DJ Clark Kent, sneaker icon, passed away at the age of 58. He was a true sneaker icon. Matt briefly goes into his legacy, and how he will be remembered by sneaker culture.

---

Like what you hear? Help this content grow: https://ko-fi.com/firefootwearpod

New episodes every Friday.

Call and give your sneaker stories or opinions to be highlighted on a future episode: +1-(202)-643-9170

Follow Fire Footwear on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/firefootwearpod/?hl=en

Follow Fire Footwear on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/firefootwearpod

Follow Matty Ice on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MattyIceFrates

Reach out to me with questions or thoughts: firefootwearpod@gmail.com

---

For more amazing podcasts, please visit the Matty Ice Media Network: https://www.mattyicemedia.com/mimnpodcasts

Follow Matty Ice on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MattyIceFrates

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
Podcorn - https://podcorn.com/privacy

Matt Frates: 00:00:00

DJ Clark Kent has passed away, and the sneaker community mourns.

Matt Frates: 00:00:04

We're going to talk about his legacy this time on Fire Footwear.

Matt Frates: 00:00:25

Welcome back to Fire Footwear, everybody.

Matt Frates: 00:00:27

As always, I'm your host, Matt Frates, and I hope that this finds you well.

Matt Frates: 00:00:30

I do want to thank everybody for their patience in keeping with this content in case it can't be heard from the sound of my voice.

Matt Frates: 00:00:37

I'm going through quite a bit in my personal life.

Matt Frates: 00:00:40

My parents are 77 years old, and as you age in life, things happen.

Matt Frates: 00:00:44

And unfortunately, I've been up in Massachusetts, I live in Virginia, and I've been up helping my dad out because, honestly, he really can't take care of himself.

Matt Frates: 00:00:52

So this has been a very trying time, and it has really thrown off my release cadence as it relates to the show and the other content that I do.

Matt Frates: 00:00:59

And so I do apologize for that.

Matt Frates: 00:01:00

But I do want to say thank you to everybody who has reached out, everybody who has sent kind words, because it means the world to me, and it is great to know that the sneaker community and the Fire footwear community is still behind me, despite the fact that the content hasn't been as fruitful as it normally is.

Matt Frates: 00:01:18

But we're here to talk about DJ Clark Kemp.

Matt Frates: 00:01:21

And a couple weeks ago, I think it was three weeks ago now, DJ Clark Kemp passed away at the age of 58, and his passing has many in the sneaker community talking about his legacy.

Matt Frates: 00:01:31

And legacy is very, very important in life.

Matt Frates: 00:01:33

As we get to the end of life and as we get older, I think we start to think about what kind of a legacy do we have?

Matt Frates: 00:01:39

And in the sneaker world and in sneaker culture, I think legacy is very important as well, because we like to put labels on people.

Matt Frates: 00:01:47

A few weeks ago, I did an episode about Nigo, and I talked about how he was probably on a lot of people's Mount Rushmores, and that's about legacy.

Matt Frates: 00:01:54

And really, legacy for DJ Clark Kent is complicated, not in a bad way, but because I think his legacy has had such an impact on the sneaker community that it's not easy to talk about in one fell swoop, but we're going to try anyway.

Matt Frates: 00:02:07

Here's the thing about sneakers.

Matt Frates: 00:02:08

istory dating way back to the: 1970

Matt Frates: 00:02:16

I think a lot of people who are newer to the culture because Jordans have been around for so long and because Jordans are so prevalent in the culture, Now, I think a lot of people don't know that before Jordan brand, there was a rich history of sneakers.

Matt Frates: 00:02:28

They just looked a little bit different.

Matt Frates: 00:02:30

Pumas, Adidas, Asics, things like that.

Matt Frates: 00:02:33

Things that are actually big now.

Matt Frates: 00:02:34

So it really has come full circle.

Matt Frates: 00:02:36

But artists started wearing sneakers as self expression.

