The Authentic Era

After a few technical difficulties, we’re back with episode 32B. Let’s try this again! We’re trying out Zoom for this episode, so if it sounds different, that’s why. We’ll get it dialed in by ep. 50 I’m sure. Baseball is back, and we couldn’t be more stoked. Bill’s bday is approaching and a gathering-turned-house party is in the works. Eddie and Moms is going to a country music festival and are gonna see Willy Nelson while he’s still performing. The boys are drinking Cutwaters, Stouts, and Tea for the evening.

Our shoe release news is a little dated due to our podcast issues, but we talked about Defcons, Uprise Half Cabs, Palace x Vault x Calvin Klein cK1 Authentics, Engineered Garments Era VLTs, and the Yucca fins x Vans Surf collaboration. Lots of stuff to catch up on.

In other news, Bill is still waiting for his first order of Mooneyes Vans. WTF is up Vans?

Vans goes after MSCHF and their stupid Wavy Old-Skool wannabes. Why an established rapper like Tyga would even want to associate himself with this whack shit is beyond us. Stop supporting these bootleg sneaker brands. Fakes are fakes no matter how you look at it. It’s whack. Don’t be a sucker.

For Show & Tell, Bill got one of those cool wooden Vans Family signs from Tintin. Joey picked up a coffee table book by Glenn Friedman of the punk rock band Black Flag. Eddie picked up a few Marc Jacobs Vaults from 2006, in DS condition. There’s no better time to start scooping up older Marc Jacobs Vaults, while their prices are still reasonable. Thanks for joining us tonight!

You can drop in for the live Twitch stream, every Tuesday (10PM CDT / 8PM PDT), or on our Youtube channel. Audio formats can be found on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and Anchor.

All views and opinions are strictly our own, and not affiliated with anything. If we offend any of you, just know that it wasn’t personal, and we love everyone and everything. Don’t take life so seriously, and that includes us.

What’s up and thanks for joining us for Episode 31! By now, you should know that we pretty much wing it. Last week, we took a sick day, but we’re on the mend, and we have some interesting shit to talk about.

Bill was the only one drinking a beer tonight, while Ed and Joey had their waters on deck. I never thought we’d get into a pleasant conversation around water, but we learned what brands we like, and don’t like. Joe just installed a reverse osmosis system under his sink and it’s life changing. Hydration is the key to life, folks.

The Blends unreleased pack dropped, and a few were lucky enough to score a pair. Although we’d prefer an in-store release, or a FCFS online drop like everyone else, we think their raffle method is the safest, and most fair for the amount of demand these Bones get. We can’t thank the Blends fam enough for blessing us with the VIP treatment on this pack. Since we’re on the topic of releases, Defcon dropped some stuff on us last week. Now, we patiently wait to see if there’s some Vans coming too!

We’re anticipating the Vault x Krink collection to drop later this week, so stay tuned for that. Iconic collab right there.

Anyone see The Simpsons “Cool Guy” episode? Pretty funny to see them poke fun at our once beloved culture, which is obviously now too mainstream for us. Is this a sign we need to stop wearing Supreme?!

So, we came across an episode of Talib Kweli’s “The People’s Party” podcast on the Uproxx Youtube channel, featuring Alyasha Owerka Moore. We don’t dare put a title on him, because he’s larger than any title we could ever come up with, but chances are, some of your favorite sneakers or clothes wouldn’t exist without his touch or influence. Whether it’s from this interview, or Bobby Hundred’s book, or just through common acquaintances in San Diego, we feel like we’ve known this guy for decades, but we barely knew anything about him. He also articulated everything our simple minds have been trying to convey since episode 1 of The Authentic Era, in regards to what our sneaker & streetwear culture have become. It’s basically bottle service now, and that’s clown culture!!! We invite you to watch that episode in it’s entirety on their channel.

That segued us into our final topic of the evening, talking about entitlement, and image, and social media influence. Kids have to grow up with this added pressure these days, and it’s fucked up. But, hey, just remember kids, your favorite idol says you need to just “get off your ass, and work!”.

You can drop in for the live Twitch stream, every Tuesday (10PM CDT / 8PM PDT), or on our Youtube channel. Audio formats can be found on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and Anchor.

All views and opinions are strictly our own, and not affiliated with anything. If we offend any of you, just know that it wasn’t personal, and we love everyone and everything. Don’t take life so seriously, and that includes us.

We’ve made it to episode 30, and we want to thank you for being a part of this journey! Who’d have thought we’d make it this far? You’re a real one for sticking with us this long. If you’re new here, then welcome! We hope you stick around for the next 30 episodes.

Bill is back from his Hawaii vacation on the Big Island, and he’s not ready to go back to work. He also went to Phoenix for Dodgers Spring Training, but the MLB had other plans. At least he got to hang with our Vans fam Dave & Michelle all weekend, and drink Dutch Bros. and eat at Pappadeaux’s.

After sharing our drinks, we got right into our main topic of the night, which was an exclusive debut, and detailed look at the next Blends collaboration with Vault By Vans, featuring their iconic bones jazz stripe. This pack was originally created for the Asia market, but a few pairs were allocated for here in the states. The designs for the trio, came from early unreleased samples, with each featuring black toe bumpers, premium motorcycle leather, as well as a few other unique details. There are two Sk8-Hi Reissue Zip LX’s, one in black, and one in red, as well as an Old Skool LX in black. Look for a more detailed look, later this week, over on stuckunderthepalms.com.

We talked heavily about the BAPE Vans release fiasco, and how every person’s online order from Vans.com was cancelled. Well, we may not be 100% correct, but we haven’t seen one successful US order yet.

It’s International Womens Day this week, and we have a few releases that coincide with the holiday. First up, is Lizzie Armanto’s inaugural pro model, the Lizzie, and the next is a Vault collab with Sarah Andelman, featuring 4 female artists who each designed a shoe for the collection. We also got a first look at a Vault x Palm Angels collab, and we get into a healthy discussion on if this collab fits in with what Vans consumers are into, and I think we all know the answer to that.

WTF is up with gas these days? We go on a tangent about corporate greed and climate change, lol. Since we we’re on our usual hating segment, we brought up Tyler the Creator’s thoughts on NFTs, the Kanye Netflix doc, and other things we’ve been binge-watching.

Lastly, we talk about how Nike is once again using their corporate power for bad, by wiping out $900 million of Foot Locker’s market value, by removing key product inventory, to sell direct to consumer. The retail experience is going away at a rapid pace. Is this what we all want now? Maybe.

You can drop in for the live Twitch stream, every Tuesday (10PM CDT / 8PM PDT), or on our Youtube channel. Audio formats can be found on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and Anchor.

All views and opinions are strictly our own, and not affiliated with anything. If we offend any of you, just know that it wasn’t personal, and we love everyone and everything. Don’t take life so seriously, and that includes us.

Welcome to episode 29. Tonight’s show starts off with a little Young Dolph (RIP) talk, and some insight to our opening music. Bill’s preparing for his Hawaiian vacation to the Big Island for the next 7 days, which also means there won’t be an episode next week.

Eddie brags about the bomb food he’s had lately, reminiscing on his days in San Diego. Shoutout to McDonald’s Taro pies, and Trader Joe’s Pumpkin Empanadas. Also to Chef Roy Choy’s Broken Bread show on PBS here in SoCal, and tortilleria Kernel of Truth.

This week’s Vans releases include the Vault x Worksout “1stAnniversary” Custom OG Authentic LX; Crayola Collaboration; Vault x Kar “Dragster” Old Skool VLT LX; Krooked x Natas for Ray Barbee pack.

@kiddnamedclay joins the chat, and we share his Vans jingle that’s been getting a little traction around the community. We discuss the “These Projects Are Ads For Creativity” campaign, and then give a major shout-out to Goodhood co-founder Kyle Stewart’s Hypebeast interview. We then go on a tangent about the movie RAD, and the disappointing cancellation of the 50thanniversary Era.

We then discuss our favorite topic as usual, NFTs. This time, a hacker stole $1.7 million in NFTs from OpenSea users, which is hilarious. Oh, and Nicky Diamonds is creating a metaverse, complete with Diamond “Tiffany” Dunks you can dress up in. We close out the show discussing some of our favorite Old Skools, which we could go on for days, but we mentioned the KITH x Mastermind Old Skool LX, Blends “Bones” Old Skool Zip LX, and the Our Legacy Old Skool 92 Pro LX.

You can drop in for the live Twitch stream, every Tuesday (10PM CDT / 8PM PDT), or on our Youtube channel. Audio formats can be found on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and Anchor.

All views and opinions are strictly our own, and not affiliated with anything. If we offend any of you, just know that it wasn’t personal, and we love everyone and everything. Don’t take life so seriously, and that includes us.

