I go by the name of Chryst Young
and I have a diction I'm addicted to
I'm addicted to sneakers
it all started out as a kid
and just like you
I couldn't wait to go sneaker shopping
so on the first day of school
I can show up with the freshest pair of kicks money can buy
but as I got older
It turned into not just having the flyest kicks on my feet
but I wanted more
I wanted rare sneakers
limited editions
hard to find kicks
the ones you couldn't just go to a regular sneaker store to get
so follow me on my journey
I'll be taking you all around the world to talk sneaker culture
with collectors, sneaker fanatics, boutiques, celebrities & athletes
so buckle up your seat belts
enjoy the ride
this is...The Sneaker Game
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we were always lovers of these kinds of shoes like high-end sneakers back when Chris and I
use to live in germany we were following the European fashion labels and seeing what
sneakers they came out with and waited until our favorite pair went on sale
hope that our size was still available and try to get it and then we came to
the US and that's where we met we went to school here in the US and talked
about our love for sneakers and realized hey there's an opportunity for us to do
something really sick here in the US creating high-end speakers yeah exactly
and when when we were in business school and we started talking about that we had
a completely different background we used to work in finance and consulting
so we had no idea about fashion anything whatsoever but we knew we wanted to make
the best possible sneakers so we wanted to go to Italy to find an amazing
manufacturer another problem was we didn't speak any Italian but we were
like let's just go so we booked a one-way ticket to Italy and went down
there and started knocking on doors we didn't have any contact so we were just
asking around going from one fair to a hotel to a factory and then asking hey
do you know where these brands are being produced so we kept looking and looking
and realized that made in Italy even doesn't mean it's amazing quality there
was like a big difference between one place and the other but we kept looking
and after visiting more than 30 factories we found this amazing place a
family business that we fell in love with where the quality was just
exceptional of another level it was super high craftsmanship they
treated the workers really well we started talking to the owner we clicked
and since then they've been producing all our sneakers
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all right so
you said that you went to Italy no contacts didn't know anybody that's motivation right so
how long did you stay in Italy? cause I know you said that you had a one-way
ticket how long how long was this process? of just knocking on doors and
just fishing it was a couple of weeks we stayed there for several weeks and like
Chris said in the beginning we didn't know anybody in this industry so it was
really just getting in touch with people building our network talking to anybody
we saw on the street in that region because that region is very much
Footwear manufacturing region called lamarka and over time we built that
network got to know more people and in the end ended up with that really
amazing place that we're now producing with
and the motivation behind the brand
is really that we want to empower people to go out there and follow their dreams
and really chase their passions do what they what they what they want it was
similar for us we had this passion for sneakers we we had jobs that we didn't
like so we like let's quit it let's take a risk
here and dare to pursue an opportunity that we really believe in
alright so I noticed the name too it's very unique Koio...what is the meaning behind that?
Koio means on the Italian word for leather Koio so it's a shortened
version of that and for us it stands for craftsmanship and the materials and the
quality and the care that go into each and every pair that we make it really
goes back to these roots of Italian high-end manufacturing that we pride
ourselves in and that are the basis for everything that we do
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so we started the line with this shoe that's the one that we designed when we
kicked up Koio we literally took like all the elements that we wanted to have
in a sneaker and put them into one shoe and we're sitting in our apartment New
York like drawing the lines of the shoe and how we wanted it to be and that's a
design that we also took to Italy to visit our manufacturers we had it
printed on paper and to every manufacturer we're like hey can you make
this into a real nice shoe and it was a shoe we launched with and that we got
the first traction with so Esquire called it the coolest speak of 2015 we
were in GQ with this shoe we were in Vogue with this shoe and it really gave
us a incredible boost right at the beginning when we started Koio
So it's like your OG yeah and that one is called the Primo because it's the first true that we did
here we have our Capri triple white which is our best-selling sneaker it's a
very clean minimalist silhouette for us it's important that the shoes are super
versatile so you can really wear it for any and every occasion and you always
feel ready for what's coming next so the shoes are made of 100% Italian Vitello
calf leather and they're also handmade in Italy like our entire line we now
also have these available for babies yeah the whole family can wear the shoes
it's actually made at a baby shoe manufacturer in Italy it's a tiny little
place in a village on the top of a mountain the most romantic thing you can
think of and they make the highest quality baby shoes in there when we went
there first we saw all the other luxury brands in there like baby shoes being
made and we asked them hey you need to make her your shoes as well
this is dope. So what do we have here?
that's the Avalanche that's the latest model that we released and it's our
first chunky sneaker first runner we make it at the same factory so highest
standards of craftsmanship and we combine all these incredible materials
it's a performance EVA outsole we have Italian suede we
have Italian Vitello calf leather and very bouncy ultra comfortable sole you
can literally walk around in these shoes forever and that's a shoe that well high bliety
hight piece and all the blogs have been writing about a bunch
of celebrities have been wearing so super happy with this model like and
really proud of that one
they look dope too. Thank you. Dope runners. They look comfortable
I'm about to try on some too
Gotta try them on, they're so nice yes
I'm ah try on some in the next segment
and what do we have here?
yeah as you're getting ready for the summer these could be
interesting yeah those are our slides also made in
Italy handmade those were actually the ones that Soulja Boy just wore the other
day and posted about they could be cool for a pool party
exactly! and you know me you know I love those pool parties boy
shout out to Miami
yeah this ones sick. That's actually the first shoe out of the ones
you see here that hasn't been released yet so it's a little sneak peek that
we're giving you guys...which one?
this one...this one right here?
so this is the first time alright. They're not out yet. So
so shout out to them The Sneaker Game
alright so what is this?
