“Show me your sneakers, and I will tell you who you are”: a new podcast about themed media projects

    This is a podcast with content makers and editors. The guest of today's release is Vladimir Borisenkov - the main one in sneakers in the project “SNEAKERMANIA” and a number of other publications.


    Vladimir Borisenkov, founder of the SNEAKERMANIA project



    alinatestova : "Challenger", "Sports.Ru", "Sneakerhead" - almost all projects in which you are busy, one way or another have an emphasis on sports. Please tell me how it happened and how did you move from the world of sports to creating your own media?



    Vladimir: I just always played basketball, because my father gave it to me as a child. I went, got interested in this whole story and decided why not to try myself in sports media. At one time, I started to conduct in Vk some kind of publics devoted to one or another team. One of the first was Real Madrid. At that time I was 16 or 17 years old.

    Then I wrote to the Sports.ru guy who was engaged in social. edited by This is something like SMM, but with a deeper immersion into the textual component. I say: "So and so, I want to work with you, is there anything?" I did not ask for money . I was told: “Here, take a public. If you succeed in shaking it, then we will take you to the editorial office. ” To outsource, really.

    In general, it turned out that very quickly I made it very popular, and this was noticed. They took me to work there.

    A: Cool.

    Q: Yes, it turned out interesting. I gave it easy. At least in Sports.ru I was never asked questions: “What do you want? What, do not you want?". Take and do.

    They said: "What you want, then do it, do not forget to publish links to the site," for example. Any minimum requirements. Due to this freedom I got something there.



    A: It is clear that basketball is what you have been doing since childhood, a part of your life that accompanied and accompanies you. What about writing and editing?

    After all, not every person writes well - despite the fact that everyone has gone through school and know the Russian language. How did you get interested in this topic?




    Q: I can definitely say that I am not a super cool author. I know a million dudes who write much cooler. I was lucky in the sense that when I came to Sports.ru, there is an unspoken rule for the entire editorial board - when you come to work, you start a blog on the “ Tribune ”.

    So I started a blog. I had it so-so at first, to be honest. I was just learning, and it was trivial to me to talk about sneakers. I realized that I wouldn’t be able to write cool about football because I need a very big immersion in the subject. And since I was engaged in basketball, I was in this subject and decided that I would try to do something about basketball. Then I looked at the authors who are writing about basketball on the “Tribune”, I realized what kind of “mastodon” these are. To compete with them in the knowledge of statistical facts - just what a madness.

    And I decided, why not open the topic about sneakers. Began to do this.

    It's funny that when I started, I learned a lot from the comments about myself and my text. It was sometimes unpleasant that they scolded you, but if you draw conclusions, then in general it gives fruit.

    When people are interested, they are ready to help you and suggest. Conventionally, up to this point I did not know anything about the HTML markup or how to embed the video. Such moments snatch in the comments, learn and slowly everything you get is getting better.

    In the Challenger, about which you said, Masha Command called me. Tightened and said: "You write about sneakers, come on." I agreed.



    A: Great. Tell me, please, how did the story evolve with the commentators?



    Q: I really liked that in the first wave of comments, there were a lot of statements in the spirit of: “Do not hesitate to chop the truth.”

    If you say, speak from yourself, and do not try to please everyone.

    My first blogging experience was when I wrote the text, and tried to make everyone like it. I realized that only I begin to do this, it turns out that it is embarrassing to publish. I was immediately told about this, and I learned this lesson for myself. If you want to do something to please someone, then do it honestly, and do not try to please everyone.

    Well and trite: there I learned to divide the text into paragraphs. Before that, I had a “sheet”, they cursed me for it in the comments and said: “Dude, use the Enter button”. That is, some trivial things you learn and little by little ...

    Again, no one has canceled watching other bloggers. You look, you think: “Oh, that's cool, I'll try to use it somehow.” There the guys really write with great expertise in this, that simply by reading their texts, you learn more than you knew before.



    A: Great. In general, how did you perceive these comments? At first, you say, it was unpleasant, people comment, some kind of negative, maybe. Do you have any advice: as a novice blogger who receives a number of recommendations that are not made in the best or most delicate way - how should he work with this?



    Q: I can not say that I was very worried. I am not a very worried person at all. It’s just that I started working very early on the Internet and on VKontakte, surely you are there ...

    A: I haven’t been on VKontakte of the year since 2012.

    Q: Well then, I'll tell you. There is a very toxic public. If on Facebook it is very toxic (although there is boredom) that happens on VKontakte, you need to feel again to understand how warm and comfortable your Facebook is.

    A: We make materials for our clients, including for their corporate blogs on Habré, where the level of audience requirements is also very high.