Welcome to episode 28 folks! It’s been a busy week, full of some new Vans stuff to talk about, but first a little bit of small talk about work, and some of the crazy stuff we’ve dealt with over the years. What are we drinking? Ed is trying out Bang’s new Vooz hydration sensation drink; Joey has a Pint House “Green Battles” American IPA, and Bill has one of his Burgeon favorites, the Juice Press Hazy IPA.

This week saw a few releases. The All Nations Skate Jam collection for 2022 finally dropped. WTAPS released their Olive GPS pack in Asia, and we are finally getting the BAPE x Vans release we were asking for. Perfect camo selection. Perfect color choices. Apparel is still sus, but we’ll take it.

Super Bowl half time show was off the hook. Eminem rocked a pair of sick exclusively made AJ III’s, which we’ll probably never see release. We also reminisce over some of his dopest collabs over the years.

Our main topic of discussion was around order cancellations from Vans.com that have been happening way more than the usual, and it’s starting to get out of hand. We dive in a little bit, based on some knowledge we’ve learned about what may be the reason behind this, but regardless, shit’s getting pretty old real quick. We get on a tangent about where returned pairs go, and then on a “sub-tangent” about factory seconds, and the discount market. Also in regards to reselling, we hit on 3rd party sellers on some major online webstores, and how resell prices are dictating new retail prices, so stop buying into it.

Supreme previews their Spring/Summer ’22 drop, and Bill just wants a bunch of Kraft Mac ‘N Cheese boxes, so help him out lol. We also do a little bit of mail call, and for this week, we see some Notres, some Sandy Liangs, some Upside-Down Asia Tiger Pack, and some Vans Family accessories. Good stuff.

You can drop in for the live Twitch stream, every Tuesday (10PM CDT / 8PM PDT), or on our Youtube channel. Audio formats can be found on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and Anchor.

All views and opinions are strictly our own, and not affiliated with anything. If we offend any of you, just know that it wasn’t personal, and we love everyone and everything. Don’t take life so seriously, and that includes us.

After some recent storms took out Ed last week, we’re back better and stronger than ever, with some fresh new things to talk about. Schedules have been a little funky, but we’re making it work. Ed’s drinking a Wild Watermelon Bang. Joe’s got a Slice Beer Co. Vaxx to the Future DIPA, and Bill is working with a Harland x Mortalis Hydra Fluff Smoothie Style Sour Ale.

Vans releases for the past few weeks include the Vault x Javier Calleja Pack; the Vault x Notre OG Style 36 LX; the Vans Skate x Palace Skate Old Skool; the Vault x Dobale Collection; the Vault 2022 Preview; and the Vault x WTaps Olive GPS Coordinates Japan-exclusive pack.

Shout-out to the 2 new followers on Twitch! We get off on a tangent about merchandise, and t-shirt printing, and making hats, pins, and random shit. We share some of our mistakes with the process, and we’ve all gained a little wisdom from it.

We spoke a little on our crazy weather. Bill & Tin are going to Hawaii’s Big Island in a few weeks, so that should be fun. Talked a little about Poke and some of our favorite fresh fish we love to eat.

We went into overtime this week, with a topic near and dear to our hearts…NFTs! Nike is suing StockX over them. Our culture is being bought and sold back to us in the form of them. People are losing fortunes on them. What’s not to love about them? Our culture is constantly trying to be infiltrated, and we’re still doing our best to keep the bullshit out of it. Speaking of culture, Clayton (@wearingwaffles) is in town this week, and wants to meet up on Thursday night, so check out his invite on his IG for the info!

You can drop in for the live Twitch stream, every Tuesday (10PM CDT / 8PM PDT), or on our Youtube channel. Audio formats can be found on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and Anchor.

All views and opinions are strictly our own, and not affiliated with anything. If we offend any of you, just know that it wasn’t personal, and we love everyone and everything. Don’t take life so seriously, and that includes us.

We’re back y’all. Episode 26. Some of us are getting over a little bug. Some are feeling a little bit tired. Some are trying to figure out if we should put away our winter gear yet, but all in all, we’re all in great spirits. We know you’re dying to know our drinks for the night. Bill chose an Amigo Lager by Port Brewing tonight. Joe had a Disaronno & Coke, and Ed had a Sweet Tea Bang.

It was a great weekend for NFL football. Joe’s happy to not see Tom Brady advance to the conference championship. He’s also hoping to see the Rams beat the 49ers next Sunday, to further prove his opinion (not fact, according to Bill), of how bad the Chargers are, lol.

The only Vans release info for this week, is the Vault x Notre (which fyi, is pronounced “no-truh”) OG Style 36 LX. One of our favorite models, featuring 3 colorways, espresso, matcha, and tea. All unique bangers. Praying to the Vans Gods that we can all secure the ones we want. Notre is crazy hype right now. We also dabble a bit into the world of New Balance sneakers, which led to talking about other made in the USA sneakers and shoes in general.

Our main topic of discussion this week, centered around symbolism in Vans over the years, and just an open discussion about cultural appropriation in design inspiration, or controversial imagery and logos, that although most likely didn’t have any ill intent, but obviously have all but disappeared in designs as of recently. The OG Hosoi Sk8-Hi’s, featuring the Rising Sun graphic, are the first that come to mind. A logo synonymous with Christian Hosoi, seen across all of his decks in the 80’s, paying homage to his heritage, the best way he knew how. Perhaps with a little bit of welcomed controversy. Times were obviously different. Moving on to more current examples, we’ve noticed major changes in Taka Hayashi’s aesthetic. Gone are the Native American inspired designs, which are arguably some of his best work. Perhaps it was his evolution as an artist. Maybe the style was getting tired. Who knows, but it was the right time to switch it up. Wes Lang was also slated to have a collection with Vault in 2020, but the Native American imagery, as well as a questionable graphic tee he made for Vans in the past, resurfaced, and we believe that may have played a part in the decision to cancel the release. Sample pairs are floating around out there, and pics are online if you’re curious. A few other examples are also discussed.

We’re waiting to see what the Stussy Air Penny 2 will look like, which led to a little bit of Penny Hardaway talk, mainly around his current college coaching career. He’s not afraid to tell people what they need to hear! We close out tonight, giving a shout-out to Neil Young and Joe Rogan!

You can drop in for the live Twitch stream, every Tuesday (10PM CDT / 8PM PDT), or on our Youtube channel. Audio formats can be found on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and Anchor.

All views and opinions are strictly our own, and not affiliated with anything. If we offend any of you, just know that it wasn’t personal, and we love everyone and everything. Don’t take life so seriously, and that includes us.

We are back from our Winter break! Refreshed, and ready to get back on our bullshit for 2022. Everyone had a nice time off. Joe went to the Chargers v Raiders game in Vegas. Eddie enjoyed getting a cold. Bill didn’t get too much done, and just hung out with the fam.

After our quick drink intros, we got into a little bit of current events, which included volcano eruptions, tsunami warnings, and the Omarion variant, jk. Eddie wants to find a place to travel to soon, possibly SoCal, so we’ll see.

Current Vans releases include the CDG White OG Old Skools, the Year of the Tiger pack that was designed by Chinese artist Huatunan. The Sandy Liang pack is coming soon, and it’s dope. Vault is dropping a Taka Amazon Trail Low, and Sneeze mag has a trio of Skate Chukkas for us, this Friday.

If you didn’t know by now, we’re the non-experts of NFTs. If you still feel like they’re scammy, and ridiculous, and a money grab, then you’re in the right place. Well, one of our respected institutions of streetwear culture, All Gone Book by Michael Dupuoy “LAMJC”, has decided to feature BAYC “Bored Ape Yacht Club” on the cover of the 2021 edition. Bill took out his collection of All Gone books, going back to 2007, up to 2014, where he decided to stop, because he’s a completist and could never get his hands on the inaugural 2006 book. Anyways, needless to say, we’re a little disappointed with the 2021 book. That led into an entire tangent about NFT’s, the Wal-Mart shopping metaverse, and our comparison of all this stuff, to the Chuck E. Cheese business model. Also, shouts to Bobby Hundreds’ IG stories last week for giving us some ammo.

Lastly, just a little hot VF Corp. gossip. They will be terminating all unvaccinated employees by Jan. 31st, so we wish all of those well, who are deciding to put their bodies before their job. It’s a personal choice, and we respect that.

You can drop in for the live Twitch stream, every Tuesday (10PM CDT / 8PM PDT), or on our Youtube channel. Audio formats can be found on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and Anchor.

All views and opinions are strictly our own, and not affiliated with anything. If we offend any of you, just know that it wasn’t personal, and we love everyone and everything. Don’t take life so seriously, and that includes us.

What’s good everybody? Welcome to our last episode of 2021! We’re just getting ready for Christmas, and just stressing out a little bit. Tonight’s episode is our longest one yet, but we promise it’s our best one yet.

We get right into some talk about vintage clothing, and used Carhartt workwear, for those who might want to look like they do an honest days work. We share our new drinks for the evening, and Joey took a do-over with his choice. We do a little resellers talk, mainly about eBay, and how they’re taking back the reigns from Stockx and GOAT.

