TV Review: Sneakerheads Brings The Silly To A Serious Culture
Watching Netflix’s Sneakerheads, I was surprised by its silliness. It aims for cute chuckles with a few laugh out loud scenarios. Yet, its redundancy with a group of misfits, that can’t seem to snag one sneaker to make bank, can grow tiring. Yet, it carries enough heart and energy to make you hope they find that a solid, sneaker “bag” and better writing for a next season.
Growing up, being a Sneakerhead was a serious job for a child. In my neighborhood, we were all broke, and still are, but your sneakers were a sign of status. Though we all knew you were surviving on pop-tarts, if your fashion was poppin, then it meant you were thriving. Frankly, the same dynamic carries into our adulthood, and, at the core, Sneakerheads understands this truth through its two leads: Allen Maldonado as Devin and Andrew Bachelor’s Bobby.
Devin plays a broke father desperate to support his family out of fear that he will lose it. Maldonado is very intelligent in showing how desperation, especially for quick and big money will make you follow idiots. It is LOUD AND CLEAR that Bobby had no idea how to even tie a sneaker; let alone find the rare one that will make them a cool million. Yet, he is so enthusiastic and hopeful. Bachelor saves Bobby from being completely annoying and looking like a schlepped hustler by making him genuinely optimistic and determined to find “the sneaker.” In his comical monologues to rouse the crew’s spirits, he embraces each sneaker they seek like a unicorn; maybe, out there in the forest, it actually is running around. To a guy as struggling as Devin, that level of hopefulness is convincing because he does not have ANY hope.
Sneakerheads | Official Trailer | Netflix
Created by Jay Longino, Sneakerheads is a jovial look at a world that, at best, is approached for its serious finesse. Yet, the “sneaker world” is not only about looking cool; it is about feeling cool in the face of some very uncool situations like poverty. Each member of this haphazard crew of Sneakerheads is confronting their own economic or familial woes; seeking in each other the sneaker and friendship that will help them escape, at least mentally, their situation. This truth makes you invest in characters like, Jearnest Corchado’s strong Nori and Matthew Josten’s sweetly aloof Stuey. Frankly, I wish Nori and Stuey got more time on screen as leading the “Sneakerhead” crew, especially because Bobby is so dominating and wrong, which, again, could tire.
Desperation makes you do crazy things like go to a rich man’s house, you never met, to steal his shoes or use your little money, to support your family, on a storage unit with the supposed Holy Grail of Jordans. Yet, Maldonado, as the heart of this series, understands that being a Sneakerhead is not only a serious endeavor in your search for a sneaker but also you search for a sense of stability. Netflix’s Sneakerheads premieres September 25.
