MISSION

Founded in 2012, the Sneaker Museum  is dedicated to presenting innovative, educational and artistic programming elevating sneaker art and culture. Our mission is to provide insight into the multifaceted heritage of sneaker culture through our permanent collection, artistic exhibitions, educational programs and institutional partnerships. The Sneaker Museum aims to enrich the sneaker ecosystem and serve its diverse audiences as an independent and dynamic organization providing learning through history, sports and the arts.

WORDS FROM THE COLLECTOR & FOUNDER

"I was Spider Man that day. The day I put on my first pair of Nike Air Jordans."

The day I put on my first pair I was invincible— able to leap tall hoops in a single bound. Who needs a cape when you've got Air Jordans?

This fervor for the shoes, and all they represent, began in the 70's and 80’s when I was a kid. 

My early love of all sports, soon narrowed down into a singular obsession with basketball. It seems like I spent most of my youth in the Boston Gardens witnessing the hoop heroics of great players like Earl the Pearl, Kareem, Oscar, and Walt Frasier. Then Michael Jordan bounded on to the court and transformed the game. I was snake-bit by MJ’s talent and positive cool. To an adolescent searching for his identity through talented heroes he was an approachable hero who could really fly without a cape. 

In 1984, Nike finally debuted Jordan's new line of sneakers and apparel. A radical innovation of style, color, and attitude, Air Jordan ruffled a scruffy landscape with the mind blowing momentum of the Beatles' British invasion of the 60’s. 

When my infatuation with the player became a devotion to the Jordan brand, which had an immense impact on sports and American culture, my collection grew and grew and grew!  

"What are you going to do with all those sneakers? You only have two feet!” I can still hear my concerned dad asking, staring into my cluttered bedroom bursting with memorabilia and Nike boxes. Back then I didn’t have a good answer for him but today I could show him The Sneaker Museum, a time capsule of the artistic expression of an era, and an intimate view into the mega-branding of an athlete-hero. 

I think my dad, my first role model and hero, would have loved this journey.