Cheers to everyone out there pursuing their passions as businesses, hobbies or side projects. No matter the outcome on paper, you have won the game.

I have embedded my portion of the evening below along with the slides, but all the videos are available on Vimeo. I am not sure when the next Hobby NYC event will be, but I will be there and it will be great.

Here is the talk:

Hobby: Phin Barnes, Sneaker Addiction from Harvest on Vimeo.

and here are the slides:

While working on another side project I will be unveiling shortly, I found Jason Walton through @spencerfry and Carbonmade. A quick search for illustrators lead me to Jason’s portfolio and I reached out to see if he would be interested in helping me with a small side project. I described the project and asked him to send me a couple examples of the work he felt was closest to the style I was describing. In addition to existing work, an early version of the sneakerheadVC logo you see at the top of the page was one of the examples he sent over. I love the logo, but the experience of working with Jason has as much to with my affinity for the image as the quality of the final result.

We talked about First Round Capital and my sneaker addiction coming together in a logo as they had in the name, SneakerheadVC.  Jason suggested using the First Round color palette and adding an FRC to the shoe because the opportunity to work at First Round is what made me a VC. Jason was also inspired to represent the shoe as a simple line drawing because First Round is a seed-stage fund and we often invest in a vision before all the details have been figured out.

If you have graphic needs big or small I would encourage you to check out Jason’s stuff. I would also recommend using Carbonmade to discover artistic talent of all kinds and if you are in the creative services business, throw your portfolio up there. It is killer.

Sneakerhead (VC) Illustration by Sam Flores for LRG

I changed the name of my blog. I want to explain.

I have been collecting shoes since 1985. As a kid I would do jobs in the neighborhood to earn money for kicks. When the Air Max came out I had to have it and once they were dirty, I cut them apart to learn how they worked. My original Jordan 1′s suffered the same fate. I wore those with two pairs of socks so I could fit a 6.5 and get AJ’s, not the sky jordans that the rest of my friends had to wear in the kids size.

As a ball player I was in the sneaker culture and quickly moved from curious to addicted. Understanding the story behind the shoe, the inspiration, was always the best part. It was not enough to know they were hot, I wanted to know why they had been built that way and I love to talk about it.

After collage I worked at AND 1 and while still a collector, also became a creator. We did the mix tape and the ToChillin. We did trash talk tees and ad campaigns with Spree getting his hair done to the National Anthem within days of choking his coach. Our customers tattooed our logo on their bodies.

The designers had reasons for every shape, stitch, material and color we put into a shoe. As the creative director, I learned how to bring the consumer’s eyes into the design studio and work with the artists to create product that would pop. They taught me the language of design and creativity.

We had to choose from thousands of sketches, hundreds of prototypes and build a line of 10-12 styles every 3 months. Each shoe had to create an emotional reaction from the consumer from across the playground court or the food court and continue to delight with discovery through the purchase and use.

At the end of the day, my job was to work with extremely talented people to help them bring their vision to market. In my role at First Round I do the same thing. My years of addiction, of developing a curiosity and deep appreciation for the creative process and for discovering what a consumer really wants are paying off.

If you want to share your creative vision for a technology product or service or if you want to talk kicks, I am in.