A friend of mine is an archivist at Nike HQ. Of the many fascinating things she told me when we toured the Beaverton campus a while back, the one that really stuck in my head was a story about the company’s own sneaker collection.

Rumor has it that for the longest time, Nike didn’t maintain a comprehensive archive of its shoes. As a result, the company allegedly had to buy back 150 pairs of vintage kicks from a Japanese collector in 2005 — at premium prices, of course.

Poetic justice aside, this urban myth underscores the fact that Sneakerpedia could be absolutely massive. The culture, passion and hype are all there. Really, the only way it’ll fail is if the user experience sucks.

Talk about a Jimmy Wales-size burden to bear….

Thanks to @danielmall for tweeting this video.

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