We reflect on some big Vans news from the year, starting with the passing of Vans co-founder Paul Van Doren. We also talk about Jeff Grosso’s Loveletters to Skateboarding coming to an end.

The main part of this episode was us sharing our top 5 Vans releases of the year, and shocker, for the most part, we all had the same picks! We also picked a few solid honorable mentions. Listen in to find out!

Joey got tickets for an American Nightmare show. Eddie knew what that was, but Bill has no clue about Hardcore Punk music. They said it’s not as outrageous as a Gwar show, but still, Bill was completely lost.

We displayed our continued ignorance on the topic of the Metaverse, cryptocurrency, and NFTs, and Eddie suggested a few really good podcasts he’s currently listening to, one called “Behind The Bastards”, and the other “The Dollop”. He highly recommends taking a listen, when you’re not listening to us of course.

So that’s pretty much this week in a nutshell. We hope everyone has a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year. We’ll be back in a few weeks, as we take the next week off to enjoy some family and friends time. We thank you so much for being a part of this nonsense!

You can drop in for the live Twitch stream, every Tuesday (10PM CDT / 8PM PDT), or on our Youtube channel. Audio formats can be found on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and Anchor.

All views and opinions are strictly our own, and not affiliated with anything. If we offend any of you, just know that it wasn’t personal, and we love everyone and everything. Don’t take life so seriously, and that includes us.

What’s good friends?! We’re back for another episode. Our 23rd! We open up tonight with a local weather update for each of us. Joey & Bill are back to another California mask mandate. Apparently vaccines aren’t working we guess? Don’t quote us on that. Each of us had a new drink to try out tonight. Good stuff.

Jumping right into release talk. This weeks drops include the Vault x Cali Dewitt pack, a Vault x Velvet Animals pack, and a Vault OG x CDG Girl OG Era LX. The annual All Nations Skate Jam collection is back, and Todd Harder has outdone himself again. This time, there’s a Half Cab, a Slip-On, and a few others you’ll just have to wait and see when they drop. Mooneyes are out of their fucking mind with their $200 price tag, not including shipping or tax, but suckers still bought ‘em up.

We got into a pretty good conversation around sort of losing our connection with some of our favorite core skate shops, ever since the limited edition lines that were sold exclusively through them went away. We’re talking about Syndicate and ArcAd. Now days, the most limited and cool things they have to offer, don’t always speak directly to us Vans sneaker collectors who aren’t so much into the skate side of things. Besides, we can just pick up these same Skate releases on the Vans webstore, and get some Vans Family points for it. We’re pleading that Vans brings something back so we can have our relationships back with these friends of ours. Heck, consult us for some ideas! We also get a little nostalgic and show some love to a few of the older institutions that we used to frequent.

We finished off on a tangent about the Three 6 Mafia & BONE Thugs Verzuz battle, literally, and the #freelarryhoover benefit concert put on by Ye and Drake, and the Balenciaga merch that was sold through Amazon. Great show. Not so great merch.

You can drop in for the live Twitch stream, every Tuesday (10PM CDT / 8PM PDT), or on our Youtube channel. Audio formats can be found on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and Anchor.

All views and opinions are strictly our own, and not affiliated with anything. If we offend any of you, just know that it wasn’t personal, and we love everyone and everything. Don’t take life so seriously, and that includes us.

Sup fam! How’s everyone? We’re back in the flesh for our 22ndepisode, and it’s a long one. We’re getting ready for Christmas, and we’re just trying to maintain. After sharing our drinks for the evening, we got off on our first tangent about HBO’s The Righteous Gemstones, which Joey and Bill urge Eddie to catch up on ASAP.

Not much for releases this week, except for the Japan exclusive Moon Eyes collection, featuring a Half Cab and Era in the Japan silos. There’s also a Vault Hiker that dropped exclusively at DSM Ginza. We recapped the Undefeated U-Man OG Old Skool LX pack, and Bill shared his pairs for us all.

Tonight’s episode focuses mainly around fake sneakers and “unauthorized” sneakers. We start off with a few prominent sneaker sites that appeared to start out by selling bootleg knockoff Jordans and the like. This was sort of a normal and expected part of our culture, but there was usually no mistaking that they were fake. Online sneaker forums seemed to do a pretty good job of discouraging the buying and selling of fakes. It was definitely taboo if you rocked fake anything. Somehow the culture shifted, and fakes became both, really really good, or blatantly knocked off. We give a few examples of “designers” who have made quite a name selling a variant design of a popular colorway or style of some shoes. There’s also a big trend of high-end fashion brands ripping off sneaker designs, and a few examples are given.

We still just can’t get behind NFTs, and we also have a thing or two to say about one of Bobby Hundreds’ latest posts in regards to his brand, and how the Adam Bomb Club is in some way offering supporters a chance to be a part-owner of the brand. We aren’t so sure that’s completely true, and we just think everyone should just be a little bit more cautious with their money, but in the end, just do what you wanna do. Wear what you wanna wear. Just be nice to each other!

Eddie showed off his Bape x Vans pickups. The hoodie is a super-slim fit he says, so they must’ve been manufactured for the Japanese market. We also mentioned Size? hooking everyone up with the Anaheim Factory Needlework pack. Looking forward to getting those! Thanks Size?!

You can drop in for the live Twitch stream, every Tuesday (10PM CDT / 8PM PDT), or on our Youtube channel. Audio formats can be found on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and Anchor.

All views and opinions are strictly our own, and not affiliated with anything. If we offend any of you, just know that it wasn’t personal, and we love everyone and everything. Don’t take life so seriously, and that includes us.

What’s up y’all? Sorry for being MIA last night, but we doubled down and did nearly a 2hr show tonight, so enjoy! After sharing what we were drinking, we got right into a lengthy talk about Virgil Abloh, and his sudden passing. He got a little bit of indifference from us over the years, but it was mostly our “old heads” negativity coming out. We can’t deny Virgil was a man of the culture, and affected many personally. Everyone had personal stories. He had the sneaker industry by the balls, and the resell market is doing what it does in times of tragedy and loss. I hate it here! I can’t imagine what Nike’s going to do next.

We recapped yesterday’s Vans x Bape release, as well as the USPS collection. We’re anticipating the Undefeated x Vault collection to do well, and we’re excited beyond words! Premier Skateshop is releasing a duo of lace tear-away shoes that look absolutely sick. Fucking Awesome has a new Vans tech model for A.V.E.

Vans bid farewell to Jeff Grosso’s Loveletters to Skateboarding, and included Jeff’s son Oliver in the heartwarming send-off.

Nike is back on their bullshit, cancelling orders for at least the foreseeable future for one shop. Maybe more. We talk about how much these small community shops play such a big part in sneaker and just our culture as a whole. We’re losing that, due to greed. The culture just ain’t the same, and we wish it would just go back to being a small niche hobby, when you actually had to do a little bit of homework to get the stuff you didn’t know you wanted so bad!

Once again, shout-out to Dionte Johnson and the Sole Classics fam for their latest project. Teaming up with Vans and the Look Ma No Hands organization, they are looking to give 50 high school students an opportunity to join a program that seeks to give them access and exposure to the fashion, art, and design world. This is epic and a game changer. We don’t know any other shop out there doing things like this for their community, and just for the youth of tomorrow as a whole. This is huge.

Lastly, we want to give a special shout-out to Eddie’s cousin Ryan, and the homie Landon, who say they never get a shout-out for listening to us. Well there you go!

You can drop in for the live Twitch stream, every Tuesday (10PM CDT / 8PM PDT), or on our Youtube channel. Audio formats can be found on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and Anchor.

All views and opinions are strictly our own, and not affiliated with anything. If we offend any of you, just know that it wasn’t personal, and we love everyone and everything. Don’t take life so seriously, and that includes us.

What’s good everyone? We hope you’re doing well, and getting ready for the holiday season. We’re thankful for many things, especially making it to 20 episodes!!! Our health. Our good spirits. Our friends & family, and of course all of you!

We started out tonight’s episode, discussing our recent trips. Joe & the fam went to Julian for the day, which is a nice little getaway up in the mountains just North of San Diego, known for their apple orchards. Had some beers. Ate some pies. Enjoyed the fresh air. Bill and Tintin did a quick drive up to Monterey for the weekend. Visited Alvarado Brewing. Ate some great food. Enjoyed the local scenery on the wharf, and in the busy waters. Visited Carmel by the Sea, and then took the most amazing road trip back down the California coast on Hwy 1. Lots of pics on their IG!

Shared our drinks. Everyone had something new and exciting to share. Well…maybe not Eddie’s Miami Cola Bang!

This weeks drops include the Vault x Ray Barbee x Leica camera collab. The USPS collection. The Vault x END x MASTERMIND WORLD “cap” collection, and lastly the Supreme “Barbed Wire or Tribal” Vans, which led to a tangent about bad tattoos and Pam Anderson and “Barbed Wire”.