Matt Frates: 00:02:39

And I'm talking about hip hop artists focusing a lot on Adidas and a Puma and a Converse.

Matt Frates: 00:02:44

All of this was pre Jordan era, of course.

Matt Frates: 00:02:46

In: 1986

Matt Frates: 00:02:48

And that was when Run DMC was credited with really bringing sneakers into the hip hop spotlight.

Matt Frates: 00:02:52

Their song My Adidas sparked their deal with Adidas.

Matt Frates: 00:02:55

And that was the first time that a hip hop artist was partnering with a sneaker brand.

Matt Frates: 00:03:00

Today, those types of collaborations, those types of partnerships are very, very common.

Matt Frates: 00:03:04

But back in the day, it was not so.

Matt Frates: 00:03:06

Now enters DJ Clark Kent.

Matt Frates: 00:03:07

s, going into the: 2000

Matt Frates: 00:03:13

And it was a little after this, I think, that he started to rise to fame.

Matt Frates: 00:03:16

s, early: 2000

Matt Frates: 00:03:21

We're talking 10, 15 years of Jordan brand history.

Matt Frates: 00:03:25

Now.

Matt Frates: 00:03:25

Michael Jordan is out of the league or about out of the league at that point.

Matt Frates: 00:03:29

He at least has passed his prime, past the last stance, past all of the championships.

Matt Frates: 00:03:34

And Jordan brand is not this burgeoning brand.

Matt Frates: 00:03:37

It is an established brand.

Matt Frates: 00:03:39

And I think underneath all of that, the culture is building.

Matt Frates: 00:03:42

The culture of sneakers is building in a way that while it isn't in the main spotlight the way that it is today, it's something that if you know, you know, and I know that's a very common statement now with younger people, but it is true.

Matt Frates: 00:03:53

Back in the day, if you were a part of sneakers, you knew, and if you weren't, you just didn't know.

Matt Frates: 00:03:58

A lot of people saw sneakers as utilitarian.

Matt Frates: 00:04:01

And even so today, I think a lot of people of a certain age, like my dad, for instance, doesn't understand having sneaker collecting.

Matt Frates: 00:04:08

So as DJ Clark Kent is rising, his sneaker wearers start to become synonymous with his hip hop style and obviously his hip hop style.

Matt Frates: 00:04:15

All the gigs that he had, all of the parties that he DJed, things like that, started to become synonymous with himself, and therefore sneakers became synonymous with him.

Matt Frates: 00:04:24

And that's the way that we know him today.

Matt Frates: 00:04:26

But he started in music.

Matt Frates: 00:04:27

But you got to remember, the convergence of hip hop and sneakers was really starting to become prevalent at that time.

Matt Frates: 00:04:34

And over time, as sneaker culture grew, collecting became more and more popular.

Matt Frates: 00:04:40

And DJ Clark Kent was really kind of the poster child for collecting in the early days.

Matt Frates: 00:04:44

And as his collection became more public, I think that the idea of being a collector and really a curator of sneakers and sneaker history became really a pastime.

Matt Frates: 00:04:54

And a lot of people collect today.

Matt Frates: 00:04:56

A lot of people collect out of just mass consumerism.

Matt Frates: 00:04:59

But I think there are a ton of people, and I think of.

Matt Frates: 00:05:01

I think it's Scott Collard on Instagram, a guy who always posts himself way when he was younger, wearing a lot of these shoes.

Matt Frates: 00:05:09

And that's really curation of history.

Matt Frates: 00:05:10

Even though it's his own history, it's still curation of sneaker history, especially Jordan Brandon.

Matt Frates: 00:05:14

I do love that stuff.

Matt Frates: 00:05:16

And I think that DJ Clark Kent, in a very public sense, is somebody who is known for sneaker history, sneaker curation.

Matt Frates: 00:05:22

He really, if you think about it, was one of the first sneaker icons and possibly was the start of the documentation of sneaker history through collecting.

Matt Frates: 00:05:31

The idea of sneaker culture at its core.

