Category: Making A Difference

Colin Kaepernick donated sneaker collection to Bay Area homeless shelters

Brandon King

Say what you will about San Francisco 49ers’ quarterback Colin Kaepernick, one thing you cannot say is that he does not put his money where his mouth is. In his latest charitable act, Kaepernick donated his sizable sneaker collection, along with clothes, hats and other athletic gear, hats, to homeless shelters and homes for orphaned children.  https://instagram.com/p/BO57nN-jEPh/ <iframe src=”https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FcomplexmagSNEAKERS%2Fvideos%2F684337635071509%2F&show_text=0&width=560″ width=”560″ height=”315″ style=”border:none;overflow:hidden” scrolling=”no” frameborder=”0″ allowTransparency=”true” allowFullScreen=”true”></iframe> You wont hear about this in the sports media because it doesn’t suit their agenda.

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Stephen Curry raises $45,157 for Oakland fire victims 

Brandon King

The December 2nd fire in Oakland at the Ghost Ship warehouse that tragically ended the lives of 36 people was indeed an unfortunate event. Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry has decided to pitch in to help the victims of this adverse situation. Curry auctioned off two pairs of game worn sneakers to help the victims of the fire.  According to the Warriors, the kicks , which were the “Oakland Strong” version of his Curry 3’s, Curry wore in their December 15th game against the New York Knicks. The shoe…

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Joe Mixon: Another Case of Biased Media Reporting

Brandon King

Unprovoked violence against anyone, regardless of sex, is wrong. No one has the right to put their hands on another person in an aggressive fashion. The recent footage that was released (somehow I find the timing odd to say the least) of the altercation University of Oklahoma running back Joe Mixon had with fellow student Amelia Molitor is very telling. Terming the media’s, and particularly the sports media’s, coverage of this story as irresponsible would be giving them an underserved courtesy.  Every news outlet leads with some variation of Mixon…

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Adidas and Parley to make shoes from recycled plastic

Brandon King

                  For over a year, Adidas has been hinting at a release of a shoe composed nearly entirely of plastic trash that was removed from the seas. In June of 2015, an initial prototype, which was created in a joint effort with the environmental organization Parley for the Oceans, was unveiled. In the middle of November, 7,000 pairs will go on sale. The German athletic company says that is just a start. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iisMyJdkyqg   We will make one million pair of shoes…

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Olympian Molly Huddle to make marathon debut at TCS New York Marathon 

Brandon King

Molly Huddle, who competed in this year’s Olympics in the 10,000 meters and finished 6th in that race, will make her marathon debut at the TCS New York City Marathon this Sunday, November 6, 2016.  The Saucony blog has a really cool piece on. You can check it out here. 

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U.S. Sneaker Production Could Become More Prevalent

Brandon King

The tasks of producing much of the footwear we wear left for Asia many moons ago. However, technology could be bringing them back. That is because some of the major players in the footwear world- Nike, Adidas, and even Reebok , could be returning with robot-driven production facilities.  Last week, Canton, Massachusetts based Reebok announced it planned to open a high-tech facility in Rhode Island in which sneakers would be produced by robots pouring plastic.   Our idea was,if the U.S. Us where the innovation is, let’s make the product that’s…

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Josh Brown DV scandal draws different responses from media, social groups

Brandon King

Over the past few days, it came to light that New York Giants’ kicker Josh Brown has a history of assaulting his wife. The comparison has been made to that of the Ray Rice incident, however what I found rather interesting was the reaction of the sports media, certain organizations, and that of the NFL was in stark contrast to his case.  When the news broke over the Ray Rice assault, it seemed that nearly every news outlet from The View to Sportscenter ran the video of the incident and…

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Reactions to Kaepernick’s Protest Confirms why he is right

Brandon King

Ever since Colin Kaepernick refused to stand for national anthem, it has somewhat kicked off a national discussion. I say somewhat because the detractors of Kaepernick’s stance, rather than engage in an intellectual dialogue on the issues he is raising, deflects into merely expressing their distaste for his method of protest or would use contrived “disrespect” of the troops as a shield as a tactic to attempt to silence and contaminate the protest.  Almost universally, those who choose to speak out against the action,from the man on the street to…

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Virgin’s First Class Sneakers are a techie’s dream come true

Brandon King

Virgin America, in a joint effort with advertising agency Eleven Inc and SearchnDesign, a Milan based design firm, has put a new spin on high tech footwear. The groundbreaking is not in the vein of new upper material or cushioning system but in the bells and whistles the shoe features, which includes built in Wi-Fi, a USB port, mood lighting and a video display on the tongue(yes, you read that right). None of the aforementioned features lend themselves to performance, so if you are looking for a sneaker to help…

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NCAA rules Army vet ineligible to play basketball

Brandon King

You have to love the National Collegiate Athletic Association. They continually strive to operate in the vein of what is best for student athletes, both current and future.  I submit the case of Isaiah Brock as an example.  Brock, a member of the armed forces, and has served in Afghanistan for the past four years. As a member of the Quartermaster Mortuary Affairs company, his job was to retrieve the bodies of fallen comrades in order to return them home to their loved ones. Brock said of his job: ”…

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