House of Vans Mexico City is opening soon, which looks amazing. Rose Anvil tears down the new UltraRange MTE-3. You gotta watch that video.

Pickups are a little light this week, and only Eddie had his Super7 Milo from The Descendents Reaction figure to show off. This led to another tangent about Dragon Ball Z, Toonami, Funimation, and Cowboy Bebop.

Bill gave us a small and a little confusing update on The Sopranos. You may want to skip over this dreadful part lol. Somehow got to talking about Tennessee and moonshine, and how ironic it is, that there’s dry counties all over the place there. We discuss the Thanksgiving plans we don’t have, and we end the episode with a little bit of discussion on the Dune series. Apparently Eddie and Bill need to catch up, so Joey can talk about it with us!

You can drop in for the live Twitch stream, every Tuesday (10PM CDT / 8PM PDT), or on our Youtube channel. Audio formats can be found on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and Anchor.

All views and opinions are strictly our own, and not affiliated with anything. If we offend any of you, just know that it wasn’t personal, and we love everyone and everything. Don’t take life so seriously, and that includes us.

Welcome everyone! Tonight we got right into some drink talk, and what we were drinking. Bill gets shitty like a Real Housewife when he drinks wine. For this week, he’s switching it up from a craft beer, to a pre-mixed Old Fashioned from Trader Joe’s. Only available during the holidays, so check it out if it’s your thing! We all love Trader Joe’s. Somehow got on a tangent about air fryers and instapots, and all the things we can cook in them. Joe had a DHIPA from North Park Brewing. Eddie had a solid Peach Mango Bang energy drink, and he’s having a hard time trying to find some new flavors, so hook him up Bang! Supply chains are all fucked up right now.

First release topic was the Sk8-Hi GORE-TEX MTE-3. Then we recapped the Supreme x Tiffany release. Shocker…Palace shipped their recent collab in a polybag. T&C Surf Designs are back for a third collab with Vans, and it’s a nice one. Panda Mei has teamed up with Vans China on a cool blind box toy release of a few Letterhead characters, and we got a good look of them via Emily Ma (@myttttt)’s IG. That got us talking about other classic vinyl toy brands like Kid Robot, which then got us on a topic about their highly sought after Air Max 1’s. That transitioned into talks about other grail Air Maxes, and the huge runner sneakers culture in the UK. Y’all kids weren’t there!

We discussed the top 10 Most Stupidly Expensive Sneakers, since we were light on other news.

For show & tell this week, Bill shared the Vans Family Loteria board game that was an exclusive to the Vans Family app, and he also came up on a pair of vintage 90’s Made In USA Authentics in olive green. Eddie surprised us with a cool sample camo baseball jersey he had made up for The Authentic Era. It didn’t turn out quite as expected, so he will be looking for a new manufacturer to try again. We said no more ordering off of the Wish app, lol. Just kidding.

Don’t forget, Vans Checkerboard Day is Thursday 11/18. Get out there and create something! Help out your community. Get involved.

You can drop in for the live Twitch stream, every Tuesday (10PM CDT / 8PM PDT), or on our Youtube channel. Audio formats can be found on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and Anchor.

All views and opinions are strictly our own, and not affiliated with anything. If we offend any of you, just know that it wasn’t personal, and we love everyone and everything. Don’t take life so seriously, and that includes us.

We’re back for another week of nonsense, mostly centered around all things Vans, but sometimes not! Started off with a little bit of talk about work. Shared what we were drinking. Talked about our love for bad tv shows. Riveting stuff.

Offspring update! We finally got the rest of our coasters, thanks to the homie Graham Cheeseman over at Vans UK. We hate that it came to reaching out to him, but all things are right in the world again. Bill updated us on where he was at with The Sopranos.

Just before that, we discussed the recent House of Vans book, “If These Walls Could Talk”, exclusive to the Vans Family. While on the topic of recent pickups, Joe picked up the black Vans x SE Racing PK Ripper for retail, off of a buddy. Jealous hatred could be felt all around. Discussed the Supreme x Tiffany news, and then went on a tangent about some recent NHL controversy, that involved a name being removed from the Stanley Cup.

This weeks releases include the very colorful Tierra Whack collab. The Museum of Contemporary Art is back with a 2nd release, featuring some Los Angeles local artists. Size? UK drops an Anaheim Factory Authentic 44 DX in a Needlework motif.

Eddie picked up a few new shoes, including the rare Syndicate x Luke Meier Zero Lo “S” in Golden Brown. That got us talking about the other Luke Meier shoes, including the Supreme shock-dropped Navy pair, which then got us on the topic of older Supreme Vans releases.

Ended up somehow talking about Crypto and NFT’s. Us old heads just don’t buy into it. It just feels like everyone’s being finessed out of their money, for nothing tangible. Boring, we know!

You can drop in for the live Twitch stream, every Tuesday (10PM CDT / 8PM PDT), or on our Youtube channel. Audio formats can be found on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and Anchor.

All views and opinions are strictly our own, and not affiliated with anything. If we offend any of you, just know that it wasn’t personal, and we love everyone and everything. Don’t take life so seriously, and that includes us.

What’s up folks! We had a slight delay with the start but Joey and  Bill held it down until Eddie was able to join us. The convo had a laid  back vibe with us talking over the background music. Started off sharing  our drinks, as usual and then got right into the releases.

First up, the BAPE x Vans release, and our slight disappointment in  how the collection turned out. We were expecting more, and we got much  less, in terms of design, options, accessories, etc. First tangent was  about Eddie’s new game Red Dead Redemption, and his recent Vision 3060ti  video card purchase. Back on topic, we talk about the Palace  “Mushrooms” Skate Sk8-Hi. You’d have thought these were a Supreme  release. Bill stumbled across the Vault x Geoff McFetridge collection  via Notre’s webstore. Interesting.

Our Offspring saga continues. We reached out, and they apologized for  not including the ceramic coasters with the shoes, and sent out a  package in record time, EXCEPT there was only 1 set of coasters in the  box! We’re starting to think that they just hate us.

Got on another tangent about the HBO classic, The Sopranos, that Bill  has finally started watching. The guys are excited to hear that, and  will be asking for weekly updates.

Recent pickups from Bill include a few sale items from Wish in  Atlanta, as well as some Notre navy blue Old Skools copped from eBay.  Can’t forget the Beams x Crocs that came in from END. Eddie received  another shipment from his Japan proxy, including a few older Vans Japan  collabs, as well as a WTAPS Chukka in tan. Joey wants everyone to keep a  lookout for some 2000’s era Vans for him. Cab 4’s, and other chunky  classics from that period of his youth. Sz 11.5 preferably! That’s about  it for this week!

You can drop in for the live Twitch stream, every Tuesday (10PM CDT /  8PM PDT), or on our Youtube channel. Audio formats can be found on  Apple podcasts, Spotify, and Anchor.

All views and opinions are strictly our own, and not affiliated with  anything. If we offend any of you, just know that it wasn’t personal,  and we love everyone and everything. Don’t take life so seriously, and  that includes us.

What’s up peeps! Welcome back. Get ready for our longest episode yet, but honestly it’s a great one. You’ll want to listen to the whole thing! We start off with some great beer talk, and this past Sunday’s party at the Burgeon Oasis. It was an amazing time, and Bill and Joey both got to heap praise on each other for it. Get a room!

This week’s releases include Haven’s Lampin VLT LX, Shanghai’s Avenue & Sons Skate Sid. We went off on a wild tangent about Vans releases in Asia, shouting out Tony and Eason from VansFans China, and some randomness about Made In USA Vans, watefulness in sneakers, and how can we change the mindset about trying to prolong the life of them through various sole-swap alternatives. Italy’s Napapijri gets a collab. We offer up some great Vans Winter slippers.

We share a few Halloween themed pairs. We talk scary movies, haunted places growing up, and if we believe in ghosts. The cult Heaven’s Gate came up. We discussed the Nike SB Mummy Dunk for our “This Ain’t NikeTalk” segment this week.

Things are looking up for our Offspring ceramic tiles debacle, so stay tuned to see if we get em. Joey finally got his NOAH One-Piece Authentics!

We give Dionte Johnson and his Sole Classics team major love this week, inspired by their Nike x Social Status “Strawberry Milk” Dunk release, which was so amazing. Listen to the pod, if only for this segment. Solid dude right there, setting examples for all of us.

You can drop in for the live Twitch stream, every Tuesday (10PM CDT / 8PM PDT), or on our Youtube channel. Audio formats can be found on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and Anchor.

All views and opinions are strictly our own, and not affiliated with anything. If we offend any of you, just know that it wasn’t personal, and we love everyone and everything. Don’t take life so seriously, and that includes us.

Hello everyone! Welcome to another wonderful episode of The Authentic  Era. We’ve now got 15 of these under our belt, and almost nothing to  show for it, lol. After popping open our drinks of choice for the  evening, we remind everyone that this upcoming Sunday is the Burgeon  Oasis’ 1yr Anniversary in Escondido, CA. Joey will be managing the  event, and Bill will be trying to please everyone in attendance, with  some great music. Come hang from 12-6 PM on Sunday 10/24.