Matt Frates: 00:05:34

And I think that it's different today, but I think as it was starting and back then, I believe the idea was that you wore sneakers because you wanted to be seen as cooler or more fly than somebody else.

Matt Frates: 00:05:46

And it was to wear something that was going to get you noticed for better or for worse.

Matt Frates: 00:05:50

I think that's what it was all about.

Matt Frates: 00:05:52

And over the years, that has changed.

Matt Frates: 00:05:54

The trajectory of why people wear sneakers has changed.

Matt Frates: 00:05:57

You could make the argument that people wear sneakers today because they want clout, but it's clout of a different kind.

Matt Frates: 00:06:03

It's almost financial clout.

Matt Frates: 00:06:05

And it's not about being hip, it's not about being fly.

Matt Frates: 00:06:09

It's really about proving to other people that I have something that you don't and I'm better than you.

Matt Frates: 00:06:14

And it's a little bit more malicious, I think, underneath than it used to be.

Matt Frates: 00:06:18

You wanted to walk into school back in the 80s and 90s with the freshest pair of Jordans because you want people to say, oh, my God, I can't believe you have those, because not everybody had Jordans.

Matt Frates: 00:06:28

They were expensive, and they are expensive today.

Matt Frates: 00:06:30

But I think that they weren't so mainstream.

Matt Frates: 00:06:33

Not everybody was able to get Air Jordans.

Matt Frates: 00:06:35

Nowadays you can just have access to everything.

Matt Frates: 00:06:38

And there is so many of them now that it's not as special as it once was.

Matt Frates: 00:06:42

And that's why I say I believe that today people want the clout, and it's not the same as just being sort of hip.

Matt Frates: 00:06:49

So DJ Clark Kent, through all of his collecting, through all of his sneaker history, one of the things that stood out to me about his message was about authenticity.

Matt Frates: 00:06:58

And today we think of authenticity as rep versus retail, fake versus retail, things like that.

Matt Frates: 00:07:03

And authenticity is about that.

Matt Frates: 00:07:06

And StockX is certainly going through that now, where they really can't prove what an authentic sneaker is.

Matt Frates: 00:07:11

But that's not really what DJ Clark Kent was talking about.

Matt Frates: 00:07:14

The idea of authenticity is really at the core of this podcast, or at least is at the core of what I want to be as a content creator.

Matt Frates: 00:07:22

You should get the most genuine, authentic version of myself.

Matt Frates: 00:07:25

And I believe that DJ Clark Kent, through this message, was trying to tell people in sneakers to be authentic to who you are.

Matt Frates: 00:07:33

Hype is always going to be there.

Matt Frates: 00:07:34

Trends are always going to be there.

Matt Frates: 00:07:36

And I think far too often we get caught up in the hype.

Matt Frates: 00:07:39

We get caught up in the trends, and we want to wear things that people are wearing as well, or what the culture says that you should wear.

Matt Frates: 00:07:48

And really, the best part about sneakers is that there is something for everybody.

Matt Frates: 00:07:52

And so I think DJ Clark Kent was trying to tell us to be true to yourself, be true to who you are, wear what you like, and really call it a day, because that is the whole point of the culture.

Matt Frates: 00:08:03

The culture is all about living in it the way that suits you, and that should be enough for you.

Matt Frates: 00:08:08

I got caught up in getting into the hype and getting into what I thought I should be wearing because I wanted people to look at me and think that I was somebody.

Matt Frates: 00:08:17

And now, three years on, I don't really care.

Matt Frates: 00:08:19

I wear what I like, and I love seeing people also wear what they like, hype or not.

Matt Frates: 00:08:25

There's a lot of people who wear hype shoes.

Matt Frates: 00:08:26

There's a lot of people who don't wear hype shoes.

Matt Frates: 00:08:28

And you know what?

Matt Frates: 00:08:29

We're all doing it our own way, and that's okay.

Matt Frates: 00:08:33

I think that through this message that DJ Clark Kent started to become not only an icon, but I also think that he became almost like a father figure.

