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For most Boston sports fans, the New England Patriots’ unbelievable Super Bowl comeback ranks as the city’s top athletic accomplishment of 2017. For us more concerned with style than scoreboard? We’re gonna go with the teenager that ran around the Red Sox in Yeezys and a Bape hoodie.
Meet Lucas Volpe. At 14-years-old and gaining internet attention for hitting the juke stick on Fenway Park security in items most either covet or condemn, it’s easy to write off the outlandish antic as a kid being a kid and the gear being for the ‘gram. While such conclusions are easy to assume — and provided context for some hilarious photo captions by the way — after talking to Lucas for only a short while it’s easy to find that like most youngsters, and hopefully for most of us millennials, fun is actually more important than fame and liking yourself is even more important than getting likes from others.
How do we know? We caught up with the Four-Pins favorite on the phone for a candid convo about why he likes Bape, his parents’ reaction to running out on the field and wanting to work in footwear or fashion. Hear what he had to say below.
Nice Kicks: To start, tell us a little about yourself.
Lucas Volpe: I’m 14 and I’m from Oxford, Massachusetts. I’m in eighth grade and I’m a sneakerhead.
Nice Kicks: When’d you first get into sneakers?
Lucas Volpe: Back in 6th grade when the Air Jordan 6 “Sport Blue” came out I was obsessed with them. I got them and then I just started flipping shoes.
Nice Kicks: That’s awesome. You’ll have to let me know about flipping kicks because for me, I’m 29 and a little removed from that era.
Lucas Volpe: I mostly trade shoes. I do sell, too, but I trade most. I do it through Instagram and Facebook.
Nice Kicks: Do you always make sure to go to a safe location when you do meet-ups?
Lucas Volpe: Yeah.
Nice Kicks: Way to be, that stuff can get sketchy. Have you always been a Red Sox fan?
Lucas Volpe: Yeah! I’ve always been a fan, I probably go to like five games a season. I just love the Red Sox. I used to play baseball, but now I just play football and run track. I run the 4 x 1, throw discuss and I run the 200. I play tailback and corner in football.
Nice Kicks: Transitioning to the game… First off, fire outfit. What went into picking that out?
Lucas Volpe: I had just went to CNCPTS the day before and I saw the Bape hoody. I had planned on running on the field so I knew I had to get one of those. I’d always wanted one, so I had saved up. I picked that out, and then the “Red Octobers” I had been saving up forever. Once I had enough money for them I got them on Christmas Day, I bought them from my friend. Then the David Ortiz jersey I didn’t even have until right before the game. I knew I had to wear something Red Sox so I put that on over the Bape hoody.
Then the cargo shorts, that was the worst decision. The internet roasted me for that. [Laughs] I just wore those to be able to run in them. I didn’t have any other shorts, so I picked those over True Religion jeans so I could run faster.
Nice Kicks: Bricked an outfit with cargo shorts myself. So you’d been planning for a while to run on the field?
Lucas Volpe:: Yeah. Last summer some kid from Massachusetts ran across the field in a Harambe #69 jersey and I thought that was the funniest thing ever. So I wanted to do it, but I wanted to do it in something that was my style — Yeezys and Bape.
Nice Kicks: I’m gonna keep it real, I thought it was pretty funny. For anyone out there saying it’s bad or you shouldn’t have done it, any words for them?
Lucas Volpe: [Laughs] I mean, I think it’s funny. I don’t really care. There’s a bunch of people saying it’s bad and there’s a bunch of people saying it’s awesome. To people saying it’s bad, they’ve just gotta live life. You only live once.
Nice Kicks: I must say, nice moves juking out security. You were like Devin Hester or Dante Hall if you ever Youtube them. Was it a pretty big adrenaline rush going out there?
Lucas Volpe: To be honest, all I remember is putting my foot on the wall and jumping over. After that, it’s all a blank. I remember seeing phones and people screaming, but the adrenaline got to me and I don’t even remember doing it.
Nice Kicks: That was super gutsy of you though. I never wanna see anybody get in trouble or get hurt, but it’s easy for all of us — myself included — to take life, sports or ourselves too seriously. With that said, did you get in much trouble for it?
Lucas Volpe: They took me out of the stadium and they were about to bring me to the Boston Police Station, but my parents were at the game. Once they saw me run on the field, I guess they sprinted out of the stadium and started looking for. They came and got me and the police let me go, but I have to go to court on April 19th for disturbing the peace, disturbing an assembly and trespassing.
Nice Kicks: Good luck man. I had some growing pains too but I don’t think they were as funny or cool as yours. A lot of the headlines and tweets used the word ‘hypebeast’ which can be kind of polarizing. How do you feel about that word?
Lucas Volpe: I mean hypebeast? I wouldn’t say I’m a hypebeast. Honestly, before I didn’t even know what a Bape hoody was. I saw people wearing them on Instagram and thought they looked cool. I thought they were like cheap, $50 sweatshirts. [Laughs] Once I really got into shoes and clothes and saw how much they were I just saved up and bought one for myself because I thought they were cool. I’m not really wearing it to stunt on anyone, I’m just wearing it because I like it. Then with the Yeezys, I’ve just always been in love with those.
Nice Kicks: Definitely. I think a lot of people my age and older assume with social media and our own age that kids just like stuff because of hype, or Kanye wearing it or likes. It seems to me like you just wear what you like. Would you agree with that?
Lucas Volpe: Yeah, I just wear whatever I want. If you see me at school, I wear totally different clothes from anybody else at my school. Everybody’s wearing like neon Nikes and I’m wearing Bape hoodies with Supreme shirts. I don’t know, I don’t wear what most people wear I just choose whatever I like, personally. I don’t really do stuff online as much, I mostly buy all my stuff in stores. I go into sneaker stores and talk to the workers about shoes for like hours.
Nice Kicks: That’s tight. Are you hoping to work in clothes or sneakers someday?
Lucas Volpe: Yeah. I’d love to do that.
Nice Kicks: So on Bape, the first time you saw it was on IG?
Lucas Volpe: Yeah. The first time I saw Bape was on @harvog’s Instagram and I was like, ‘What’s this?’ I thought it was funny at first — seeing adults wear zip-up hoodies all the way. Once I researched it I was like, ‘Holy shit, $450 for a sweatshirt?’ I thought it was crazy. I couldn’t pay that much until I actually started making money and could afford one so I had to get one for myself.
Nice Kicks: That’s sick, I’ve still never coughed up the coin for a Bape hoody. Next level, too, wearing it under a jersey. As far as getting money to cop Bape and Yeezys, is that more like standard kid stuff like mowing the lawn and doing chores or is it flipping shoes?
Lucas Volpe: I have a job. I work at a restaurant in the town next to mine so I make money doing that. Then I make a lot of money reselling shoes.
Nice Kicks: You ever see the movie Waiting?
Lucas Volpe: Uhh, no.
Nice Kicks: You should check it out.
Nice Kicks: In regards to running on field, is this the last time you’ll do it or plans to do it again?
Lucas Volpe: I mean, I want to do it again but I want to do it after different stadiums. I want to do it at Yankee Stadium, I want to do it at some big stadiums. Next time, I’ll probably be wearing the same outfit to make it standout. That’s me.
Nice Kicks: So you’d do the “Red Octobers” and the Ortiz jersey at Yankees Stadium?
Lucas Volpe: Yeah, I’ll think about that.
Nice Kicks: You got guts, keep livin’ life.
free this man pic.twitter.com/bxtiWX2VMj
— Four Pins (@Four_Pins) April 4, 2017
Keep up with Lucas on IG and be sure to remember that clothes, sneakers and life are fun.