This week, Vans will be dropping a super sick Skate Sk8-Hi by pro  skater Ben Kadow, featuring a primarily black shoe, with olive green  side panels with spider web embroidery. Eddie takes us on a trip down  memory lane, to remind us of a few cool spider web Vans, like the  vintage print pair that has been recently seen in the Anaheim Factory  collection, as well as the Kadir Warriors x SBTG collab. We can’t forget  the WTAPS Sk8-Mid “S”, which then got us talking about other WTAPS  releases, which then transitioned into Japan exclusives from WTAPS,  Porter, and so on. CDG has restocked their Authentic and Old Skools  in-store at DSM.

Somehow, we found ourselves on mostexpensivehub.com, looking at the  top 10 most expensive Vans shoes of all time, and naturally the list was  comprised mostly of Supreme or Fear of God pairs. We immediately  started judging, lol.

Vans Checkerboard Day 2021 will be on Nov. 18th. Leading up to that  date, Vans will be teaming up with DoSomething.org to rally global fans  to participate in a variety of initiatives focused on getting involved  in community action.

We went on a heavy discussion about how we were let down by Offspring  UK. Our pairs arrived in a torn and crushed bag, AND NOT ONE SET OF  COASTERS! Misery loves company, and we were looking for sympathy. We  didn’t find it in our chat, cause they all received theirs nicely  protected in a double box, with a bag, AND THEY ALL RECEIVED THEIR  COASTERS! We’re heated.

For Show and Tell, Bill came up on an unheard of sample pair of  Stumptown Coffee Roasters Authentics, as well as a few Yoox come-ups.  Joey picked up the Andy Reynolds Skate Half Cabs which are beautiful.   Eddie shared a couple of Japan exclusive Metropolis’, in black and dark  green, as well as a vintage USA pair of white Authentics, with a funky  little stain for character.

You can drop in for the live Twitch stream, every Tuesday (10PM CDT /  8PM PDT), or on our Youtube channel. Audio formats can be found on  Apple podcasts, Spotify, and Anchor.

All views and opinions are strictly our own, and not affiliated with  anything. If we offend any of you, just know that it wasn’t personal,  and we love everyone and everything. Don’t take life so seriously, and  that includes us.

Welcome back peeps! We took a bye week, but we’re back in the flesh to deliver you more nonsense and opinions, with a sprinkling of Vans culture and sneaker related convos to add to the mix. Speaking of mix, thanks to Joey, Bill is going to be providing the tunes for the Burgeon Oasis’ anniversary party on Sunday Oct. 24th, so if you’re a San Diego local, stop by for a “frew brews” –Kanye. Eddie cleaned up and reconfigured his computer, so we started off the show with a little bit of technical maintenance to make sure everything was good to go. Since it’s a live Twitch stream, we have to do it live.

First things first, we shared what we were drinking, and then we got into the bevy of Vans releases coming out. We recapped the Nigel Cabourn pack, and the END Clothing exclusive Style 23 LX. The Horror pack had a few Vans Customs exclusives, with the Gremlins and Beetlejuice options. Journeys also had a few exclusive models to pick from. Next up was the MoCA collection, featuring 4 shoes, with artwork by Ivan Chermayeff and Tom Geismar. We then talked heavily about the Awake NY collab, which is being released through their site, the Greenhouse app, and Footlocker of all places. We’re not 100% all in on this collab, and feel it doesn’t really tie in with the brand’s aesthetic, but who knows. We’re wrong every now and again. A couple of new releases from Vault are coming. First is a Taka Hayashi TH Style 43 LX, featuring some cool 80’s vibes with a wild print, and an embossed logo on the rubber sidewalls, which we dubbed the “Henry” font, as it looks like the Pillowheat font. The other shoe is an OG Lampin LX in two very dope two-tone colorways, Caffe Latte, and Green Machine. We all agree these are super dope.

We then talked about Vans’ “So Much More” initiative. Vans has partnered with four rising visual artists to honor Latinx Heritage Month. ‘So Much More’ works to break down preconceived, one-dimensional notions of Latino identity through each artist’s interpretation of what Latino culture means to them. The featured artists include Colombian American nonbinary artist Marisa Fulper, visual artist and musician Camilo Medina, Chicago-based artist Tatee Garcia and Los Angeles-based painter Daniel Gibson.

Eddie found a cool tidbit about Vans and Pendleton. We originally thought that the Beach Boys plaid was the first pattern used on a Vans collab, but it was actually the red tartan plaid, featured on a pair of Womens’ shoes, originally sold inside Disneyland at the Pendleton store on Main St. Very cool piece of history there.

So for this week’s weekly discussion of “This ain’t Niketalk”, we talk about…NIKE! This time, revolving around more hype culture that is killing the culture, and more lip service from Nike execs, talking about how they want to gain back some of their customers who have left for other brands. They say that the sneaker culture has been gentrified, and we totally agree. We come from that same disenfranchised group that were forced out, but luckily we loved other brands too, and had Vans waiting for us to go all-in with, and we created our own private island to play on, and subsequently to convert more and more people to our beloved Vans. We feel that people evolve and stop putting up with the nonsense, and once they see the richness and authenticity that our Vans community has, they’ll stay here and never look back. We somehow got on a tangent about the finessing of people’s money. NFT’s…Etherium…stuff us old heads don’t know anything about, and just can’t get behind. Spending imaginary money on imaginary things, that are worth whatever the next person is willing to give up, and it’s all being hyped up mostly by people who have a lot to gain from it. Don’t give in! Old heads unite!

You can drop in for the live Twitch stream, every Tuesday (10PM CDT / 8PM PDT), or on our Youtube channel. Audio formats can be found on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and Anchor.

Tonight’s episode opened up with a little bit of pleasantries, and discussing what we’ve been up to for the past week. The mustache game is strong. Joey went back East for his buddy’s wedding. Bill hung out in San Diego last Friday night. Made a special delivery to Joey along the way, before ending up at Harland for their Ube Day event, where he got to meet a few of the OG streetwear / sneakerheads from SD, and enjoy all the festivities going on at the sold out event.

This week’s Vans releases have been pretty slim, so we’ve sort of done a little bit of leaking of info, probably before Vans wanted. First up, we talk about the Vault x Nigel Cabourne collab that was initially leaked by Up There store in Australia, but we’ve been seeing some pairs from the pack show up at a few online retailers in the US as well, so either nobody got the memo, or Vans didn’t set a hard release date for the pack. Next up, we discuss the highly anticipated Horror Pack, featuring some of the most iconic scary movies of all time.

Tangent time! We briefly talk about buying your way into a culture, and also our gripes (and maybe jealousy) about celebrities getting the most hype and rare stuff for free. You should already expect these rants by now.

This weeks recent pickups were pretty amazing. Bill came up on a pair of vintage Made In USA Sk8-Mids in red/green Christmas colors on eBay, in deadstock NOS condition, with the USA hangtag still attached, despite the seller shipping the shoes only inside the vintage USA Vans box, with the damn label slapped on it! You’re dead to us if you do that. Eddie received a pretty big shipment from his Japan proxy, of a few pairs that he’s come up on over the past few months. There was a vintage USA pair, an OG Taka Pendleton TH-Hi LX, and the special release version of the ACU “Hairy Crab” Slip-On, complete with the special basket and utensils. A few others as well. So dope.

This week’s clown call-out was Nike CEO John Donahoe, trying to explain how the SNKRS app exclusive access works, and how he also takes L’s on the app. Riiight. We found some totally awesome, yet totally fake Louis Vuitton Vans on eBay. Sadly, they didn’t offer eBay authentication, so we’re out. We found another eBay listing for the uber-rare Vans Vault x Schwinn Stingray bike. If you’ve got $1500, it can be yours, but beware the pics are pretty bad, so you may want to ask for better ones, before pulling that trigger. Last but not least, Bill did a little bit of closet cleaning, and came across some cool Vans collab socks from the past. A few Stance pairs, as well as some Eric Dressen x Syndicate socks, and a few Disney collabs. We hope you’ve been entertained!

You can drop in for the live Twitch stream, every Tuesday (10PM CDT / 8PM PDT), or you can get caught up later on, by viewing us on our Youtube channel. Audio formats can be found on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and Anchor.

All views and opinions are strictly our own, and not affiliated with anything. If we offend any of you, just know that it wasn’t personal, and we love everyone and everything. Don’t take life so seriously, and that includes us.

Welcome to our new Tuesday night show! Started off with some quick NFL talk, as well as what we were drinking tonight. Our agenda is a little packed, so we jumped right into upcoming releases.

