Nice Kicks: The shoe has quite a bit of history. There were some pretty important people that wore the shoe that people might not even think or associate with Pro-Keds. Were there any NBA players you remember wearing the shoes?

Bobbito: As far as the Royal Flash, I can’t really remember any NBA player playing in them. I just saw it on the streets which is the beauty of it for me. Anytime I would go play ball at 120th (between 2nd and 3rd), I saw cats wearing the Royal Flash. It wasn’t a shoe that we relied on for pro endorsements to accept it. We kind of took it and endorsed it ourselves. Now, Pro-Keds as a brand, definitely has a long list of amazing NBA Players. If your from that era it was the players that we always wanted to emulate like Pistol Pete Maravich, Tiny Archibald and Kareem Abdul-Jabaar who wore Pro Keds. On the Hip Hop side, just read my book. I asked Africa Bambatta about Pro-Keds 69ers, and he just started flippin. That was the shoe he was wearing to DJ when he was creating this very culture. Crazy Legs is on record saying the 69ers and the Super Pro Keds were his favorite sneakers to break in. It’s a lot of history with the brand in terms of heritage and the 7os. It’s cool that a 19-year-old has no idea of that unless their heavy into reading my book like a Jeremy Ripley or yourself. I think their is a lot of potential for the Royal Flash, and we have already designed a low cut that will come out in 2010 if this Hi-top is successful, so I’m happy about it! I designed seven shoes for the 25th anniversary of the Air Force 1 that blew out. I designed a shoe for the 35th anniversary of the Adidas Superstar that blew out. Those are the two most iconic shoe designs in the history of our culture besides the Chuck Taylor. The Royal Flash’s whole generation of people is not even familiar with Pro Keds, so it’s a real challenge. With the help of Nice Kicks and other sneaker blogs, people will hopefully? accept it, and realize that this is a fly shoe. It’s comfortable and it looks fresh on the feet. If it sells, that’s a victory for me. It will be the first time I have really put my touch to a shoe and made it happen because of me.

Sneakerology 101 class at Carnegie Melon

Nice Kicks: What importance do you think sneakers have in the role of passing down history to the next generations?

Bobbito: I think some times it has no role at all and sometimes it has a huge role. I don’t anticipate that a large percentage of the people that go and buy the Bobbito Royal Flash even care about the history and the heritage. They are just going to be like, yo, these joints are hot and the price is right. I’m not going to see like 50 billion people with the same sneaker. I can feel unique. If you’re a connoisseur, you would be intrigued by the history and want to buy my book or pick up the Just For Kicks DVD. If you read Nice Kicks everyday, you know.

To read page 3 of the interview click here.