- What's up GQ Sports.
I'm Max Domi,
hockey player for the Columbus Blue Jackets
in the NHL,
this is My Life in Sneakers.
[energetic upbeat music]
You know I'll be the first one to admit
that I was a late bloomer.
I don't have any cool backstory of being like,
"Oh, like I waited in line for this pair of J's
and I couldn't wait for that."
And when I got into the league in the NHL,
I became a pretty big fan of of sneakers
just from mutual friends and whatnot,
it's such a massive
massive like bubble of people.
I'm a huge fan,
I follow all the drops,
I love it all,
I'm a massive Nike fan.
I was lucky enough to have a Nike deal
so that got me even more launched into it.
Yeah Nike guy head to toe,
but Jordan it's tough to beat Jordan.
I'm more of a simple dresser,
obviously this isn't necessarily simple right now,
but usually I'm just more of like
a white tee kinda guy and a pair of sweats
or a pair of jeans
and I think you can make or break any outfit
with a pair of sneakers so.
I've always been attracted to looking
at what people are wearing,
and in terms of Canada,
again we're definitely a country that falls
more towards the hockey aspect but,
again with the Raptors winning,
that was huge.
I think that was massive for the sneaker culture
within our country.
[screen glitching]
- [Narrator] All-time great.
All-time great for me,
the Yeezy 2 Nike Solar Reds,
[screen glitching]
this is my favorite Yeezy of all time.
I was lucky enough to sit court side with my dad
at one of the NBA finals games
between the Raps and Golden State Warriors,
this was what made my fit right here.
[Domi chuckles]
I don't know if I've worn them since to be honest,
but these are my number ones for sure.
If right away it wasn't like
love first sight kind of thing,
but looked at the price tag I'm like,
man no chance I'm spending
that much money on a pair of shoes.
I bought these on Flight Club,
after I told my buddy I was not going to,
and I was like man I gotta do it,
I'm just gonna dive head first into this
and that's what I did.
So once I got these,
the rest is history.
So these are what did it for me right here.
[screen glitching]
- [Narrator] MVP.
Emotional MVP for sure Air Jordan 1,
in collaboration with Virgil,
obviously the Off-white ones, Chicagos.
Probably my most early memory
of sneakers in general,
when MJ would wear these.
Obviously the 85s for me are a shoe
that I'd love to get my hands on.
The silhouette of the Jordan 1 is my favorite
bar none, I absolutely love it.
Huge fan of Virgil, what he did with Off-white
and all of his collaborations.
This is such a staple when it comes to MJ and his career,
that you never would've thought
that someone else could come along and be like,
oh that shoe reminds me of him.
And to me personally,
and I'm sure other people in my generation,
like when you see this shoe here,
you instantly think Virgil.
And my first initial reaction
was exactly that I need to have this shoe,
and just the colorways and everything,
and the way he did it,
it's just it's awesome.
I will admit that I'm a little scared to wear 'em,
but funny story about these bad boys,
when I played in Montreal,
I was lucky enough to play
for the Montreal Canadiens for a couple years,
the Raps actually came through.
Believe it or not,
the year they won the championship,
they played an exhibition game at the Bell Center, Montreal.
A teammate of mine at this time Brendan Gallagher,
and I went out and did a little shoot around
after the morning hoop session or whatever,
and I was like,
all right man like,
let's play some one on one.
We're playing one on one and I was wearing these
[Domi chuckles]
and I'm like dude,
what am I doing, why am I,
I don't wanna Jack these up at all.
But I did play a game on one on one
and I did lose so
I gotta admit that unfortunately,
but it definitely did not make me like Mike.
[screen glitching]
- [Narrator] Enforcer.
- [Interviewer] This is your workhorse shoe.
- My workhorse shoe I'm gonna go back to my Tom Sachs,
which some people might be like are you crazy,
like you're gonna beat those things up,
take 'em to war with you,
I'm like well, I think these shoes actually look better
the more you wear 'em.
Beat 'em up pretty good.
Absolutely zero fear in wearing these anywhere
and I think you can wear 'em with any outfit too.
Haven't worked out in them,
[Domi chuckles]
but no just going out whatever you want,
dinner ,you name it.
Like these things like just totally fearless,
absolute beast.
Personally again I'm not like a shoe guru by any means,
but if you're gonna buy a pair of shoes,
you're gonna invest in a pair of shoes
and you love your shoes,
you gotta wear your shoes.
If you don't wear 'em like,
what's the point of having 'em?
I get it you wanna collect 'em,
and you wanna sell 'em,
all that stuff but,
personally I get shoes to wear 'em.
[screen glitching]
- [Narrator] The veteran.
- [Interviewer] This is your favorite silhouette.