    AT:Yes I know. Therefore, I did not have any fear of comments. I said at the beginning that I was in charge of Real Madrid. You probably know that every week matches. Any of them is a huge splash of emotions, including from the commentators. There and mat, and ...

    A: Anything, of course.

    Q: I am: “Hm, well, try to surprise me this time.” I was no longer called.

    A: That is, the public in VKontakte perfectly pumps editorial zen.

    AT:True, no joke. For example, if you visit the Real Madrid-Barcelona discussion thread once, you will understand how many new words you have to google and learn. This is nowhere to be found. I'm just used to, that, in principle, all people love to express their position. Let him curse me better - this is also a reaction. So you have achieved something. Worse when zero. And here you can at least make some conclusions for yourself.



    A: Tell me, please, what are you doing now? In Sports.ru. In addition to the blog .



    Q: By the way, I’ve already slightly forgotten the blog there. I somehow lost interest in writing there, because the Sports.ru platform involves such communication that you can’t upload a lot there. That is, you can, but it will not work. At one point, I realized for myself that I wanted to go to the Telegram. Actually and moved. Now he grows with me , blooms and all that .

    In Sports.ru I work on an outsource in the direction of "Style". More recently, Sports.ru began to tell that sports is also about how people dress. This is a search for new content. What we did not pay attention to before, now it became sharply interesting. Who dresses what, who likes to buy and so on. This includes sneakers, boots, uniforms and more.



    A: You are busy in several projects at once. How do you manage to balance and achieve something in each of them?



    Q: I can not say that to achieve something. It is better to let someone else appreciate.

    In general, probably, the loyalty of the leadership. Wherever I work, I'm lucky with this. As in Sneakerhead: I am very free in my creative urges. If I think it will be cool, they say to me: "Yes, do it." So it is in Sports.ru. Nobody limits you. It is clear that there is some kind of framework in any case. We all understand them perfectly, but in general, very freely.

    I work as a guest author at Challenger . I used to write there more often, because I had a lot of free time. Now due to the fact that my channel in Telegram has started to grow sharply, I give up something in favor of it. This is a little more than just fun.


    This is directly about the production of content. If we talk about productivity, in general I made a very important idea for myself literally about five months ago - I started keeping a diary for myself, well, I just write tasks there. Suppose you need to write such a text. I cover the theses, and everything, I see how much I still have the unclear, and I work. It helps me.

    A: Unlike many other people who come to us on the podcast, your hobbies and work tasks are united by one theme - sneakers, sports shoes, and so on. How do you manage not to repeat at different sites and in different materials?

    Q: I do not know. When you are one hundred percent immersed in it, it helps to generate so many cool ideas that you understand: this is applicable somewhere, somewhere it is not.

    BUT:Ideas enough for all sites at once.

    Q: Yes, of course. Sometimes there is not enough hands to write it.

    For example, for Sports.ru you need to understand that there is a certain background for the site. I can not talk about some things that are understandable, for example, only to fans of sneakers. It should be approached from a more sporting side. On Sneakerhead, I can talk head-on about some designer that nobody has ever heard about on Sports.ru. And here the audience will say: "Yes, this is interesting." Well, just competently assess your strength and understand for which audience you are telling. It is very important. When you understand this, everything seems to come out.

    BUT:You talked about the diary, where throwing abstracts to the materials. Is it difficult for you to switch from one site to another? Conventionally, with content for Sports.ru on Telegram .

    Q: It is difficult, yes. All media have a classic story, that it is necessary [to publish something] right now, we are not waiting. I understand it perfectly.

    Suppose sometimes I can come [in the evening] and I just want to go to Picaba, read some silly jokes, memes and posts. And they say to you: “So, you need to urgently put together a post about how some football club has famously made a marketing story about its game form.” And you are like this: “Oh, damn, well, let's go do it.”

    When you work on an outsourcing - this is your everyday life. People who go to outsource and constantly complain about it, I do not know what they will come to. Probably will hate what they do. I'm interested in working. I just happen, in the evening I come and so tired already, that I don’t look at the phone to the last. Then this: "Okay, okay, everything, let's do."

    A: In this connection: tell me, please, what does your weekday look like?

    AT:Suppose I have my blog. This is 24/7. There I get content every day. In the entire history of my blog, Telegram was only two days old when the content did not appear. One day I was at a music festival, as if there were no options, I was just in isolation. And the other day I don’t remember, there was some kind of holiday, I also left and I didn’t have internet.

    I get up, read the news, mostly sneakers. As you said, everything, in principle, revolves around this topic. I study the news agenda, note something for myself. Tritely open the tabs, leave them and then see what I publish from all this.

    I drive 5/2 to Sneakerhead, this is my main job, this is the office. We have such an easy-to-lift team there, there is no cargo. You just come and do your own thing.

