In April, 2015, 35-year-old Brad Hall uploaded his first sneaker review video to his personal YouTube channel with no expectations. The professed sneakerhead’s shoe obsession was spawned from a love for Michael Jordan 20 years ago, but he only recently became fascinated with sneaker reviews when he stumbled upon them online. Fast forward today, Hall’s amateur reviews have garnered hundreds of thousands of video views and with only a mere six videos out — whether you’re a Hall fan or not, those numbers speak volumes. With “a different personality than most,” Hall brings an unconventionally satirical angle of dry humor and quirky one-liners to the art of sneaker unboxing, and he’s already proven he’s able to consistently surprise us, whether it be by using a shoehorn, making his own custom shoehorn, or selling a T-shirt with a picture of him holding his custom shoehorn.
Sports Illustrated sat down with Hall to discuss the story behind his sneaker reviews, which he prefers to keep separate from his personal life and career. Hall also discloses that he in fact does buy his own sneakers and dismisses any claims that Complex, Nike, or any other brands have been behind his videos, though he’s incredibly flattered by the notion. Check out excerpts from the interview below.
On the public’s reaction to his videos:
“I was nervous that people would take it the wrong way… [and] there is some of that. For the most part, it is an incredible response.”
“I was completely blown away from the very first video… I thought it would be cool if I got a thousand views. That number seemed ambitious. I was totally overwhelmed by the initial response.”
On the filming process:
“It is not scripted at all… We have a place to shoot it and we set up in my living room, that is about as far as we go with scripting. Everything is me talking about the shoe. I will do a couple passes through to make sure I cover everything. That is the extent of it.”
How he started:
“I’m viewing it as this is me doing my best version of a shoe review… I know I’m not as well informed as some other shoe reviewers. When I think about it, I think about what is the best form of this and I’m going to try my hardest to get close to that. If I tried to not aim for that, it would just be nothing and completely unwatchable.”
“What I noticed about [other] videos and what I thought I could add is seeing the shoes… That was my starting point, seeing if I could have these nice shoe shots and I thought if I had that to start out with, I could be myself with the rest of it.”
On his style of review:
“I would say it is not so much playing for laughs as kind of just trying to make it more engaging in some way… It is a visual thing, so I can’t just sit there and talk about a shoe the entire time. That gets boring. I’m aware that there is a visual element to it and keep that a little bit interesting. If I tried to play for a laugh, I’d probably not be funny.”
On his signature “Michael Air Jordan dunking” line:
“I think it unfortunately took on that kind of life [as a catchphrase]. It has stopped me from wanting to say it any longer. I don’t want it to feel like, ‘Oh, here’s my catchphrase.’ It came out of my mouth and it seemed like a good way of describing what that was. I stuck with it and I think have to lose it.”
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