When Sneakerheads Meet Motorheads | GQ

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The 29-year-old Wair, who’s been skating skillfully for a decade (he was Thrasher magazine’s Skater of the Year in 2013, the first Black skater to declare the honor), picked up his 1986 Porsche 911 G-body Carrera a number of years in the past. He claims the calculus was basic: “I was like, ‘I want a Porsche. I assume Porsches are ill. I might instead get 1 now than when I am more mature. You under no circumstances know how life is heading to go. Fuck it. I’m just likely to get this matter.’ So I located it on eBay and pulled the set off.”

At very first glance, they may well appear to be like an odd duo: Walker with his wizard beard and elder statesman mien, fresh-confronted Wair with all the strength and shine one particular would be expecting of a incredibly prosperous millennial. But in addition to 911s, they share a different curiosity. Both of those are steeped in sneaker lifestyle and were being set in touch by executives at Nike Skateboarding, who transpired to be Porsche fanatics, with the plan that the duo might be capable to style a shoe collectively. Wair, who is sponsored by Nike, has generally been very invested in the creative procedure for the shoes that bear his name. When it arrived time to design and style his most up-to-date model, the folks at Nike—who experienced taken their individual tour of Walker’s garage in L.A.’s Arts District—thought the two 911 obsessives would make a dynamic imaginative staff.

“I’ve owned almost certainly sixty 911s, and if I’m only preserving 1, I’m not contemplating about which it is. It truly is 277.”

Magnus Walker

The novel pairing is testament to the increasing overlap concerning the worlds of streetwear and classic autos. Puma has produced a line of sneakers encouraged by the 911 Turbo, and Aimé Leon Dore, the Queens-centered streetwear label, has established a Porsche-themed traces of tees, pullovers, and jackets, and tailored a pair of hanging 911 Carreras, a single of which was shown at Jeffrey Deitch gallery in New York.

Is it any surprise, genuinely, that these brand names would see a kinship in sneakerheads and vehicle collectors? They’re twin creatures, focused on fashion and structure, looking for unusual and surprising finds, savvily scrolling Instagram and on the internet auction homes. Certainly, world-wide-web forums for Porsche hunters have remodeled an constantly lively vintage market place into a person that is now red-scorching. “Vintage Porsches have in no way been sitting around on applied car or truck a lot,” says Terry Shea, the head of Hemmings Auctions, “but 10 many years in the past the market definitely took off. Autos that had been $10,000 grew to become $30,000 cars and trucks, and $30,000 autos became $60,000. Values have long gone up, and they’re holding their value.” Bring a Trailer, the on the internet auction property introduced in 2014, has sold additional Porsches than any other make of car, more than half of them 911s. “The marque has prolonged been a preferred amid our neighborhood,” says Howard Swig, the site’s head of auctions, “and it can be no surprise the collector Porsche marketplace is booming again.”