First off, was the Rassvet Skate Bold pack, which looks to be a DSM London exclusive at this point. We immediately got off on a little tangent about an old Gosha Rubchinskiy controversy that just sort of disappeared. You know us. Bringing up old shit! We also mentioned the PACSUN x ASAP Rocky Slip-On and Mule Slip-On that some have been waiting for. Not our cup of tea, but still well received, which sparked another tangent about the current state of sneaker design, or lack there of. Just more “Old Head” talk.

We then talked about how we used to have so much freedom and variety to choose from back in the day. We all bought Nikes of course, but we also dabbled in Vans (at the time), as well as Asics, New Balance, Adidas, and so on…except Reebok Club C’s. You’ll have to listen to the show about that one. Basically, we miss having the options, and not having to worry about every single special release selling out, and having to purchase from the resell market. We talked about the custom bespoke options that Nike offered through their 21 Mercer store, and Bill shared his reservation card that he never got to use, that you would need, in order to gain access.

Back on topic, we discuss the Offspring UK Era that is coming this weekend, and we all want a pair, especially the porcelain tile accessory set that comes with each pair! Such a nice release. Offspring has always done well with their Vans collaborations. We spent a good amount of time talking about the upcoming X-LARGE x Vans Japan Old Skool, and went down memory lane with some of their past collabs that have all been Japan exclusives.

Kourtney Kardashian is in the Vans news this week, showing off hers, or Travis’ SE Blocks Flyer bike, while rocking some Yeezy Powerphases. All good. Her pic got like 1.9 million likes. If you wanted one of those bikes, you can pretty much forget about that now!

Fathom events is bringing back the 80’s cult classic film, RAD, to a theatre near you, for one night only! That’s right. Thurs. Oct. 14that 7PM in your local time zone. You don’t want to miss the chance to watch this on the big screen, along with special commentary and never before seen footage. We can’t wait for this.

Dave, (@sk8supply) has a pretty nice lot of vintage Made In USA Vans up on eBay, mostly in smaller sizes, but we wanted to give him a shout-out. For the past few years he’s been selling off some crazy vintage Vans heat, and we wanted to give him a shout.

We ended our episode with a little bit of a public service announcement. A reminder if you will, to stay humble. Give before you get. Don’t expect anything, and just do shit for the fun of it, not with an end goal. Stay authentic and just be grateful, and not greedy!

You can drop in for the live Twitch stream, every Tuesday (10PM CDT / 8PM PDT), or you can get caught up later on, by viewing us on our Youtube channel. Audio formats can be found on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and Anchor.

All views and opinions are strictly our own, and not affiliated with anything. If we offend any of you, just know that it wasn’t personal, and we love everyone and everything. Don’t take life so seriously, and that includes us.

Welcome to our temporary Wednesday show! After realizing that we were accidentally competing with Clayton’s “Meet the Vans Fam” IG Live time slot, we’ve decided to change it up again, and will be settling in on Tuesdays, starting next week. We obviously weren’t thinking!

We started out discussions with the only Vans drop of the week, the Vans Vault x Noah Caballero VLT LX & Authentic One-Piece VLT LX collection. We absolutely love Noah, and everything they stand for. Their style is all their own, and the earth tone colorways chosen for this collection are absolute fire.

We hit on a few random topics. We talked about Nigo becoming the Artistic Director for Kenzo, which had us reminiscing about our first introduction to A Bathing Ape, the styles back then, and their ridiculously dope retail stores. We paid homage to Norm McDonald, one of the comedy greats from the past few decades. Rest in peace.

We called out another eBay clown, trying to sell a pair of donut-themed custom painted Vans, who’s asking $17,000, lol. Vans friend @myttttt, leaked an image of a possible future Vans Family accessory, a wooden Old Skool ornament, created by Panda Mei, another Vans friend and talented artist who’s worked with Vans Asia quite a bit.

We then got into the big topic for this week, of THE NORDSTROM RACK. We went down memory lane, talking about all of the crazy pickups we found back in the day. We’re talking Vaults, Syndicates, shop collaborations, Supreme Vans, and so much more. Bill had a bunch of pics to share of all of his hauls from back around 2010 and so on, but it honestly only scratched the surface. You can’t miss that segment at about the 41 min. mark. Joey and I talked about all of the Syndicate accessories that were still attached to the shoes, that we would also get with the shoes. Such fun times.

We got off on a tangent about Nikes, as we tend to do sometimes. Sorry, but you have to understand that we came from that culture, and even though we’re jaded by the majority of it, we still can’t help but complain, and talk about the good ‘ol days. Is this Niketalk?!

Eddie shared his recent pickups, of the Blends x Born Free Sk8-Hi Reissue LX in Black. Such a classic shoe that people are sleeping on. Eddie also unboxed his Pokemon Oreos for us. Pokemon got us talking about gaming for a bit. Shoutout to Counter-Strike, Halo 2, Star Craft, and World of Warcraft!

Reminder:  we will be moving to Tuesdays, same time of 10PM CDT / 8PM PDT, for the live stream!!!

You can drop in for the live Twitch stream, every Tuesday (10PM CDT / 8PM PDT), or you can get caught up later on, by viewing us on our Youtube channel. Audio formats can be found on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and Anchor.

All views and opinions are strictly our own, and not affiliated with anything. If we offend any of you, just know that it wasn’t personal, and we love everyone and everything. Don’t take life so seriously, and that includes us.

Some technical glitches at the beginning of the show, caused us to not get it going for a few minutes, but we got that all figured out! Tonight’s conversation starts off with a little bit of craft brew talk, inspired by what we were cracking open tonight. We talked a little bit about what we’ve been up to this past week. Joe went shopping for a new time keeping piece. Bill got outdoorsy and went on a nature hike. Fun stuff.

This weeks releases, include a teaser of an upcoming Sneeze mag collab. The official release of the Vault x Aries collection. The UltraRange EXO Hi Gore-Tex MTE-2, and lastly a Japan exclusive, with manga artist Hisashi Eguchi.

People were asking how do they even purchase these Japan exclusives. Well, luckily Eddie and Joey are well versed in this, and we had a lengthy discussion, perhaps a tutorial, on the process, and shared a few proxy sites they use. We also got some recommendations, tips, and just basically what to expect. Really great info!

Vans company news has been a little light this week. We briefly mentioned the Vans “Musicians Wanted” contest has been narrowed down to the top 5 finalists in each of the 3 regions it was held in. Pretty cool to see Vans still finding ways to support music, since Warped Tour is gone.

For “show and tell” this week, Ed shared his latest pickups, the 2007 release of the RAD pack. He somehow found both the Sk8-Hi and Era in DS condition, complete with that dope red and white box you never see. Bill completed his Bedwin & the Heartbreakers set, by way of the Navy and Red pairs of Authentics, copped on sale from UNKNWN. He also shared some accessories for the viewers. A random sports squeeze bottle, and the super dope Penn tennis balls that were briefly offered via the Vans Family app. Joey and Kaye got a really sweet gift from another friend in the Vans community, @DJ_Reposar, a Vans checkerboard themed baby book, for their Isabella!

We got off on a tangent about ComfyCush, which brought up Proper’s ComfyCush collaboration from a few years back, and just how that entire concept was so dope, and original. From the one of one designs, to the way they released them in-store. We then reminisced about Proper’s earlier Vans collabs, and just how dope and original they were. From the Satins, to the Nautical Pack, to the Buffalo leathers, and so on. Shout out to Mike Pham and the team over at Proper in Long Beach, and Houston!

We started getting into a little bit of Nordstrom Rack comeups from back in the day, which we decided to stop there, as we will need much more time to discuss this topic, and share some of our most amazing finds. We also went down HUF memory lane for a few minutes just before we ended.

Reminder:  we will be moving to Wednesdays, same time of 10PM CDT / 8PM PDT, for the live stream!!!

You can drop in for the live Twitch stream, every Wednesday (10PM CDT / 8PM PDT), or you can get caught up later on, by viewing us on our Youtube channel. Audio formats can be found on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and Anchor.

All views and opinions are strictly our own, and not affiliated with anything. If we offend any of you, just know that it wasn’t personal, and we love everyone and everything. Don’t take life so seriously, and that includes us.

Tonight’s episode jumps off with our first ever guest on the show, our Vans brother, Dave Metcalf aka @nu_dav. He shared his awesome experience with SE Bikes, after having his Vans PK Ripper order cancelled, which ended up with a personal call from Perry Kramer (Mr. PK Ripper, himself), confirming that he will be taken care of. You gotta listen to the whole story. We then have Dave show and tell a few of his Vans accessories , which included an entire set of Vans Vault x Taka Hayashi “Skate Monkey” decks, and a few other rare and obscure Vans pieces you just have to see.