Matt Frates: 00:08:41

And as father figures age, obviously the younger generation that comes up behind them thinks that they don't know, thinks that they're old.

Matt Frates: 00:08:50

And yes, DJ Clark Kent, in terms of sneaker culture, is definitely on the older side.

Matt Frates: 00:08:55

I'm residing somewhere in the middle, probably closer to the older range, but at his age, almost 60 years old, he obviously is getting long in the tooth as it relates to Sneaker culture.

Matt Frates: 00:09:05

And so therefore, his opinions, his likes, his dislikes are becoming outdated in the eyes of what is now a younger and younger crowd in the culture.

Matt Frates: 00:09:14

That crowd wants something different.

Matt Frates: 00:09:17

That crowd wants something more than what we used to have.

Matt Frates: 00:09:20

It doesn't mean that what used to be was better.

Matt Frates: 00:09:22

It was just different.

Matt Frates: 00:09:24

But DJ Clark Kent has become a father figure to a lot of people in the culture that are of a certain age, because we have all kind of come up in it together.

Matt Frates: 00:09:32

I don't include myself in that category, but I'm just saying there are people in my age bracket or a little bit older who see him as an icon and see him as somebody that they want to emulate in the way of that authenticity that I talked about.

Matt Frates: 00:09:44

And it's not as if it was just about him wearing shoes.

Matt Frates: 00:09:47

It wasn't just about him collecting shoes.

Matt Frates: 00:09:50

He obviously had his hand in on making and designing a lot of shoes.

Matt Frates: 00:09:54

And we're Talking about the 112 pack, the elephant print, the neon details.

Matt Frates: 00:10:00

These are iconic.

Matt Frates: 00:10:01

Now.

Matt Frates: 00:10:01

You see these types of things all over the place.

Matt Frates: 00:10:03

But back in the day, that wasn't always the case.

Matt Frates: 00:10:06

These stand out.

Matt Frates: 00:10:07

You know who they represent?

Matt Frates: 00:10:08

Very similar to what Travis got.

Matt Frates: 00:10:10

Reverse Swoosh.

Matt Frates: 00:10:11

Now you know what that represents.

Matt Frates: 00:10:13

But the 112 pack with the Air Force One, the Air Trainer One, the Air Max One, the SB Dunk Low, those were all iconic.

Matt Frates: 00:10:21

The Air Force One, Black Friday, that's something that is also iconic.

Matt Frates: 00:10:25

Even non Nike silhouettes, Puma Clydes, Adidas superstars, these are of old silhouettes that were predating Jordan brand.

Matt Frates: 00:10:33

He was trafficking in those as well.

Matt Frates: 00:10:35

And while he wasn't directly related to this design, he did not have any input into the design.

Matt Frates: 00:10:41

I think that his push of the LeBron 8 really helped the South Beach Colorway to become one of possibly the most popular LeBrons of all time.

Matt Frates: 00:10:50

And so, like Nego, DJ Clark, Ken is an icon, and he possibly could be on the Mount Rushmore as it relates to sneaker specific.

Matt Frates: 00:10:58

I did talk about Nigo being on the Mount Rushmore, but I think maybe it's more toward the streetwear side.

Matt Frates: 00:11:03

We're talking about Bape now.

Matt Frates: 00:11:05

I think DJ Clark Kent, though, is in a different stratosphere, only because of the message that came with him.

Matt Frates: 00:11:10

He was a very public figure, somebody who was still talking and working with Complex up until his death.

Matt Frates: 00:11:17

And in death, DJ Clark Kent's legacy will remain as that father figure, and he will continue to be seen as an early influencer.

Matt Frates: 00:11:24

Of sneaker collecting and curation.

Matt Frates: 00:11:26

And this podcast, Fire Footwear, much like him, is about history.

Matt Frates: 00:11:31

I want to keep that history alive because we're continuing to move forward at a rapid pace in this culture.