that's based on the Avalanche that I showed you earlier so based on that
model but we made it a neoprene upper that is gonna be ultra ultra comfortable
to wear easy to get into like just slip it on and go about your day and it has a
retro logo on the front with an elastic strap so gotta represent for you
exactly...it looks dope too
look very comfortable too
and here we have another pair that's not yet been
released it's part of our more minimalist classic
line we call it the tempo and it has elements of Botello calf leather suede
also handmade in Italy and we're super excited because it really fits any and
every occasion whether you add work or whether you're going out with friends or
whether you're partying yeah you could throw these on when you go to the clubs
to all black everything throw your all black on exactly throw these on
and you're just ready to go right exactly these are nice I like this with suede
nice and what do we have here? that's a Avalanche rad that we are going to release in a few months
as well it's inspired by the 80s like the aerobics scene you you remember
these like videos that they used to do...exactly bright colors
exactly the pop and we know it's it's coming back big time so we wanted to
make a shoe that really goes back to that period back to that decade and yeah
get some color into the game
real retro...yes
I like it
like the colors
yeah and we looked such a long time for these specific colors like going to all
the tanneries in Italy asking them for exactly the colors that we wanted and
did a bunch of tests bunch of prototypes until we felt like okay that's the right
combination that's one that we want to go with
got my two thumbs up. Thank you
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I was gonna ask you that too because like I looked around at your shoes and um
these shoes are amazing like I'm actually look behind you I'm looking on the side
like these sneakers are really really nice
I was thinking marketing right you said you
didn't have any ties any connections in the fashion world so that's hard this is
tough and it's a lot of people that's connected out here you're just basically
going on faith I want to do this something get it done right so I respect
that anybody knows I go I respect the
go-getters you're go-getters so with marking and how how hard has that been
to market the brand because you can have the best sneakers in the world but if no one
knows who you are how did you get over that obstacle was it just by like chance
of people just discovering or was it like like how did you get over that hurdle?
whatever we do we're trying to give it a creative spin in 2017 when we released
white canvas sneakers we were like we're probably the hundredth brand out there
that is releasing a white sneaker it has been done so many times so what can we
do different to get some attention and to show that our shoes are special so
what we did was we took these white sneakers we put in five different
sharpies and we send it to 20 artists that we knew and we told them here this
is your blank canvas what would you do with them
so they all started drawing on a painting on it and coming up with some
really nice designs we ultimately put together like instructions of how to
create your own cool sneaker and the first 500 pairs that we sold came with
these instructions and with these sharpies to create your own sneaker
so our whole mission for Koio is to create a brand that empowers people to do
something interesting with their lives we make versatile shoes
you can take anywhere into any life situation and that you can live a daring
life with and what we do is we partner with people to collabs with people that
live this spirit so one person had we did a collaboration with for example was
jonboy and jonboy has is he's a tattoo artist and he has this huge
following on social he as half a million followers on Instagram he tattoos Justin
Bieber Haley Baldwin all the Kardashians and we did a sneaker collab with him
where we had sort of two phases in the first phase he did a tattooing pop-up at
our store and normally jonboy doesn't offer any appointments he's completely
booked out but on that one day he made his books available for anyone who was
just early enough so we opened the doors at 12 and there was a line around the
block this store jonboy was tattooing right where we stand and it was a crazy
event with people from Vogue, GQ, Esquire they are in getting tattoos and then we
also did a collab with him where he designed the sneaker with us and those
two things together gave us a ton of awareness john-boy posted about us all
his clients posted about us and in that way we grew our following grew the
people that knew of Koio and like jonboy but we did a bunch of collabs
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yeah and like you say it changes however you move around in the world and and you
immediately become like more confident when you wear a nice pair of shoes and
talk to people and are more open to people and that way you find many more
opportunities to do interesting things to live a good life and that's part of
what Koio is about like empowering people to do these interesting things in
their life
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How you feeling? I'm feeling amazing. Yeah? Nice
how I'm feeling
I'm feeling like a million buck right now
so what was the inspiration behind this colorway?
so the idea for this shoe was that we wanted to combine an athletic design
with like the highest end materials so you see a lot of like athletic shoes out
there that are being made of like pretty poor materials we wanted to make a
fashion runner that is made in Italy and that doesn't cost you a whole lot so
this shoe come really combines nice leather mesh different forms of leather
really and it's handmade in Italy that makes it so comfortable the inside is
also a nice leather lining which makes sure that that the shoe over time really
molds to your foot
yeah I feel it like on the back it's like the sole
but they're so comfortable. Yeah [laughs]
so we picked this this performance outsole and it's kind
of high in the back right I guess exactly so you get a bit of a lift and
we also have an a very special insole that is a special German engineered foam
that is extremely soft and we remain super comfortable as you wear it so
these two things together just make it the most comfortable sneakers you've worn
yeah cause I'm like a little flat foot
so it's like soon as I put them on and I stood up I was like it feels comfortable
it feels like it's giving
you some type of support exactly like like it's supporting you're like like
right here yes yeah that's pretty that's pretty
dope so it's fashionable and comfortable yeah
because sometimes you can't get both yeah compromise right yeah
it's really hurting you oh yeah and they all look too good but I'm comfortable I
don't care like you know so this is very nice and I'm actually wearing these for the rest of the day
thank you courtesy of you guys
appreciate yall our pleasure man where do you see the company going? what's the future
for Koio? we're just getting started we've been around for three and a half
years now and there's a lot to do for us we just got a new designer onboard she
used to work at balenciaga so she's gonna work with us and creating some
sick shoes in the future and we're opening new stores in two weeks were
opening one in San Francisco which we're really excited about it's gonna be our
sixth location and yeah lots of things coming in the future
congratulations well you guys seen it first, Koio, Soho, New York City
we out here welcome to The Sneaker Game. Thank you for joining us...see yah
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