The Sneaker Community Lost Its Home Today. I'm Building a New One.

200,000 members. 1.8 million followers. Nowhere to go.

Today, the @SoleCollector Instagram account (1.8 million followers built on sneaker culture) was converted to a Complex Bets gambling page.

SC was a huge part of my journey. It was my community. I worked for Sole Collector. I was part of the forums that once had over 200,000 registered members. And I’ve been watching this happen slowly for years, but today makes it official. That community doesn’t have a home anymore.

So I’m building one.

I bought SoleCollector.org. I’m calling it the SC Community. The name could change, but I wanted to start building today… a place for collectors and sneakerheads who don’t care about sponsorships, betting, or follower counts, and just want somewhere on the internet to talk about shoes with people who feel the same way. A forum, a newsletter, collector spotlights, shoe identification, and meetups. The stuff that made the original community worth showing up for.

I want to be honest: I don’t fully know how to make this work yet. But I know what it’s for.

“Sole Knows” Sole Collector x Nike Air Max Trainer 1

And for what it’s worth, this morning, when I saw the handle had been switched, I reached out to Joe La Puma and asked if there was any chance I could have the old account. I even offered to use it to support the sneaker stories that Complex still does. I know that’s a strange ask. Complex still plans to use it, but I told them that if it ever just sits dormant, I’d love to be the one to archive what’s left of Sole Collector’s stories, collabs, and community history. We’ll see.

Here’s the thing: these are not my stories to tell. They’re yours. They’re ours. The collective of our experiences, everyone who was on those forums, everyone who bought the magazine, everyone who showed up to the events, everyone who found their people through that community.

If you’re reading this and want to be a part of rebuilding it, there are two things I’d ask:

Subscribe to the SC Community newsletter, which is separate from this one. The Sneaker Newsletter will stay focused on the business and industry side of things. SC Community is the cultural companion: forum highlights, community spotlights, who’s wearing what in the community, and a podcast focused on the people and stories behind the shoes.

Hit reply and let me know you’re in. If you want to contribute, write, share your collection, or just be an early part of something being built from scratch, I want to hear from you.

Send this to your friends. Let them take a trip down memory lane.

-Nick

SoleCollector.org (forum coming soon)

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P.S. If you have old Sole Collector forum screenshots, magazine issues, or memories worth preserving, I want to hear about them. That history deserves to exist somewhere.