    My responsibilities include the entire textual component of the Sneakerhead project: social networks, releases, and a corporate blog. Well, “corporate” is hard to call it, because we just make a little media about sneakers, so that people would be interested. In our experience, it works. We understood that nobody says anything on our conventionally sneaker area, we want to be the first and attract the audience.



    A: We have already talked a little about your SNEAKERMANIA Telegram channel . Tell me, please, how did this project come about? It's one thing that you started to do something, but there was some kind of background from him.



    Q: Yes. Actually blog SNEAKERMANIA appeared on Sports.ru . This is what I told you about - the editorial blog. I led him, led, led, I had cool materials there. The coolest material I had was - from what I remember - it was Dmitry Medvedev's sneakers . I wrote about them a year before the events happened with Navalny. I then understood: “Oh, the materials are working after a year”. And they bring me more than when they came out.

    At one point, I realized that I wanted to write a little more dynamically in order to feel a quick return. In Telegram I was impressed by the "little eye" under the messages. I thought, "Here is my assessment." I immediately see how many times I have been read. I liked it, and I decided to try it.

    Got Telegram-channel. In the old blog I had 1100 or 1500, something like that. By the standards of Sports.ru is a lot. I published there, saying: “Dude, I now have a Telegram-channel, I am also telling it there”. Some main part migrated there, and then - word of mouth. Now I have more than 8,000 subscribers.

    A: Great. But tell me please: I may not be so immersed in the subject, despite the fact that I am in sneakers.

    Q: I noticed right away. In fact, all people who are interested in sneakers, the first thing they do is look at the shoes. I sometimes think in the subway: "Damn, what am I crazy." Ran through the car, you think: "Yeah, here sneaker cooler than mine, no." Everything, I'm going quietly.



    A: I went to the interview and thought: “It's good that I put on my sneakers.” Maybe bad, I do not know. Today sneakers are also a piece of art and collectibles?



    Q: Oh, this is my favorite topic.

    A: How big is this underground empire of lovers and lovers of sneakers?

    Q: Great, really.

    It is worth making a reservation that the idea of ​​my channel is to talk about sneakers in clear language. About the designers, that this is not just five to ten thousand shoes, but there they have invested both work and some kind of creative idea. Perhaps this is a beautiful collaboration, references to artists, a lot of things. I started talking about it.

    Most of the channels simply published photos of the type: “Such a model will be released soon.” And that's all. Nothing - no opinions, no expertise. Even if you do not have it initially, you can say some kind of opinion. This is such a lyrical digression.

    But the theme with sneakers began to grow sharply. I think maybe you feel this by a personal example. All around are so interested, you have to buy sneakers by summer.

    I remember five years ago - this was not. Who could have imagined four years ago that children, fifteen or sixteen years old, would stand in line in winter for sneakers? For two or three days. And now this is the norm, no one is surprised.

    A: Sneakers - new black.

    Q: Yes. Look at celebrities - everyone wears sneakers. Five or ten years ago, everyone said: "Suit and sneakers - what?" Now: "Oh, cool, so you can combine." This is evident in every action. If you follow some fashion and sometimes look at these accounts, you see that all fashion houses one way or another also start to release them.

    A: Make "ugly" sneakers.

    Q: Yes. Go to any mass market - there are sneakers everywhere. Everyone understood that it was cool.

    In general, in Russia for a long time. It was just a very private community, and nobody was interested. And then a sharp bang, and all are: "Wow."

    BUT:That is, sneakers from such a commodity [consumer goods, convenience - approx. Ed.] become a real subject of art and interest of various spheres.

    Q: Yes, of course. You probably know Van Gogh.

    A: (laughs)

    Q: Well, just in case. Here is the Vans brand doing a collaboration with the Van Gogh Museum. Also, who would have thought that the paintings of such a great artist would once be worn on their feet. It’s like: “Oh, horror”, but for some reason, on the other hand, it’s not. In principle, this is now a lot.

    It became especially acutely felt as soon as sneakers began to sell well on the Internet, in the secondary market. As soon as people realized that they could earn money on sneakers, this attracted a lot of people. Surely heard, now Yeezy sneakers are from Adidas and Kanye West. I don’t like them very much, but I understand that he was interested in so many people by such limited pairs that he invented just because these sneakers can be resold.

    A: There is a certain shortage in them and, accordingly, interest.

    AT:Yes. And people who do not even buy, in the end they are still: “Damn, what else is there?” Even if they are not able to buy and resell, they are interested, digging and so are immersed in it. Every day I feel a tremendous surge of interest and therefore do not give up, because I see that people are extremely interested.

    Even my mother became interested in running shoes. With that, she is such a woman who loves only shoes. And here she is: “And what about sneakers?”



    A: In fact, your channel is not just about sneakers, but about sneakers as a cultural and social phenomenon.



