Patrick Johnson 
Pusha T’s seen it all within the rap industry – from a legendarily hot start with the Pharrell cosigned Lord Willin‘ as a member of The Clipse with older brother Malice, to major label drama that shelved the follow up Hell Hath No Fury all the way back until 2006. And yet, Pusha’s career shows no signs of slowing down. His debut solo album My Name Is My Name solidified G.O.O.D. Music’s place as a formidable force in the rap industry if not cementing the crew as the preeminent residing kings to knock from the throne. With a gritty depiction of growing up pushing in Virginia and an ear for some of the best production out, at 37 years old, Pusha T’s consistency even has him teaming up with adidas Originals for what could be the concept shoe of the year: the adidas Originals EQT Running Guidance ’93.
So how did a shoe with such ‘Nosetalgia’ get past the conceptualization phase and into the three stripe’s late 2014 release plans? We sat down with King Push to discuss his affinity for cartel referencing soccer jerseys, Pharrell’s impact on not only his sound but his style in the early aughts, and why he had to break away from searching for advice from Skateboard P and Kanye when dealing with his first collaborative effort with adidas Originals. With a cracked leather base, a duplicitous fish scale reference throughout, and a return to gum bottoms, this adidas Originals EQT definitely has our attention. Be sure to stick around for our talk with Pusha T and know that adidas doesn’t have these for cheap – the King Push x EQT Guidance ’93 is available in limited quantities for $200.
The Pusha T x adidas Originals EQT “King Push” arrives at select retailers on December 23rd, 2014 for $200
SN: Your G.O.O.D. Music comrades 2 Chainz and Big Sean got to collaborate atop the Top Ten and Metro Attitude High – both basketball shoes turned lifestyle looks. So what made you pick a shoe with a running background like the adidas EQT Guidance 93?
Pusha T: Well initially man, I had been working with adidas in a performance sense for a little while, and I came to adidas about starting to design soccer jerseys. I’ve been wearing soccer jerseys for around two years now, and what I was doing was putting cartel names on the back of the respective jerseys. Cartel, crime families, whatever, and of course we couldn’t really delve into that with the adidas brand and so forth, but I realized so many people were into that. That didn’t pan out, but they asked me about doing a shoe. I’m really particular about my shoes, and that’s something I think the world is really particular about, so I wasn’t really on-board at first. All-Star weekend we sat down and went through a few silhouettes and the EQT Running Guidance I felt was classic and I was like ‘I can’t mess this up’. The whole adidas Originals campaign is more about lifestyle, and I’m just into that and I thought it meshed well with me and who I am. It made the most sense to me, because I can’t dunk.
SN: What does it say about G.O.O.D. Music that a brand with a history of legendary hip-hop collabs like adidas looks to multiple members of your crew for inspiration?
Pusha T: It’s awesome. I tell people that my 5th grade talent show was be being Run DMC and I literally cried to have an adidas outfit. I had to have it. My brother’s 5 years older than me, so I’m in third grade and he’s 14. My parents made sure that my brother could have cooler things. But I was in the realm of elementary school so they thought it didn’t matter much to me, but I was passing out to have this stuff. Run DMC was my favorite group, so there were a lot of things that coming up culturally, just makes this synonymous with hip-hop, rap, and my love for it. I’m just glad to be able to have that stat. And that’s how I look at it, I really look at it as a stat – being a part of the adidas family.
SN: Pharrell has collaborated with adidas Originals multiple times and has had a huge impact on your career given that he produced most of your classic first album, Lord Willin’. At any point did you seek out advice from Pharrell when dealing with the adidas Originals EQT Guidance ’93?
Pusha T: No, man I actually didn’t. I really look at him specifically as a mentor for so much. Definitely music, but the whole streetwear culture. We were sort of embraced early on by Japanese streetwear with BAPE and all that. From being embraced in that world, I’ve learned that I had to build my own path away from what it is P does, so I make it my business to try and take away as much of his taste level, or even Kanye as of late, to twist it to my demographic specifically. I think I translate everything really well to the streets. Really well. And I think a lot of my demographic looks at Pharrell sometimes and is like ‘I can’t do that’. But they’ll see me do a variation and it makes sense for them to try it. His influence didn’t come direct to the sneaker, it just comes naturally because that is my mentor.
SN: Around the time that you were coming up prior to Lord Willin‘ what adidas shoes were you going after?
Pusha T: The Stan Smith, always. The adidas Samba and always the classic shell-toe. Those have always been my go-to’s. The Stan Smith as of late has been another favorite of mine. I’m finding myself rocking it with more of what I’m wearing today, still.
SN: Fish Scales, Cracked leather, it’s pretty obvious you’re paying homage to the 80s. Was there any hiccups along the way in releasing a shoe with such (if you will) Nosetalgia?
Pusha T: Nah, man I think everything was done in a real tasteful, specific, artful way. I mean, it’s Italian cracked leather. It’s beautiful. I think that the color palette just speaks to people, especially coming from me – it speaks to people really boldly. But [as far as the process of creating the shoe] everything ran really smoothly.
SN: With Kanye working on the YeeZi and Big Sean and 2 Chainz having already released collaborative efforts with adidas, was there any inner-crew competition to try and one-up the previous designs from your G.O.O.D. Music camp?
Pusha T: They might not know it, but I’m competitive as hell. This was happening and I got some drafts of the shoe when I was with Mexico working with ‘Ye, and he’s also working on his sneaker as well so, they don’t know. But you can hear it from me first – I’ve always wanted to have the freshest sneaker of everybody.
