The Ultra Boost Is a 1989 Shoe
Amado Rodriguez Jr. of Encyclopedia Sneakérica on Bad Bunny, B-Boy Culture, and Why Sneakers Still Connect Us
I had a guest on the podcast this week who held up six pairs of shoes to the camera during our conversation.
Not to flex. Not to sell them. Just to show me what he was talking about.
Amado Rodriguez Jr. runs The Official Encyclopedia Sneakérica and goes by The Sneaker Profiler. He’s been writing deep-cut sneaker history for years with basically no interest in being famous for it. A B-boy whose parents came from Puerto Rico, a military veteran, a marathon runner, and probably the most knowledgeable person I’ve talked to about running shoe technology since I started doing this. He held up an Osaga retro from 1976, an SL 72, a ZX 8000, a Saucony Jazz 81, a Wales Bonner collab, and an adidas Rivalry from a Milwaukee shop... and by the end of the conversation I was genuinely wondering why we don’t talk about any of this stuff more.
The thing that stuck with me most was simple…