    Q: Yes. Perhaps for someone it sounds crazy. I will understand perfectly well when they say: “What? He put on his feet and went. ” This is normal. It’s just that you start telling a person what happens here, very often with artists and musicians doing some kind of collaborative work. This is a creative story, why not. I like that now this is another way of expression. For me personally, it is. Sometimes I can understand through sneakers what kind of music a person loves or what hobbies he has.

    A: Show me your sneakers, and I will tell you who you are.

    Q: Well, yes, it really works. Not with everyone, but it happens.


    A: Cool. I remember when you wrote on Facebook that you performed at the Faces & Laces festival in the summer [annual street culture festival in Moscow - approx. Ed.]

    Q: Yes, I was his information partner.

    A: I was interested in the following: did you feel some kind of transition from just a person who leads a channel about sneakers to a popular blogger, festival info partner?

    Q: No, everything is as it was, so it remains. I just had a little more opportunities in terms of integration and dating. And so no. I have not done something that is unrealistic to do. It was just that in summer I caught myself thinking (when I was standing at the festival) that exactly a year ago I was there and thought: “Damn, it would be great to somehow participate here”.

    A year has passed - I am already an info partner. I did not even have time to notice, and this is fun. There were info partners Esquire, Poster, and from blogs - only mine. Foreign artists perform, and behind them - my logo in the whole scene. And you are like this: “What?” It is impossible to calmly realize, it happens “in a lump” and that's it. There is no sharp fame.

    The experience that I received, now sometimes makes it banal for me to get to private events that I could not get to before. Or brands notice you. When you participated in such a big event, a little more attention is immediately on you. But as I wrote about sneakers, I write. Earnings have never been a goal for me, at least a blog is not about making money.

    A: Perhaps this is the reason [popularity] just.

    AT:Probably. I began to notice that people like to follow crazy people who are passionate about their work. This is normal. I'm somewhat crazy, maybe.



    A: Not so long ago you became the official curator of Yandex . Music .



    Q: Yes, I did not expect it myself.

    A: Tell me, please, is this another hobby or does it somehow fit into this common fabric? How is it connected with sports?

    Q: Again, everything is connected: word of mouth, classic, in general.

    I love rap. On this topic, I became friends with the guys from Yandex.Music. We met a girl who oversees these projects, she wrote to me in the blog. She said: "Cool, you write about cross-country shoes." We got loose with her.

    Half a year has passed, we met by chance, and she suggested to me: “Dude, I like your blog so much, let’s take care of Yandex.Music.” I am such: "Come on."

    She did not know that I have a musical background. My friend and I once started a small project that looked like a podcast. We collected, stole official tracks, glued them at the very least, on our laptop we made them and “poured” half an hour of music.

    I always wanted to do something with music, because music is a very big part of my life. Trite: I'm going to work in the subway with headphones, listening to new releases. It helps to charge and be on the agenda or something.

    Music is also a super-big phenomenon. Now whoever you ask, everyone has Apple Music, Yandex.Music, Spotify; everyone is discussing it. “Have you seen this album? Did you hear what he said? ”Look even at the Dudya interview - there are only musicians there. Because these are new stars.

    The essence of the project with Yandex.Music - as she presented it to me, and I like it - that they want to gather not some kind of HYIP bloggers, but just dudes from a local party who would simply demonstrate their taste. I am in no way trying to convey the idea that I am a superbie and an expert in music. No, not at all. Just sharing the music that I like, and if you like it - great. If not - forgive, to each his own, as you know.

    It's cool that I was invited to just try, and now we are sitting, and I will have to go and pick up a present from Yandex later. They said: "Here you are the curator, we have prepared nishtyakov for you." I'm like, “Oh, great, thank you.”

    This is also a story not about money - I don’t get a single ruble from it. There was no talk about money, and it is not very interesting for me to monetize it. Just fun. You are given such a platform and they say that we will bring so many people to you, they will learn about you. Great, come on.

    A: Class. I really like that all the directions of this story are about your involvement, your motivation and your personal interest, which is expressed in favor of people.

    AT:Yes. I just do not like to do what I do not like. It sounds very simple, but why? If you are not interested in it - it usually does not lead to anything good.

    And then the music - class, let's. When I first collected the playlist, I thought: “Well, everything is like a DJ now. A little bit more and you can go to Ibiza. " But no, Ibiza has not written to me yet.

    A: Well, the year will pass, and ...

    V: Maybe. A year later, I am like this at Strelka, next to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, I play a DJ set. Perhaps, who knows. It will be great, I would try.



    A: Class. At the end we have - microblits of two questions.




    A: Cool sneakers should ...

    Q: Remember.

    A: Sport helps ...

    Q: Express yourself.

    A: Class, thanks.



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