There have been consistent discussions around the problems of a toxic workplace at Complex. I’m not the person to speak on this aspect as I have never been attached to the company and my connections in the industry tend to be on the business side. However, one of the people who I feel is an industry thought leader and an OG in sneaker culture, Jazerai Allen-Lord, has been leading an ongoing discussion over the absence of Black people and the absence of women in the sneaker industry. Her pinned Twitter post below is over two years old, which is very telling:
When they ask why women don’t have a voice in sneakers —
It’s wild that Complex has 16 news outlets & not ONE targets women.
It’s wild that the only outlets that do, don’t speak to regular women.
It’s wild that I’ve been doing this for 12 yrs & still being asked the same ?s. pic.twitter.com/HSgo2KwmRg
— Jazerai Allen-Lord (@jazzyrae) December 9, 2018
When PENSOLE Director of Operations Stephen Green, tagged a few of us on Twitter to ask if we had seen the show “Sneakerheads”, dialogue began and it hasn’t stopped. Everyone has chimed in and eventually Jazzy delivered a salvo that I hadn’t considered or thought about. I’ll get to that in a moment. Stephen’s original post I took as a dialogue starter:
Waiting for @DeeWellsOSD @OSDLIVE @jazzyrae @JasonMayden @archbyccb to come in about this netflix series before I give it my energy. 2020 be like that.
— Stephen Green (@PDXStephenG) October 1, 2020
I responded to his tweet by saying that I was in the middle of episode 2. I’ve finished episode 2 and my immediate thoughts weren’t about the staff and production team behind the product. My first thought was, “If this was in Memphis and not Los Angeles, it would be ‘The Wire’ with sneakers.” In other words, my experience in resale has more at stake than people flipping hype releases and visiting Flight Club. Resale in Memphis is the foundation and the money hits the millions via individuals, not resale shops. The sneaker scene here is grimy and more closely related to Snowfall . My second thought about Sneakerheads was on the analysis side. The Netflix show could be an extension of Black-Ish. The protagonist, Devin, also works as the assistant to Dre on Black-ish. Anthony Anderson’s character, Dre, is obsessed with sneakers. Whether this was connection was intentional or not, old heads like me see this and it resonates. This grabs the older demographic. King Bach, the comic foil, is known for doing sneaker related Vines a few years ago, so the show captures that demographic as well. Understandably the show is performing well hitting number 4 on Netflix’s daily report.
This is where the good stuff stops. As the Twitter feed began taking shape and people started chiming in, it became apparent that Complex may have co-opted and is capitalizing on an experience rooted in African-American culture, hence the main characters being Black. The show wouldn’t have been as authentic or readily accepted without Black main characters; which brings us back to Jazzy’s speech above and the reality of the research being done on who is behind the scenes. Below is another tweet from Jazzy that is opening the dialogue to a different discussion that I think is important for Complex to see. However, if Jazzy’s pinned tweet is evidence, it seems that the roll that the 200 million dollar a year Complex is on is comparable to other companies who are still hitting their marks even when there are serious issues inside the homebase. I will write my thoughts on Sneakerheads when I finish the season. I don’t like to be influenced, but it might be difficult for me to watch for entertainment when I’m going to be thinking about who is behind the scenes. Jazzy’s tweet is below. Follow her on Twitter:
I would love to know how many Black people worked on this – not just as talent – but behind the scenes. https://t.co/JHufyZnf9G
— Jazerai Allen-Lord (@jazzyrae) August 22, 2020
