Sneaker collector Hans Abdullah reveals his undying love for sneakers

The term patron saint refers to a heavenly advocate. In this case, Hans Abdullah is the patron saint of sneakerheads.

He is no stranger to the world of fashion, especially sneakers. A sneaker YouTuber and co-founder of Madecurate, who according to Hans is really just a bunch of guys who love and sometimes sell expensive sneakers. Before setting foot in his house, we were told to prepare, but we could never have prepared for what we saw.

We snuck into Han’s air-conditioned bedroom, one that was big enough to hold hundreds of precious and rare sneakers — with the addition of K-Pop merchandise, and if you didn’t know, yes, Hans Abdullah is too. a huge K-pop fan and collector.

In this interview, we talk to Hans Abdullah about his lifelong love for sneakers and his thoughts on the stockists of the sneaker scene.

So tell us, when did it all start?

I started seriously collecting sneakers in 2013, but the passion probably started around 2008. I think it was after watching one of Intensify movies, I keep forgetting which ones – either Intensify 2 Where Intensify 3.

They had this scene where they all had a wall full of sneakers and they were promoting this shoe called GunMetal Nike Dunks, I was so curious if they existed or not.

After seeing them in the movie I wanted to buy a pair myself and upon googling I found the shoe didn’t exist, like they just made the shoe for the movie. But by then I was already so immersed in finding sneakers that I fell into it.

Collecting sneakers has always been your passion, but you mentioned that you’ve also developed an obsession with the culture itself. What made you so intrigued by this?

After I started dipping my feet into the world of sneaker collecting, I was surrounded by very nice people, they were always very welcoming. And the thing with every sneaker is that they each have a story – a nickname, a story behind them, how that sneaker came to be.

For me, it was fun. It was like learning. It was like being a bit of a nerd, you know? Learn all about this sneaker, discover the origin story behind this other sneaker.

So when you’ve delved deep inside, the next thing you know is that you’ve got all this information in your head that sometimes seems a little useless. But then you meet someone else who has the same kind of information in their head and it becomes a culture – basically, it’s like meeting a whole bunch of people who just have useless sneaker knowledge.

So I think from there it just grew, it got bigger and bigger. Before you know it, you’re surrounded by like-minded people and it’s just fun.

There’s also a lot of talk about dealers ruining sneaker culture. What are your thoughts?

I think it depends on your point of view. I think resellers are one of the cogs that keep the machine moving. There are many reasons why people get into sneakers – some like the way they look, some like the story behind it, while others just see the value in it, and I think it’s not. there’s nothing wrong with that.

There’s no right way to enjoy your hobby. I think stockists are part of the culture in that sense, I can’t imagine the sneaker scene without them. These dealers make the game fun because it makes certain shoes hard to get.

As a collector, it’s fun when there are shoes you can’t get. If you can get them easily, that’s boring because then you can complete your entire collection and own every sneaker tomorrow. Dealers make it difficult, it makes it fun for us collectors.

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY XERXES LEE / AWESOME IMAGE STUDIO | GROOMING BY NICOLE NG & KINGSKEY LOH