We discuss the latest shoe drops, including the Vault x Taka Hayashi Amzn Trl V3 LX, a new hiking boot, that gives us some heavy 90’s outdoorsy inspiration. Another Taka joint to show up, is the TH Epoch Racer LX, inspired by 70’s auto racing. The Anaheim Factory collection flies in under the radar with a Pendleton pack, featuring two Sk8-Hi Reissue DX’s, and two Authentic 44 DX’s, in a Beach Boys plaid, and a Royal Stewart Tartan plaid colorway. We also get a little history lesson from the Twitch livestream chat, by way of Todd, on the reference to the Beach Boys plaid name. The Andrew Reynolds Skate pack has been pushed back, but we still talked about how dope it is, and Joey went on a little tangent about what Andrew Reynolds meant to him as a kid.

Some of our recent pickups were discussed. Mainly, thanks to the homie Julio Duran, who while at Born Free, discovered that Blends were selling a few pairs of their Padres and Angels Vans, from the Vault x MLB collection from over 10 years ago, alongside the Born Free Vans. He reached out to Joey, and Bill, and they both secured something from that shocking surprise. Eddie shared his Supreme x Public Enemy Black Sk8-Hi’s, and Vault Mickey Authentics. Bill’s recent pickups were the jjjjound black Sk8-Mids, and a sample pair of Raising Cane’s Old Skools.

We never really mention the “clown callouts” here on our summary, but there was a good one this week from eBay. A seller had listed a pair of Slip-Ons, supposedly worn by Kid Rock, but there is absolutely no provenance to the shoe. The photos are crudely cropped, and the kicker was the price being set at $420.69. Secretly, we think it’s Joey’s listing. We were dying.

Lastly, we close out the show with a nice find for our listeners. There’s a sale going on, and there are deals to be had, from a certain retailer out of Miami. They got Taka’s, and Bedwins for $60, amongst some other steals. Listen in and find out.

You can drop in for the live Twitch stream, every Thursday (10PM CDT / 8PM PDT), or you can get caught up later on, by viewing us on our Youtube channel. Audio formats can be found on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and Anchor.

All views and opinions are strictly our own, and not affiliated with anything. If we offend any of you, just know that it wasn’t personal, and we love everyone and everything. Don’t take life so seriously, and that includes us.

We start off tonight’s episode with Bill spilling half his Belching Beaver x Deftones “Phantom Bride” IPA while opening it, which sparked a quick discussion about everyone’s favorite Deftones song, while Bill cleaned up his spill. Then a quick discussion on what hats we were wearing.

Shoe releases for this week include the wild and out of left field, Vault Boot Skoot LX, and we give our “Old Head” opinions on it. Blends and Born-Free are back again for 2021, but the details are still vague. Blends posted up a teaser, then took it down, then put up another one. Rumors are that it’s the same shoe as last year, but we will know soon. We went down the list of past Born-Free Vans. The SE Bikes collab release was a little messy, and needed to be addressed.

Following up with last week’s collaboration episode, and our wish to see a The Hundreds shoe, Eddie reached out to Bobby Hundreds, and we got a surprising, and definitely not expected response in regards to that. Basically, we’ll probably never see a Vans x TH shoe. We talk about Tony Hawk’s new edgy collab with Liquid Death, as well as his Vert Alert skate jam in Utah.

More Old Head talk, but we assure you that “This Ain’t Nike Talk”. We are confused about eBay’s TopStar sneaker buying program, and we want answers! Bill had a conference call with the Vans Family team, and wasn’t allowed to say much, but did confirm that there will be another #31DAYSOFVANS shoe for next year. We talk about our wishes of possibly a Vans-hosted gathering for the wrap-up as well. That segued nicely into a topic about Vans accessories and merch, and Bill shared a few of his pieces, including the latest Vans Fam luggage tag, the vintage Vans POGS, a Vans x Civilist espresso cup and saucer, and an unreleased Greg Hunt promo postcard book from Vans Syndicate. Whether they were from the Vans Family program, through friends and family, officially released, or not. We will make this a regular recurring topic. We’ve been collecting this shit for years.

Lastly, we give a shout-out to our boy Scotty D, and his episode of “Meet the Vans Fam” with Clayton @wearingwaffles. We learned a lot of stuff we never knew about Scotty, and we’ve been friends for over 10 years lol. We also give major props to Clayton, for doing something original, and staying authentic. He definitely passes the vibe check and is invited to the cook-out!

You can drop in for the live Twitch stream, every Thursday (10PM CDT / 8PM PDT), or you can get caught up later on, by viewing us on our Youtube channel. Audio formats can be found on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and Anchor.

All views and opinions are strictly our own, and not affiliated with anything. If we offend any of you, just know that it wasn’t personal, and we love everyone and everything. Don’t take life so seriously, and that includes us.

Tonight’s episode was fun. Started out with a little bit of new releases, including the Vault x Aries collection, and how wild that pack is. Other releases discussed were the Hockey Andrew Allen Authentic Hi’s, the Thalia Surf “20th Anniversary” Collection, and the latest Vault VLT shoe to come out, the Dream Leather Sk8-Hi Reissue VLT LX. We’re also anticipating the Vans x SE Bikes to be dropping next week, but be prepared to fork out $1k for them!

We give Henry (The Other Side of the Pillow) a shout-out, for having Jason Mamoa (Aquaman) stop into his shop, where he picked up a few vintage pairs for him and his family. Pretty cool stuff right there. That segued into Bill sharing his most recent pickup, and perhaps one of his holiest grails, a pair of vintage Made In USA Vans Breakers. He has always wanted a pair, but figured they were already such a niche shoe, that he’d never come across them for sale. Well that luck changed last week, when he found a seller from Texas, who had a sz5.5 up on eBay. After a little bit of pleading, and begging, a deal was struck. Such an amazing find. He talked about buying an ad cut-out off of eBay back when he first started OTWS of the Vans Breakers, just because of how cool it was, that Vans made shoes for breakdancing. He can probably frame it now, along with the shoes!

We finally got to discussing collabs, and some of the brands we’d like to see in the future. Brands that just seem to be a no-brainer to us. We surprised each other, with Eddie’s first pick, which was also on both Joey and Bill’s list, of The Hundreds. Why hasn’t this collab happened yet? For Bill’s next pick, he chose SoCal Burger institution, In-N-Out. They need to put down those silly knock-off slip-ons they currently sell, and get with the other SoCal staple, Vans, for a proper collection. It needs to be sold in the In-N-Out store, as well as online, and it needs to always be in stock. Done deal. Joey, picked another SoCal heavy hitter brand, BornxRaised. They’re probably the brand that is most tapped into SoCal street/hood culture right now. Vans could use a little boost in that scene right now. Get all these kids away from the types of sneakers that are taking their lives, and teach them a little thing about being authentic, and forging your own path. Bill, then had a vague idea, for a collab with something car culture related. It could be from any genre. Hot Rods, Lowriders, Imports, etc. SoCal is rich with car culture, and most car trends start here. Vans has worked with Mooneyes since their early days, so something along those lines, but perhaps with another speed shop, or parts brand. Heck, maybe even an organization like NHRA or NASCAR? Eddie finished off our collab wishlist with one that we should’ve all had on our lists…KAWS! Yes, Kaws has lent his artwork to Vans before, for The Simpsons project, but perhaps something fresh and independent. The signature XX’s or a Companion character perhaps? Chompers! Or, something entirely new! Either way, that one would be epic.

That’s about it folks. Thanks for listening to us ramble on and rant!

You can drop in for the live Twitch stream, every Thursday (10PM CDT / 8PM PDT), or you can get caught up later on, by viewing us on our Youtube channel. Audio formats can be found on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and Anchor.

All views and opinions are strictly our own, and not affiliated with anything. If we offend any of you, just know that it wasn’t personal, and we love everyone and everything. Don’t take life so seriously, and that includes us.

Tonight’s episode starts off with a little bit of explaining to do. Let’s just say, things didn’t go exactly as planned for this past Saturday’s Wafflehead Summit at Blends Costa Mesa. Although Eddie had made it out to SoCal safely, he had a little bit of a health scare shortly after arriving, and we thought he was having a nice “trip” while staying at an AirBNB out in the local San Diego mountains, lol. We discuss what he missed out on. Joey is now officially a dad, and we welcomed Joey and Kay’s new baby girl, Isabella Jo into the world and on to our podcast for a few seconds. She was a little milk wasted, so she had to run. Talked a little bit about Clayton’s SoCal visit, which is sort of what this was all about from the start. Bill got to tag along with him, on his tour around Vans HQ, thanks to Steve Van Doren’s right hand man, “NEWKON”. It was fun just seeing Clayton take it all in, in amazement.

This week’s Vans releases include the Vault x FDMTL pack, the Vault x JJJJound OG Sk8-Mid LX, the Kids of Immigrants Old Skool, and finally the upcoming Sneakersnstuff OG Authentic LX.

We derailed our Vans talk, as we normally do, to talk about more sneaker bullshit in the mainstream “culture”, mainly the deadly shooting at the Shoe Palace store on Melrose, in Los Angeles, over a damn Jordan 1 raffle. We wonder what or if there is a solution to all this stuff? Would a deeper love for the brand and the core collecting culture make a difference? Everything just seems to be a transaction these days. That led us to another topic about Copdate, and their entire program. Paying money to boost your chances at being picked? There’s just so many side hustles out there, figuring out how to make money off of everyone.