- My favorite silhouette,
okay well I've already said this a few times,
but my favorite silhouettes gotta be the Jordan 1.
So I like the Shattereds,
I think the Shattereds are just awesome.
The Fragments are outstanding,
blue's my favorite color,
so I gotta give credit where credit's due,
and then big fan of everything
Travis has done really in terms of shoes
and fashion in general.
Good story about these,
the reason why I got them in the first place was
I grew up playing hockey
for the team called the Don Mills Flyers,
and the Flyers wear orange and black obviously so,
when I found these I didn't realize how limited,
and how rare they were
and what they meant.
The leather is outstanding in these.
Huge fan, I wear them a lot.
Shattereds are up there and then,
like I said the Frags are just beautiful.
[Domi chuckles]
Like you can't beat that,
and then with the lighting bolt down here,
I mean it's just like the little detail
that they absolutely killed it with.
- [Interviewer] You know, we live in a day and age now
where we see football players with like custom cleats.
Do you ever see a world where
- I was waiting for this question.
- [Interviewer] Max Domi has a collaboration
with Nike for hockey skates?
- When I was with Nike prior to this it was,
I mean such a big fan of
again the Jordan 1 silhouette
and it crossed my mind,
but I was like is that right,
like does that make sense.
And I'm curious what people think
about a hockey skate with a paint job
that makes it look like a Jordan one.
Or who knows, maybe Nike actually comes back
into the hockey market and makes a Jordan one,
I don't know.
Would I wear it, absolutely.
Which one, I don't know if I'd be able to pick that.
I mean I play for the Columbus Blue Jackets obviously,
so blue like navy blue with a little bit of red
and some white.
I'm gonna have to go back to these top threes,
pretty fresh and I also did play for the Habs too,
so those would've worked back then,
and then before that I was in Arizona,
so those are more of like a burgundy kind of vibe.
Yeah, I think these would be sick on a skate man.
Definitely shouting out Nike for this one,
I'm challenging Nike actually
and anyone else out there that'd be willing
to help make that happen.
[screen glitching]
[upbeat music]
So my top five sneakers,
just cause I haven't show any love to these bad boys yet,
if I could only wear one shoe,
it'd probably be an Air Force 1.
The color blue means a lot to me
because I'm a type one diabetic.
That's kind of the color that is associated
with being a type one.
I was actually lucky enough
to be a part of writing a book,
and it's called "No Days Off",
and these were the shoes that I wore
to my book launch in Montreal.
So they mean a lot to me,
but just a normal white basic
75 $80 Air Force 1 is tough to beat
cause you can wear it with absolutely anything.
They're so comfortable so,
these are definitely in my top five.
Number two, number three,
number four and number five,
I'm gonna change this one up reason why,
quick shout out to Justin,
big fan of JJJJound,
not just his shoes,
his whole entire line, massive fan.
What he's done is, he's so talented
and how limited everything is
just speaks volumes to his creativity
because he just keeps coming out with more and more.
I'll always be a Nike guy,
I will always be a Nike guy,
but Reebok is doing some good stuff,
and JJJJound is kinda hitting them all.
I mean New Balance,
he's making everything look good,
it's what he does.
Justin great job, this is my top five
in my collection for sure.
[upbeat music]
- [Interviewer] All right, now you have to get rid of two.
- If I had to take away two,
I'd probably take away, sorry Kanye.
This actually hurts me to do it by the way
but I'm taking those away.
I do not wanna take any of these away,
but I'm taking those away,
and then sorry bro.
[suspenful upbeat music]
- [Interviewer] Get rid of one more now.
- Oh shit,
[Domi sighs]
[suspenful music]
you're killing me,
[Domi laughs]
you're killing me bro.
- [Interviewer] All right, I think you know
where this is leading up to but you know,
your top one all time.
- Again this is just me personally,
these shoes just mean way too much to me
from personal experience, color, comfort.
Number one by far,
the Air Force 1 Low MCAs, beautiful.
Yeah these, you know what,
I gave a lot of love to flight club,
but I switched gears for whatever reason,
I'm sure you could guess why,
but switched from Flight Club went over to GOAT
and it's a little easier.
And so I get most of my shoes off of GOAT now.
Again I'd had a lot of shoes gifted
to me from Nike over the years,
but these ones were purchased,
and it actually makes me happy knowing
that I bought them because like I said,
they mean a lot to me
and it'd be cool to say,
"Oh, I got them for free.",
but I think it's even cooler to know
that I invested in them and these things
aren't going anywhere anytime soon.
So yeah, number one.
[upbeat music]
Thank you so much GQ Sports,
it's My Life in Sneakers,
I'm Max Domi and we'll see you next time.