Joe Freshgoods on New Balance, Chicago Style, and New DocumentaryNew Balance Fresh Foam More V3 Laufschuhe

Joe Freshgoods has cemented his status as one of the most its voices in sneaker culture. A native of Chicago, Freshgoods is known for his innovative, eye-catching community-based designs that have influenced many who have come after him.

As a Creative Director of New Balance, Freshgoods is set to release his New Balance 2010 collaboration, the 11th installment of his partnership with the brand. He's also a brand ambassador for Chase Bank as a #ChaseInkPartner.

chaussures new balance bleu et noir caught up with Freshgood to discuss how the city of Chicago influenced his style, the state of the sneaker industry, and his upcoming documentary, Aged Well.

When did you first discover your inspiration as a designer and creative?

It started with the color pink. Around 2002-2003, when Cam'ron started wearing pink. I don't want to get that much credit to Harlem [laughs], but that was a moment in time where I wanted to make something I couldn't find in stores.

When some pink and green Nike Dunks came out, and I wanted to find something that matched,  I ended up going to the beauty supply store and found a little pink t-shirt and had pink on the back of it. After that, I was like, "Okay, let me just make my clothes. That's kind of how it started for me.

How has Chicago inspired your style?

Now everybody looks the same, but I love the way people look in DC, New York, and Philly. Chicago got a little bit more flair. It's more flashy. I love regional style. I love it when you could tell somebody was from Houston or even Chicago, from the South Side, West Side. It's a melting pot now. But I just feel like it's hard to tell now. But in the early 90s and early 2000s, from a Chicago view, it was like we all were being flashy with our looks. That definitely inspired me.

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I'm a creature in my environment and what I have access to. Early on, I was just buying Converse and silkscreening on them for $150 and selling them for  $350. I got on Converse's radar, and I was moving around doing cool things. I got on adidas' radar, but nobody actually invested and gave me a sneaker deal.

I was doing these one-off city projects. I ended up signing with adidas, with no lawyer, a two-shoe deal, and I thought I was rich. After a while, I felt like I got signed, but I got benched. When my contract expired, New Balance was like, 'We're not going to make you a role player, but a star player.' They made me a star player, and the rest of history.

You’ve set the sneaker industry on fire with your collections, and you’re celebrating five years with the brand. How does it feel to have New Balance value your artistic vision?

Before I got to New Balance, I thought that I had to prove myself more, because sometimes you gotta look and see who else is on that team. Y'all already have Kanye West, Pharrell Williams,  maybe I'm not important to y'all.

That's why it was good to go to a place where I could show my worth and be that star player. In full transparency, I didn't look at New Balance like it was for us. I thought it was for people from D.C. I tell people all the time, sometimes it's cool not to know about a company, because you get to come in with a fresh perspective.

You can change stuff up. I knew a lot about Nike, Adidas, and the Jordan Brand. With New Balance. I was just like, 'I don't know what model that is, but I'll make it pink.' You know I'm saying?

How has sneaker culture changed since you first started with New Balance until now? What are some of the pros and cons that you see today?

I think I've helped shape a lot of people's deals. I think I do a really good job tapping in with my peers, and I think the industry is a bit more transparent now. So I think nowadays, there's more transparency in the space.

I'm not even being cocky, but I can tell because of my relationship with New Balance that a lot more brands are investing in smaller traders. I wasn't a big name, but when you give us a shot, we can turn up with the Travis Scotts of the world.  I think I helped open that door for a lot of people who look like me, who might not be a big name worldwide, to make a big impact worldwide, to move the hombre. 

buy new balance alpha industries 574 Aged Well and to tell your story about your journey as a sneaker designer?

It was cool.  It started off as a smaller project, like 15 minutes. 15 minutes was supposed to be 15 minutes. Wow. But the more we put our time into it after spending almost three and a half years working on it, we had so much footage.

The main reason I wanted to make that doc was that I wanted to put stuff on visually, show everybody how this stuff worked. Before I signed these deals, I didn't think the common person knew what a good or bad sneaker deal was.

Where we come from, we just want to make a show with our name on it. But what happens when you sell a lot of pairs and a company says they made billions of dollars is like, we look at stuff as a come-up, or it's a dream come true, but it doesn’t mean it's right for us financially. I just became a good hombre person on what's fair.

When I started in 2020, I bought 800 pairs, had a $200,000 invoice, and didn't always gonna pay it like I wanted to show young people exactly how it happens in the ups and downs. So I  wanted to give a backstory, the ups and downs, trials and tribulations about being in a sneaker space. 

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