Matt Frates: 00:11:37

But I want us always to remember where we started, because it's very important.

Matt Frates: 00:11:41

The history, while it doesn't need to be revered at all times, you should know it.

Matt Frates: 00:11:46

You should want to know it, and you should study it.

Matt Frates: 00:11:49

Because then when something comes out that maybe you think is whack, you can understand what it meant back in the day, and then you can make a choice as to whether you want it or not.

Matt Frates: 00:11:57

You shouldn't necessarily always want to have things that we had in the past, even Air Jordan retros, the Black Cement 3, which we're going to talk about next week.

Matt Frates: 00:12:05

You don't have to like them, you don't have to own them, but you should understand where they fit into the culture.

Matt Frates: 00:12:10

And I think that's very important.

Matt Frates: 00:12:12

And I think that DJ Clark Kent himself was very integral in making sure that history was a vital part of sneaker culture as we grew older.

Matt Frates: 00:12:20

And before we get to the end of the episode, let's get to the release of the week.

Matt Frates: 00:12:38

Release of the week, where I like to highlight a shoe that catches my eye.

Matt Frates: 00:12:41

It's not always hype.

Matt Frates: 00:12:42

This one may be borderline, but it's just something that I want you to know about.

Matt Frates: 00:12:46

Earlier in the episode, I talked about the Air Jordan 3 black cement colorway, and I said that it's something that you don't necessarily have to like, but you should understand and appreciate where it fits into the history.

Matt Frates: 00:12:55

Well, lucky for you, if you're somebody who likes it, somebody who wants it and does not have a version of this shoe, November 23rd is your day.

Matt Frates: 00:13:03

There was a shock drop earlier this week, but US$220, it can be yours on the Sneakers app and probably a bunch of other places.

Matt Frates: 00:13:11

Personally, it's not my favorite air Jordan 3.

Matt Frates: 00:13:14

It is for a lot of people.

Matt Frates: 00:13:15

For a lot of people, it is their favorite Air Jordan of all time.

Matt Frates: 00:13:19

And you know what?

Matt Frates: 00:13:20

You should go after it.

Matt Frates: 00:13:21

You should have it, you should wear it, rock it, beat it, whatever it is.

Matt Frates: 00:13:24

But if that's your shoe, then November 23rd is your date and I want to see you go after it and I want to see you posting and letting me know that you copped it.

Matt Frates: 00:13:33

What do you think of DJ Clark Kent and how do you feel about his legacy?

Matt Frates: 00:13:37

Get in touch with me.

Matt Frates: 00:13:38

The Fire Footwear Hotline is where you can do that.

Matt Frates: 00:13:40

-: 9170

Matt Frates: 00:13:45

If you're an Instagram user, I do have a group chat on there for people who have reached out that have found the podcast at FirefootWearPod is the handle to find me there.

Matt Frates: 00:13:54

If you want to find some reels, you can find me on TikTok, the same username.

Matt Frates: 00:13:58

We have a YouTube channel where I like to do different things and if you missed last week's or two weeks ago's chat with Chris Chase from Wear Testers, you can find it there.

Matt Frates: 00:14:05

Fire Footwear sneakers talk.

Matt Frates: 00:14:07

You want to hit subscribe, like all that good stuff.

Matt Frates: 00:14:10

I'd love to see you there and I'd love to be putting out new content there because it's another avenue in which I can make Fire Footwear an even larger community.

Matt Frates: 00:14:18

I hope this finds everybody well, fam.

Matt Frates: 00:14:20

I hope this finds everybody safe.

Matt Frates: 00:14:21

I want to thank you again for your patience and I will see you next time.

Matt Frates: 00:14:24

This is Fire Footwear.

Matt Frates: 00:14:43

The opinions and viewpoints expressed on Fire Footwear are those of Matt Fraits and his guest and not necessarily those of the Maddie Ice Media Network.

Matt Frates: 00:14:53

Fire Footwear is exclusively owned by Matt Fraits and is brought to you by the Maddie.