Jason Mayden walked into Jordan Brand in 2001 as its first design intern. He designed the Air Jordan 2009 and the Jordan CP3.II, left in 2014 to build his own companies, and came back a decade later to run design for the entire brand. This past May he stepped out of that job into one that did not exist until he took it, VP of Jordan Visioneering and LA28 Creative Lead.

We talked about the Air Jordan 41, and about almost everything except the spec sheet.

He explains what he had to unpack coming back into the building, and lands on the line that frames the whole conversation, that this is a reverential era and not a referential one. He responds to what Leo Chang and Donald Kelsey found on the road this year, six months of research across three continents where not one young athlete asked for the heritage colors. He makes the case that the women's game is where the next real change in basketball footwear comes from, and explains why he studies technical boxing to think about design.

He talks about the Air Jordan XX3 and working alongside Mark Smith, Tinker Hatfield, and Tom Foxen when the fight was over solvent free glue. He talks about the crew building the game shoe now, and what it was like to watch them come into their own. He talks about criticism, and why indifference is the only reaction that would bother him.

And he tells the story of being seven years old in a hospital bed, fighting a blood infection, imagining himself as Lucius Fox working for Michael Jordan, who he thought was Bruce Wayne. That is where the word visioneering comes from.

One line from this conversation has stayed with me since we recorded it. You never really finish an Air Jordan, you just run out of time.

Nick Engvall has worked in the sneaker industry for over two decades. He built the original Eastbay Blog during his time at Sole Collector, led the first dedicated sneaker team for Complex, led the first UGC and seeding programs for Finish Line, was employee number 9 at StockX, and was Sr. Director at Stadium Goods.

• The Sneaker Newsletter: https://www.thesneakernewsletter.com
• Sole Collector: https://www.solecollector.org
• Small Luxuries: Sneakers, out October 2026 from Motorbooks: https://bookshop.org/a/122044/9798317900854

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[Links contain affiliate links; we may receive a small commission if you purchase after clicking a link. A great way to support the pod!]

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent.

There are companies that sell shoes. And then there are companies that shape the way an entire generation experiences them. Eastbay was the latter... and most people have no idea how improbable the whole thing was.

Art Juedes and Rick Gering started Eastbay out of a store in Wausau, Wisconsin. Two coaches with 16 years of combined college education, zero business courses between them, and a vision that shoe stores in this country were failing athletes. No one specialized. No one had inventory. No one knew what they were talking about when you called. So Art and Rick decided they would be the ones who did.

What followed was one of the most consequential stories in sneaker history... one that most of us lived through without ever knowing the people behind it.

In this episode of Outside The Box, Nick sits down with Art and Rick to talk about the moment Nike pulled 40% of their business overnight because Eastbay was too successful at mail order, how Shaquille O'Neal showing up to a Nike meeting in all Eastbay gear helped get them the exclusive back, the tent sales in Wausau where Air Jordans moved out of a parking lot and lines stretched for half a mile, Kevin Plank pitching Under Armour to them before Under Armour was anything, and why they invested $100,000 in a digital camera in 1989 so they could produce a catalog every three weeks while Phil Knight was asking how they did it so fast.

Nick's personal connection to Eastbay runs deep... four siblings fighting over one catalog until his mom finally ordered a fifth. He built the original Eastbay Blog for Sole Collector. And this conversation is, as he puts it, probably one of the most important sneaker history conversations he's ever had on any show.

Art and Rick's new book, The Book of Eastbay, is available now at BookofEastBay.com. All profits go to the Little Warriors Foundation, a childhood cancer charity.

More Sneaker Business Insights at TheSneakerNewsletter.com

Andrew Dutton, better known as @ad__sneaks on Instagram, has built one of the most recognizable sneaker photography accounts anywhere online. Hundreds of thousands of followers. Features from Complex. Brand invitations to NBA All-Star Weekend. And a coffee table book, The Art of the Sneaker, releasing March 24th , that nobody saw coming... including him.

Nick and Andy get into how a digital media teacher from rural Idaho turned a COVID-era passion project into a published photography book, what it actually looks like behind the scenes of those perfectly lit shots, and why "trying is cool" might be the most important creative philosophy nobody is talking about enough.

They also get into the The Gathering experience and what it means to find your people in a culture that's increasingly fragmented across algorithms, how sneakers have always been a connector more than a commodity, and why the work behind the photo matters just as much as the photo itself.

If you've ever thought about turning your passion into something bigger, this one's for you.

The Art of the Sneaker is available for pre-order now at Andy's Instagram bio and will be available at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and bookstores everywhere on March 24th.

Subscribe to the Newsletter: https://ww.thesneakernewsletter.com

SUPPORT THE SHOW:

Donate Through Venmo: https://venmo.com/u/sneakerhistory

Buy Me A Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/nickengvall

Early Access, Exclusive Videos, and Content On Patreon: https://patreon.com/sneakerhistory

If you are interested in advertising to our audience, contact us: podcast@sneakerhistory.com

CHECK OUT OUR OTHER SHOWS:

For the Formula 1 Fans - Exhaust Notes: https://exhaustnotes.fm

For the Fitted Hat Fans - Crown and Stitch: https://crownandstitch.com

For the Cars & Sneakers Fans - Cars & Kicks: https://carsxkicks.com

For the Creators & Creatives - Outside The Box: https://podcasts.apple.com/id/podcast/outside-the-box-convos-with-creators/id1050172106

[Links contain affiliate links; we may receive a small commission if you purchase after clicking a link. A great way to support the pod!]

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GET IN TOUCH:

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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent.