it was everywhere! From the
wetsuits to the shorts, and the Aqua Gear bags
from the early 1990s. They were these kind
of neoprene bags that were amazing. I have
a couple of the Aqua Gear boots, and they’re
just so crazy. The colorways were just so loud
and vibrant. I have a zebra print Aqua Sock.
That was just the look in the nineties, with the
Surf Style jackets. When 1990 hit, it was just
like - BAM! Bright colors and this whole surf
scene of radness. Everyone thought they were
the cool surf kid. It was just awesome!
You would just put stuff together. There was
no rhyme or reason, and the brands had no re-
lationship with each other. You’d rock a pair of
$140 basketball shoes and then some $12 fluo-
rescent jacket. There were so many brands too.
I had British Knights. They had street cred.
Back then, we were doing it all. I was skating
a Peralta board, wearing a Bo Jackson t-shirt,
collecting Starting Lineup figures, and buy-
ing comic books and baseball cards, all on the
same day. I had the Vanilla Ice haircut and the
Zubaz pants riding so high.
At the end of my 5th grade year, my parents
got me the teal GT Performer with the white
78 | Classic Kicks | classickicks.com | Volume 2
wheels. That was the best bike of all time.
We’re talking 1990-1991, when kids getting
jacked for their bikes and shoes was all over
the news. I was the poster boy of who should
be robbed, wearing my metallic Jordan V’s,
which were on the cover of Sports Illustrated,
and riding around Buffalo on a bright neon-
blue GT Performer. I don’t know how I’m
alive now. It’s beyond belief.
I saw a shirt on Instagram the other day that
had Homey the Clown putting Saddam Hus-
sein in a headlock, while wearing a pair of
Jordans, and I thought that shirt exemplified
everything from the nineties. I think Schwarz-
kopf was in the back high-fiving him.
I see you’ve always been about that life,
but when did you start collecting?
I was always a collector. It really started in the
early 1980s with the Star Wars stuff. Then in
the mid-eighties, I got into baseball cards and
comic books. In the late 1980s, I was still a kid,
so I was buying Nike product more so than
“collecting” it, but I always took good care of
my shoes and never gave them away. I always
hung on to them. I was always interested in
athletic footwear.
I really became a collector in the late 1990s
and early 2000s, when eBay came about. It was
the first time you could actually hunt down old
sneaker models. Growing up, the one pair that
really did it for me was the Nike Air Pressure.
It probably wasn’t until 2005, when I finally
found the Air Pressure, but in search of it, I
ended up getting all the other shoes that I grew
up wearing.
When I first started collecting, I was basically
trying to relive my childhood and get all the
models I had when I was a kid: all the early Bo
Jackson trainers, all the Command Force col-
orways, all the Tech Challenges and early Air