Royal sneaker treatment!

Being a regular visitor and participator of the ongoing TIA (today i’m wearing) section on Crooked Tongues, you often see a lot of well excecuted snapshots of sneakers. One particular member though, Marcel or better known as Prince Jamal, impresses even the most keen sneakerlover with what could seem like a devote to perfect angeled sharpness to his pics, and oh yeah… A great sellections of kicks! I had the pleasure to ask a few questions to the friendly New Balance lover about his thoughts on the sneaker scene today, and how it all started for him. I also asked him to pick out some of his favourite pictures to show, and cruely made him redo some snaps of those awesome Etonics!

1: So Marcel, Whats the story about your interest in sneakers? How did it start?

I always liked sneakers but I never had more than 5 pairs in the past. And i had no idea that a sneaker community excisted. My real interest began about 2 years ago. A very good friend of mine (Wolfgang Hurle) was already collecting sneakers and everytime I saw him he was talking and telling stories about sneakers, so I paid more and more attention to the 'sneaker thing'!
A few weeks later I was really 'infected by' Wolfgang's (Wolle) stories and his sneakers :) and started my interest and (now) passion for sneakers.

2: You have a pretty interesting collection of vintage models. Do you think that all the contemporary releases are as strong as retros?

Thanks! In my opinion you can't compare that. Contemporary releases are normally 'new', 'unseen' and 'unknown'. Retros are only copies of older releases which were popular by the people. I do love both but Retros normally never have the quality and shape of the OG's ... unfortunately!But every sneaker will be a vintage sneaker someday so it's good that only a few are produced as Retros.

3: Which model in your collection is your favourite until now?

My favourite Model is New Balance 1500.

4: What do you think of the collaboration scene these days?

Hmm, because I mostly have NB's and I am still a Newbie I only can tell my impressions about NB. Some selected shops could design some models in the past and they were limited to a different but mostly low number. Some other shops got only a few of the designed and limited sneakers for sale. Now, New Balance changed this 'exclusive' designing to a 'Global SMU Project'. As I know, now nearly every shop can design a model and selective shops all over the world are getting a huge stock of the sneakers and nobody except for New Balance knows the number of the 'limitation'. This is probably more profitably for New Balance but the quality is getting very worse partial and the sneaker collectors will lose and are already losing their interest in NB ! This is sad!

5: How do you wear your shoes. for worship or do you ever trash a pair from time to time?

Hahaha, i would say both again! Some 'for worship' and some are beaters and will be rocked more hard than others. But every sneaker has to be worn, that's important!!

6: Good point indeed! So will we se more fresh New Balance kicks on TIA in the future?

Jep, I really love taking pictures and I am always keeping my eyes open for some good spots. I am thinking about buying a better DSLR but that will still take some time.

7: which model is still missing in your collection?

I would definitely say, 'New Balance 997 and Le Coq Sportif Zenith Vintage' but unfortunately I have never seen any of them in my size yet.

Thanks once again Marcel! Wish you the best, and hope to see more from you in the future!

Dont forget to visit Marcel’s Flickr which is updated regularly: http://www.flickr.com/photos/prince-jamal

-Mattias