We chat to TFL Engineer, Content Creator and Offspring Community Member TJ.
Tell us about yourself
Hi everybody, my name’s Tejinder, but most people call me TJ for short. Everybody knows me on social media as ‘Lovekickscustom’. I was born in East Africa (Tanzania), and I moved across to the UK when I was 4 years old. I currently reside in Northwest London but have lived majority of my life in East London (Wanstead, East Ham, and Ilford). I work as a Senior Engineer for TfL and a part time (if you want to call it part time) content creator.
We understand you have your own sneaker podcast show. Can you tell us how you got started?
To be honest the podcast wasn’t really my idea. Me and a couple of other amazing sneakerheads from around the world (East Africa, US, and Mexico) essentially started doing lives through COVID in late 2020 under the ‘Straight to the Toe’ banner.
In the background off social media, we would have 5–6-hour video call conversations each week about sneakers, what’s coming in, what we thought about certain situations, what’s next, what should be the next brand strategy etc. This led to further banter and the word Shoe Dog Mentality being coined by Quentin (my fellow Shoe Dog Podcast host 808 Kick ATL) from Phil Knight’s Shoe Dog memoirs book. We would virtually throw the Shoe Dog book at each other for showcasing ‘Shoe Dog Mentality’. In 2021, Quentin approached me to do the Podcast as he thought I was the perfect fit for the podcast, and he had been thinking about starting a Podcast for a while.
What was your inspiration behind starting your own Podcast show?
Essentially the inspiration behind the podcast was to make it informative and fun for the audience. Be insightful, bring attention to the gossip and subject matters for the week, which means we delve into the fascinating stories, headlines, and companies like MSCHF and high-end brands and collaborations. You would be surprised at how much drama, news, gossip, and rumours circulate in the sneaker world (which people may presumably is a small platform, but you will be surprised). Our aim is to give our opinion on set subjects and strategies, and we always look at trends, which myself and Q and may other fellow sneakerheads always talk about in real life instances.
I think fundamentally the excitement behind sneakers is what drives us week after week and sometimes we hit the nail on the head like predicting the Jordan 1 Chicago 6 months before it was announced or even the A Ma Maniére collaboration before the rumours emerged (if you don’t believe me, go and check out the podcast lol). This allows us to keep other sneakerheads in the loop for what they would have essentially missed during the week. Sometimes we also bringing our ideas and strategies to the podcast, which gets the creative juices going. I essentially think it centres on the love for sneakers and what we would love to see from the brands by including what we think the brands should bring to the table (Jordan 5 Tokyo T23 in 2025 for the 35th anniversary, fingers crossed plus you heard it here first haha).
In the past year or so of doing the Podcast, we have introduced features like ‘Loose’, ‘Choose or Dump’ (loose a sneaker to the community, choose a sneaker for all or dump a sneaker out of existence), ‘Sneaker Court of Public Opinion’ (where myself and Q take bad behaviour and practices to court, plus you get to see me wear a judges wig) and ‘Myth Busters’ along with many others which made it even more fun for us as well as the audience and guests that come on.
In general, it’s the passion that drives us and I guess that my passion started with me taking photos of sneakers to showcase details and designs and enhancing the character of the sneaker by using props to elaborate the aesthetics to the environment. It’s as if the design of the sneaker amalgamates to the surrounding environment, like as if the passion of the sneaker is influencing and contaminating the surround world, just like how a sneaker persuades a person’s confidence. To me that’s simply amazing.
So, using special occasions like Halloween, Christmas or Easter, incense sticks and candle lighting – all enhance the character of the sneaker and bring a different dimension. They also enhance the sneaker itself, which tells a story as well as giving better visuals to other sneakerheads.
What’s been the greatest and hardest thing you’ve had to come across?
I think the hardest thing is the constant juggle between the 9-5 job, the YouTube channel, the Podcast, everything I do on social media and my personal life. Life is about taking risks and putting yourself out there otherwise you may essentially regret not fulfilling your goals, dreams, and ambitions.
How long have you been into sneakers and how did you get into them?
Personally, I’ve been into sneakers ever since I saw somebody wear Reebok classics in school. The capability to not afford sneakers early in my childhood due our financial circumstances hasn’t really stunned my desire to want sneakers and when I was able to afford sneakers in my late teens, I went on a whole Timberland phase, picking up different colourways and silhouettes and designs. Essentially my ‘proper’ rotation started in mid-2016 when I was more able to pick up pairs freely and grow my love for sneakers.
Do you have any early sneaker memory?
It has to be the one and only time my parents bought me a pair of Puma Weave Zip (or something similar) in light tanned brown as a 12-year-old. Being a naive 12-year-old, I wore it on a day when it rained, and it got muddy in the playground. Let’s just say that sneaker lasted approximately 9 hours lol. You live and you learn!
One of the mottos for my YouTube videos is “I hope you cop the sneakers you like, because you all deserve to get the sneaker you want”, so I always try and help assist the people I know pick up the pair they want.
Do you have any sneaker regrets and what is your sneaker grail?
Well on one such occasion I ended up picking up a pair of PSG Jordan 5’s for a work colleague and I missed out for myself. As my love for the Nike and Jordan range was still growing at the time, I regret that decision now. The icing on the sour dough cheesecake is that I missed out on the Black Metallic Jordan 5 in 2016, which is my ultimate grail and my favourite sneaker and the PSG Jordan 5’s would have gone nicely as a substitute in the meantime. 2025 I am waiting on you to deliver!
What sneakers are in your rotation currently?
Currently I am gearing my rotation to spring/summertime, so all the Suede silhouettes will be making an appearance. Sneakers like the Jordan 5 Bluebirds, Jordan 13 Solefly, Jordan 5 Raging Bulls, Jordan 8 Rui Hachimura Black Samurai, Jordan 6 Travis Scott British Khaki and Jordan 4 UNC’s will be making appearances along with many others.
Aside from sneakers what else are you into?
I gym a lot. I like to keep my mind and body tuned and I find resistance training helps me to destress and find my inner calmness. This allows me to focus on the essentials like self-improvement and helping other on their journeys of improvement and success, but it generally helps me improve my overall mood and focus.
What does community mean to you?
This is quite a difficult one to answer. Community to me is more of a feeling, like a natural meeting of like-minded people that come together, that grow together, that want to help each other excel. Like a feeling of belonging, like you were meant to be there, but you also know that each person within that community or group are looking out for each other’s interests because we all wanted each person to grow and be successful. We are also all free to express our thoughts and knowledge safely but most importantly it’s a fun and safe space.
What’s next for Shoe Dog Podcast?
The next steps for the Shoe Dog Podcast would be to keep improving. After 67 episodes we are still looking to improve with every episode. We are now on all the audio channels, and we have had great reception on the audio platforms, which is awesome. The next phase is to get monetised eventually which will come naturally, keep improving the hardware set ups and hopefully do a podcast with both of us in the same room, as Q resides in Atlanta and I’m obviously from the UK. As Q my co-host would say, we are going to keep doing this until the wheels fall off, and let’s just say the wheels are firmly bolted on and we’re having too much fun driving this runaway car to ever stop.
Check out more from TJ on Instagram @lovekickscustom and on YouTube
