The Complex Sneakers Podcast

The Complex Sneakers Podcast is co-hosted by Joe La Puma, Brendan Dunne, and Matt Welty. They are joined this week by Kith founder Ronnie Fieg, who brings with him some exclusive Asics collaborations to unveil around his brand's 10-year anniversary celebrations. In addition to breaking down the "Salmon Toe" and "Leatherback" Asics Gel Lyte Vs, he talks about how much supply chain issues...

The Complex Sneakers Podcast is co-hosted by Joe La Puma, Brendan Dunne, and Matt Welty. This week, they bring on professional BMX rider and friend of the program Nigel Sylvester for a conversation from ComplexCon. Sylvester discusses the new deal he signed with Jordan Brand, his days going into Supreme to buy SB Dunks, and his love of the Air Jordan 1. Also, the three cohosts talk about the best...

The Complex Sneakers Podcast is co-hosted by Joe La Puma, Brendan Dunne, and Matt Welty. This week, they welcome back a friend of the show Premium Pete, a renaissance man who's gone from sneaker retail to podcasting to pasta sauce to acting and everywhere in between. Pete joins the crew to share footwear stories—like how he got Air Force 1s while locked up or his stash of 400 pairs of MF Doom x Ni...

The Complex Sneakers Podcast is co-hosted by Joe La Puma, Brendan Dunne, and Matt Welty. This week, the trio return from their brief week off to discuss smaller sneaker brands like Hoka and Salomon as well as generally recap the sneaker-related things they've been up to. This includes some reminiscing on the golden era of soccer cleats, stories of run-ins with sneaker industry insiders like Steven...

The Complex Sneakers Podcast is co-hosted by Joe La Puma, Brendan Dunne, and Matt Welty. In this week's episode, they are joined by Jim Moore, the legendary GQ creative director who spent four decades at the magazine shaping how men in America dress. Moore talks through his career and points in it where sneakers interacted with his work, from shooting with Michael Jordan in the late 1980s to helpi...

The Complex Sneakers Podcast is co-hosted by Joe La Puma, Brendan Dunne, and Matt Welty. In this week's episode, the trio is joined by Bernie Gross, creative director at New York sneaker boutique Extra Butter. Gross recalls his journey in the footwear industry, from buying SBs at stores like Special Sauce in Long Island to helping longstanding LI sneaker shop Renarts establish itself ane...

The Complex Sneakers Podcast is co-hosted by Joe La Puma, Brendan Dunne, and Matt Welty. In this week's episode, the trio is joined by Abdul, sneaker scene mainstay with powerful friends and a powerful collection. You may not know exactly who Abdul is or what he does, but you've definitely seen him in the background or at the front of the line at footwear happenings around the world. In the episod...

The Complex Sneakers Podcast is co-hosted by Joe La Puma, Brendan Dunne, and Matt Welty. In this week's episode, the hosts discuss how big their personal sneaker collections are and how often they've reached the point of having to downsize. What do you do when you have too many sneakers? Is a storage unit for your shoes really a good idea? What's the best way to donate footwear that you're not usi...

The Complex Sneakers Podcast is co-hosted by Joe La Puma, Brendan Dunne, and Matt Welty. In this week’s episode, it’s just the three guys debating their pick for the sneaker of the summer for 2021. Dunne makes a case for Nike Dunks, as a whole, being his choice, while Joe brings up why the Travis Scott Jordan 1s were a force to be reckoned with. Welty sides with Dunne, but zooms in on Vi...

The Complex Sneakers Podcast is co-hosted by Joe La Puma, Brendan Dunne, and Matt Welty. In this week's episode, the hosts are joined by battle rapper Conceited, who is a longtime cast member on MTV's Wild 'N Out. He goes into his sneaker history, recalling the time he lost a pair of "True Blue" Air Jordan 3s in high school, the fakes he used to spot people in, and how much time and mone...

The Complex Sneakers Podcast is co-hosted by Joe La Puma, Brendan Dunne, and Matt Welty. In this week's episode, the hosts are joined by Dennis Todisco, the lead of streetwear and sneaker partnerships at Instagram. Todisco brings with him stories from his long time in the industry that stretch from the era of selling Dead Serious hoodies at Karmaloop to the dawn of the Nike SNKRs app to...

The Complex Sneakers Podcast is co-hosted by Joe La Puma, Brendan Dunne, and Matt Welty. In this week's episode, the hosts are discuss the history of Travis Scott's sneaker collaborations, from his Air Force 1s to his Air Jordan 4s all the way up to his most recent projects, his duo of Jordan 1s made with Fragment Design. The hosts discuss their favorite sneakers that Travis has released and which...

The Complex Sneakers Podcast is co-hosted by Joe La Puma, Brendan Dunne, and Matt Welty. In this week's episode, the hosts are joined by Bobby Hundreds, co-founder of the Hundreds, to discuss how footwear can exist in the metaverse. Bobby breaks down his thoughts on sneakers as NFTs and expounds on his idea that a screenshot of a "Got Em" on SNKRS for a pair of Travis Scott x Fragment x Air Jordan...

