When The Source Was Actually the Source (For Sneakers)
How two pages in a hip-hop magazine became required reading for sneakerheads, and what eight brands on one spread says about where we are now
FYI - this was supposed to be sent as my From The Vault series but for some reason it didn’t send. I’d like to blame it on someone or something, but this newsletter is just me, so somehow I messed it up. Same goes with any typos you see.
As I start looking towards 2026 content, I came across this...
I used to love reading The Source because it was the source for hip-hop info and news. I also hated it because I’m from California and it’s the most East Coast biased hip-hop magazine that ever existed. Nevertheless, any time I see old issues, it takes me back.
August 1996.
Nas on the cover… talking about “The Year 2000.” Somewhere in the middle, buried between album reviews and beef coverage, were these pages.
The “Sneak Attack” feature.
Two pages that mattered more to some of us than the entire rest of the magazine.
This was sneaker media before Complex existed. Before Sole Collector became a magazine. Before StockX, before Instagram hype, before bots, before any of it. The Source was essentially the supplement to Eastbay catalogs... the pre-cursor to SLAM and SLAM Kicks becoming the bible for sneakerheads. Just two pages in a hip-hop magazine showing you what was actually coming, not just what was available to order.
Look at what we were calling “new releases” in summer ‘96:
