With the headquarters of Nike and adidas located in the area and the recent addition of an Under Armour office, Portland is without a doubt the hub of sneaker business in the United States. Yet while all of the movers and shakers in the business come to Portland for meetings, there has been a void of actual culturally based sneaker activities and events.

Wanting to address this issue, Herbert Smith of Pensole Footwear Design Academy assembled a team of like-minded individuals in the industry to create the inaugural Sneaker Week Portland.

“A lot of people come to Portland because they are affiliated with the sneaker business but they don’t have any other reason to come besides for meetings,” Smith told SLAM. “So how can we create something that is for the culture and is based around everything we love about sneakers but it’s not limited to just the business side of things?”

Sneaker Week PDX was the answer to this question for Smith, which turned out to be a seven day affair of sneaker-themed events that featured appearances from cultural legends like Bobbitto Garcia and DJ Clark Kent.

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