The Man Behind the Sneakers: From Yeezy to Building His Own Footwear Company | Omar Bailey

Where did your passion for the footwear space and wanting to be in the footwear space, like where did this begin?

Uh, man, it started-- My passion for footwear started as a, as a young lad, as a seven-year-old, um, in New York.

Um, you know, I was born in New York.

Both of my parents are, uh, from the island of, of Jamaica.

Um, and, uh, and in the, in the early '90s, late '80s, early '90s was when the craze of the Air Jordans started, which is kinda hard for people to, to believe 'cause Jordans are so obviously popular and so, excuse me, so many people have them.

But to think that there was actually a time where this didn't exist and it was new, um, that's exactly what happened.

And as a result, there was a lot of sort of violence and crime that took place around people, um, that wanted the shoes really badly.

You know, it was, it was new.

You never saw lines forming outside a Foot Locker and sneaker stores.

So with that came, you know, with all that, with those great times came, like I said, a lot of bad times and resulted in a lot of violence and, and even, you know, some fatalities, and that scared my parents, so they refused to buy me the shoes as a result of that.

Uh, and um, so I turned to my sketchbook and started sketching and drawing sneakers.

And I had said to myself, if I couldn't have the physical shoe, um, to myself, then, uh, I guess drawing them on paper was the, the next best thing for me.

So that, that's where the, the passion really began for, for shoes and sneakers.

Where did your passion for the footwear space and wanting to be in the footwear space, like where did this begin?

Uh, man, it started-- My passion for footwear started as a, as a young lad, as a seven-year-old, um, in New York.

Um, you know, I was born in New York.

Both of my parents are, uh, from the island of, of Jamaica.

Um, and, uh, and in the, in the early '90s, late '80s, early '90s was when the craze of the Air Jordans started, which is kinda hard for people to, to believe 'cause Jordans are so obviously popular and so, excuse me, so many people have them.

But to think that there was actually a time where this didn't exist and it was new, um, that's exactly what happened.

And as a result, there was a lot of sort of violence and crime that took place around people, um, that wanted the shoes really badly.

You know, it was, it was new.

You never saw lines forming outside a Foot Locker and sneaker stores.

So with that came, you know, with all that, with those great times came, like I said, a lot of bad times and resulted in a lot of violence and, and even, you know, some fatalities, and that scared my parents, so they refused to buy me the shoes as a result of that.

Uh, and um, so I turned to my sketchbook and started sketching and drawing sneakers.

And I had said to myself, if I couldn't have the physical shoe, um, to myself, then, uh, I guess drawing them on paper was the, the next best thing for me.

So that, that's where the, the passion really began for, for shoes and sneakers.