Here we are, part 6. Last week we took a look back at Air Pippen 18 and this week we revisit a pioneer among pioneers in the Internet shoe game. Every major sneaker site today should feature the face of Charles L Perrin, founder of Charlies Sneaker Page somewhere on the homepage of their site.
Founded in 1995 (waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay before just about every sneaker site you can think of), Charlies Sneaker page was schooling the youth not just on the usual like Nike, Reebok and Adidas
but on brands like Mr Sneekers, Tommy Hilfiger and even Fayva (yea FAYVA).
A frequent destination point for me over the years, he covered brands and sneakers dating back to the early 1900’s and was a huge inspiration for what I do on DeFY New York.
Charlies passion for sneakers shines on every single page of his site, from the post of his co-workers kicks
to the posts about cardiologists and sneakers
there was no doubt that Charlie exemplifies what the ultimate shoehead is all about. In addition to fliks of his co-workers kicks (I can’t imagine what they were thinking when he asked them to do that seeing as how even today people don’t realize that sneaker culture is in fact a culture) he also featured shots from his own collection.
The icing on the cake? It isn’t the write ups on the differences between varying years of Converse box’s
nor the post on gas station sneakers
and not even the write up on Jason Preisly sporting one of Charlie and mines favorite sneakers, the Nike Flight 90.
No, the icing on the cake is how Charlie did his own thing and let his own personality and interests shape the site into something uniquely all his own. He wasn’t trying to emulate another site or post what he thought would make him accepted into a particular scene and for that he gets a standing ovation. Mapping software and Ancestory on footwear site? Yezzir.
We even got the once every couple of years updated flik of Charlie
As for Charlies personal life and background here it is in his own words:
“I was born in 1955 at Independence, Jackson County, Missouri (suburban Kansas City), at what was then known as the Independence Sanitarium and Hospital. At that time, it was a ministry of the Community of Christ. It is now part of HCA Midwest and called Independence Regional Health Center, although local people more likely than not call it the “Sanitarium.” (One of the hospital walls has the old name cut in stone… the hospital Web site mentions their history and states that they were once known as the Independence Sanitarium.) Former President Harry Truman retired a couple of years earlier, and lived about two-thirds of a mile to the east on (appropriately named) Truman Road.
Little Charlie was quite a handful growing up (sometimes, people wonder if he has grown up…):
He did the most amazing things!
One of his favorite bedtime stories.
I grew up outside of Buckner, Jackson County, Missouri:
Our little town bank, once the First State Bank of Buckner, also grew up. It’s now the First National Bank of Missouri.
The local weekly newspaper, the Gazette Weekly, is on-line.
The Mid-Continent Public Library (described by my nephews, when they were little, as “the best library in the whole world”) had plenty of books.
My K-12 Education was at the Buckner School, Levasy School, Fort Osage Junior High, and Fort Osage High School. These are all part of the Fort Osage School District, headquartered near the center of the district in rural Independence, Jackson County, Missouri.
When I was in high school, I took some vocational electronics training. I went through the two years of material in one year! My instructor thought I should go into some type of engineering. This was at the Career and Technology Center at Fort Osage (then known as the Fort Osage Area Vocational-Technical School).
After I graduated from high school, I went to college for that engineering degree. After four years and two sessions of summer school, I got a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering in 1977 at the University of Missouri-Columbia at Columbia, Boone County, Missouri.
After college, I went to work at Boeing in 1977 for 32 years. Spent about half of my time working on the International Space Station.” While a lot of dudes were in diapers, or playing Mortal Kombat at the arcade this dude was busy working on the International Space Station……………In the words of Rick Ross, BAWZ.
Today Charlies Sneaker Page lives on but updates aren’t very frequent. You wouldn’t visit the site for the latest on shoe releases or polls of shoes that should come back. You won’t find any hot ladies in your favorite sneakers but you will find lots of great information and a site that still brings you back to a more simple time for sneaker culture. If you consider yourself a die hard shoe head make sure and check out Charlies Sneaker Page today.