We jump back into some Vans talk, to talk, well…about fake Vans? Mainly some “OFF-WHITE” customs on eBay. Not much to say there, but we did notice the seller has them signed up for the eBay authentication services, and Joey was seriously entertaining the idea of buying them, to see what their results will be.

We closed our convo, by sending off Bill’s cousin Mike, who sadly passed away last week at the age of 29. He will live on in our hearts and minds as a chill and cool dude, who was always fun to be around. We’ll miss you man!

You can drop in for the live Twitch stream, every Thursday (10PM CDT / 8PM PDT), or you can get caught up later on, by viewing us on our Youtube channel. Audio formats can be found on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and Anchor.

All views and opinions are strictly our own, and not affiliated with anything. If we offend any of you, just know that it wasn’t personal, and we love everyone and everything. Don’t take life so seriously, and that includes us.

First off, we’re just gonna come out and admit that we don’t know what the fuck is going on with our recordings. This week, Eddie has this weird echo. I (Bill), had to join in via my phone and airpods, so I sound different, and Joe came in crystal clear, even when he thought he was muted, lol! Sorry. We suck. We know it. This was supposed to be the “collaboration wishlist” episode, but we got majorly side tracked. We went down a rabbit hole of sorts, talking about our earliest memories of buying sneakers, mainly Nike SB, cause that’s where we came from. We also discussed more things we just don’t understand about the mainstream sneaker culture, and our own experiences at the time. Some of y’all were there as well, so enjoy a little bit of Nike talk, but remember, “This Ain’t Nike Talk!”

So, this is the last week for 31 Days of Vans, so we will have to start finding something new to open the show with. Help us come up with some topics! We discussed the Civilist Skate Sk8-Low that came out. Bill shared his recent XXL Bedwin Hoodie come-up, and pleaded that Vault stockists order more XXL’s in all the Vault apparel, cause it seems to disappear first. Eddie showed his pair of Bedwin & the Heartbreakers Multi-color Authentic. The Metallica pack came and went, and seem to have all ended up on eBay. No shocker there. Bill also shared a Vans Customs Skate Old Skool that he made, in the classic STV Navy colorway, but adding a few checkerboard graphics to it.

We gave a shop shout-out to Eddie’s home state of Tennessee’s first Vault retailer, Rooted, who carry a bunch of the high fashion labels that are known today.

Lastly, we remind you all that there will be no episode this coming Thursday, as we’ll be meeting up for a live podcast at Blends Costa Mesa, for a Waffle Heads Summit on Saturday August 7th at 3PM, featuring Clayton (@wearingwaffles), Eddie (@strictlywaffles), Bill (@djguamstyles @underthepalms), Dave (@nu_dav), and a bunch more of our homies. Please come down and chop it up with us!

You can drop in for the live Twitch stream, every Thursday (10PM CDT / 8PM PDT), or you can get caught up later on, by viewing us on our Youtube channel. Audio formats can be found on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and Anchor.

All views and opinions are strictly our own, and not affiliated with anything. If we offend any of you, just know that it wasn’t personal, and we love everyone and everything. Don’t take life so seriously, and that includes us. -- Watch live at https://www.twitch.tv/theauthenticera

This is the Band Collabs episode. After a brief discussion on Ep.3 about band collabs, and just bands in general, we decided to dedicate pretty much an entire episode to some of our favorite past band collaborations with Vans, including the likes of Bad Religion, H2O, Iron Maiden, Sublime, Descendants, Public Enemy, and Bad Brains just to name a few. We talked about Nice Kicks’ re-release of some major band collabs for Ausin, TX’s SXSW festival back in 2012, and then Vans doing it again in 2014.

We talk about the recent SE Bikes shoe release, and still want to know where the BMX bikes are at? We’re waiting! We’re also patiently waiting for the Bedwin & the Heartbreakers Vault collab to officially drop, even though some shops have been fucking up and releasing them early! Also, did you know that there were only 400 pairs made of the “31 Days of Vans” Half Cab?

Finally, we tried out a new topic this episode, where we shared a few steals we came across over on Proper’s website. We’ll try to do this more, as we come across more TAE-worthy deals. This is a part of any great collecting community!

Don’t forget, next week we won’t be doing a Thursday stream, as we’ll be meeting up live in person, on Saturday August 7th around 3PM PDT, at Blends Costa Mesa, for a Waffleheads summit, including some of our closest Vans fam. Expect Clayton (@wearingwaffles), Eddie (@strictlywaffles), and a bunch of others to be hanging out, and chopping it up about Vans. There may be an exclusive reveal of an upcoming shoe as well, so who knows! Tune in. We may have a few goodies to hand out, as well as some tees. Who knows!

You can drop in for the live Twitch stream, every Thursday (10PM CDT / 8PM PDT), or you can get caught up later on, by viewing us on our Youtube channel. Audio formats can be found on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and Anchor.

All views and opinions are strictly our own, and not affiliated with anything. If we offend any of you, just know that it wasn’t personal, and we love everyone and everything. Don’t take life so seriously, and that includes us.

Tonight, we start out with a little bit of technical work. The last  episodes had Bill and Joey sounding a little low, but I think we’ve  figured it out!

The 31 Days of Vans Skate Half Cab was the first topic of discussion.  Everyone agrees that these were awesome, and such a great surprise. We  then get into some favorite picks for #31daysofvans, which transitioned  into talking about band or artist collabs we’d like to see. That then  led into some stories about the punk rock scene, and how sneakers tied  into that. Eddie and Joey can talk an entire episode about that stuff.  Then a little bit of baseball talk came up, inspired by Eddie’s Vault x  Bodega x Boston Red Sox Authentics he posted for 31 Days, which then got  us reminiscing about the Vault x MLB collab back in 2010.

Upcoming release talks included the Sole Classics “Carmen 2” DIY  Authentic, Christopher Martin & Olivia Krause Old Skool, the Taka TH  Style 47 LX, Bedwin & the Heartbreakers collection, the Dime  Wayvee, and the Patta x Vans Vault collection.

We finished with a topic that Daniel Chow (akamedaniel) brought up in  Strictly Waffles Facebook group, in regards to Hot Rod not carrying  Vaults anymore. There was quite a bit of opinions in the thread, so we  decided to speak on it, respectfully, from our personal points of view,  based on our own experiences and from what others have come to us with,  privately.

Lastly, we announced we will be hosting a Waffleheads meetup at  Blends Costa Mesa on Saturday August 7th, in the afternoon. Expect to  hang with Eddie (@strictlywaffles), Bill (@underthepalms), Clayton  (@wearingwaffles), Dave (@nu_dav), Daniel (@akamedaniel), and many more  of your usual Vans suspects!

You can drop in for the live Twitch stream, every Thursday (10PM CDT /  8PM PDT), or you can get caught up later on, by viewing us on our  Youtube channel.

All views and opinions are strictly our own, and not affiliated with  anything. If we offend any of you, just know that it wasn’t personal,  and we love everyone and everything. Don’t take life so seriously, and  that includes us.

We start off with a little bit of craft beer talk, and Joey’s connection to that industry. Then we dive into #31daysofvans, and feature a few cool posts, which gets us talking about some past cool releases, like the PBR Vans, and the Disney collection. New releases for the week, include the Patta Black Cats, Madhappy’s 2nd release, A$AP Rocky Mules, and a few others. Talked about the Musicians Wanted contest. Talked a little shit about SNKRS app and their Exclusive Access criteria.  Did some free promo for some ridiculous eBay sellers. Had some good interaction with the live chat stream as well. Thanks to our 14 viewers, lol!

All views and opinions are strictly our own, and not affiliated with anything. If we offend any of you, just know that it wasn’t personal, and we love everyone and everything. Don’t take life so seriously, and that includes us.

We finally got our first podcast / live stream / Youtube video off the ground, but naturally with a few hiccups. We did a few brief intros. More to come on that in the future, for sure. We kicked off #31DaysofVans, and discussed how cool it is to finally have Vans on board with it, and a little bit on how that came about. Mentioned the upcoming anticipated releases from Palace, NBHD, and a few others. Thanks for putting up with the growing pains. We always appreciate the destructive criticism, so be sure to comment what you think! Keep us accountable, before we run this train right off the rails. 

You can drop in for the live Twitch stream, every Thursday (10PM CDT / 8PM PDT), or you can get caught up later on, by viewing us on our Youtube channel. All views and opinions are strictly our own, and not affiliated with anything. If we offend any of you, just know that it wasn’t personal, and we love everyone and everything. Don’t take life so seriously, and that includes us.

All views and opinions are strictly our own, and not affiliated with  anything. If we offend any of you, just know that it wasn’t personal,  and we love everyone and everything. Don’t take life so seriously, and  that includes us.