In early 2011, Sneaker News stumbled upon a cluster of impressive eBay listings put together by an unknown individual known only by his eBay handle ‘Sneaks Kicks’. As the excitement began to mount around his incredible collection of listings, Sneaker News felt compelled to explore the true depths of this amazing collection of sneakers. We flew out to San Diego and was greeted by Jordan Geller, the owner and curator of what he called the ‘ShoeZeum’, and we were treated to a jaw-dropping tour of what is likely one of the greatest accumulations of leather and laces in the game’s history; beyond the mere accumulation of sneakers were categorized exhibits inspired by his own upbringing, with all of the exhibit props and trinkets fully stocked from purchases and trades from local swap-meets.
Not long after Sneaker News provided the first and only in-depth tour of the ShoeZeum, the entire sneaker world and even local and national news outlets picked up the story; Jordan Geller and ‘ShoeZeum’ had become household names and some of Nike’s highest brass, like Mark Parker and Tinker Hatfield, took the trip down to San Diego themselves – and even they were impressed at the pure Nike-driven passion. Geller even auctioned off personal Willy Wonka-style tours to the ShoeZeum (with all generated profits going straight to the Livestrong charity). Unfortunately, the ShoeZeum had to be temporarily closed and the massive sneaker collection piled into a storage space, but we’ve received some great news from Jordan himself: the ShoeZeum will be re-opening in the near future at a new location in Las Vegas. We’ll keep you updated on this progress of this grand re-opening and you can bet the farm the he’s grown his collection considerably since we were there almost a year and a half ago, so check out the amazing video of Jordan disassembling the ShoeZeum pair by pair, as well as a look at the apartment that housed the collection while it awaits the future Las Vegas location!