Sep 1, 2021
It’s easy to be a sneakerhead in big cities like New York, LA and Chicago, but being a sneakerhead in a small town can be a completely different ball game. That’s especially true if that small town is Elkton, Kentucky, where the population sits at around 2,000 residents and the sneaker culture is nearly nonexistent. But being a small town sneakerhead doesn’t bother 20-year-old college student Chelsea Dortch. In fact, she says being a sneakerhead in Elkton is what makes her unique.
In a town where tobacco farming is the primary occupation, most Elkton residents dress in jeans, tees and work boots most days. Chelsea, however, describes her style as clean, always picking her footwear first so that they remain the statement piece of her toe-to-head fit. As for where she cops her kicks, Chelsea says she shops online, through sneaker apps and at the Hibbett Sports store in Hopkinsville, Kentucky.
“Being one of the only sneakerheads in Elkton is kinda odd because I kinda stick out,” Chelsea says. “I also have people that don’t understand any of it, but they [my sneakers] are what make me me, and that’s all the matters.”
Sneakerheads come in all shapes, sizes, colors, genders, and locations.
You don't have to be from Chicago to know Mike.
You don't have to be from Uptown to know Uptowns.
In fact, some of the biggest hotspots for sneakerheads and sneaker culture are in the small towns across America, and no one knows the small town sneakerhead scene like Hibbett | City Gear.
Hibbett started small in rural Alabama in 1945, and this year we're celebrating 75 years of small town sneaker culture and shining the spotlight on small town sneakerheads across the nation in partnership with Nike and Nice Kicks.
Small Town Sneakerhead is a multi-episode video series that showcases the diversity among footwear enthusiasts, taking viewers through a day in the life of several footwear aficionados and sneaker collectors as they share their stories about how they got into sneaker collecting, what's in their collections, and what they are most excited about for the future of sneaker culture.
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