The Complex Sneakers Podcast is co-hosted by Joe La Puma, Brendan Dunne, and Matt Welty. This week, the three co-hosts sit down with Mache, a sneaker customizer who has done work for rappers like Wale, NFL stars like Stefon Diggs, and wrestlers like Kofi Kingston. Mache reacts to Nike's recent lawsuits against custom sneaker designers, explaining how he thinks those entities could move differently...

The Complex Sneakers Podcast is co-hosted by Joe La Puma, Brendan Dunne, and Matt Welty. This week, the three co-hosts sit down with Chris Vidal, one of the original employees at Flight Club and an outspoken figure in the New York City sneaker scene, to trade stories past and present. Vidal contrasts the sneaker resell world of then vs. now, remembers selling the “Justin Bieber” sneakers at Supra,...

The Complex Sneakers Podcast is co-hosted by Joe La Puma, Brendan Dunne, and Matt Welty. This week, the three co-hosts sit down with DJ Clark Kent for his second appearance on the show to discuss the recent Sotheby's auction sale of the Scarr's x Nike Air Force 1 for $121,000. Clark, who designed the shoe with Nike, talks about his feelings about the price, the upcoming Louis Vuitton x Nike Air Fo...

The Complex Sneakers Podcast is co-hosted by Joe La Puma, Brendan Dunne, and Matt Welty. This week, the three co-hosts countdown the 10 best sneakers of the year so far. In selecting the shoes they also break down the criteria and go behind some of the arguments that go into deciding Complex's sneaker lists. How high does the Trophy Room x Air Jordan 1 deserve to be? What's the best New Balance so...

The Complex Sneakers Podcast is co-hosted by Joe La Puma, Brendan Dunne, and Matt Welty. This week, the three co-hosts talk to Steven Smith, a legendary sneaker designer who's worked at New Balance, Adidas, Fila, Reebok, Nike, and more. While Smith was for many years best known as the creator of the Reebok Insta Pump Fury, he's recently reignited his portfolio by leading sneaker design for Kanye W...

The Complex Sneakers Podcast is co-hosted by Joe La Puma, Brendan Dunne, and Matt Welty. This week, the three co-hosts talk to Drew Greer, a sneaker industry veteran who started at Nike back in 1994 and helped pioneer its strategy around limited edition and retro footwear. Greer’s long resume includes important shoes like the Wu Tang x Nike Dunk High and the Roc-a-Fella x Nike Air Force...

The Complex Sneakers Podcast is co-hosted by Joe La Puma, Brendan Dunne, and Matt Welty. This week, the three co-hosts talk to former NFL Giant and Super Bowl winner Victor Cruz about his sneaker resume. Cruz talks about how he got his own Nike shoe, getting royalties on every pair sold, and the lengths he's gone to to get shoes. He even reveals some details about former teammate Odell Beckham Jr....

The Complex Sneakers Podcast is co-hosted by Joe La Puma, Brendan Dunne, and Matt Welty. This week, the three co-hosts discuss Virgil Abloh's growing body of Off-White x Nike sneakers, starting at the first release of The Ten in 2017 and extending to the upcoming 50 set of Dunks. How big of an impact have sneakers like the Off-White x Air Jordan 1 had on collaborations and Nike's approac...

The Complex Sneakers Podcast is co-hosted by Joe La Puma, Brendan Dunne, and Matt Welty. This week, the three co-hosts are joined by Jesse Leyva, a Nike veteran who spent 20 years at the company creating some of its coolest sneakers. As the design director at Nike Sportswear and later the creative director in charge of Nike SB and Nike ACG, he was responsible for sneaker collaborations w...

The Complex Sneakers Podcast is co-hosted by Joe La Puma, Brendan Dunne, and Matt Welty. This week, the three co-hosts discuss the Nike Dunk, a retro sneaker from 1985 that’s been huge in the past year thanks to SB collaborations and inline styles. But is Nike over-saturating the market with the shoes or should they keep making more? The co-hosts discuss their personal history with Dunks, current...

The Complex Sneakers Podcast is co-hosted by Joe La Puma, Brendan Dunne, and Matt Welty. This week they're joined by sneaker industry veteran Jon Wexler to talk about his 18 years at Adidas, which included working with Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady and most notoriously signing Kanye West in 2013. He discusses his time with Yeezy and some of the craziest and most notorious moments with the brand, a...

The Complex Sneakers Podcast is co-hosted by Joe La Puma, Brendan Dunne, and Matt Welty. This week, the three co-hosts talk to graffiti writer and graphic designer Haze. The artist talks about his long history working on collaboration sneakers, from his New Balance 574 to his Nike Air Force 1 to the set of Dunks he did in 2003. Haze also discusses building his brand and connecting with J...