words_Jordan Hagedorn

A couple months ago in Denver, I had the chance to chat with Melo about Eastbay and being a Sneakerhead. While I was out there, I was able to watch the 2010 Future Sole Melo M7 category winner Allen Largin present his design to Carmelo. Allen’s hard work paid off as he explained the inspiration, sketches, materials and final design to an impressed Melo. Melo told Allen, “I like it. I like it a lot, man. I can tell that you put a lot of thought, a lot of my inspiration into the shoe.”

After the presentation, Melo gave Allen a unique autographed wooden Future Sole plaque for him to remember his trip by. That wasn’t the only thing D’Wayne and Melo had in store for the 16-year-old from Michigan. D’Wayne pulled out a duffle bag that had three 3-D Z-core models of the redesigned Future Sole version of the M7. The three colorways were Black/Red, Blue/Red/White (paying homage to Melo’s Puerto Rican heritage) and Orange (linking back to Melo’s college, Syracuse). The revamped Jordan Melo M7 Future Sole (which can be seen in the video) features Flywire and a big Jumpman on the side.

Along with seeing Allen’s presentation, I also talked to Melo briefly about how the Future Sole Design Competition came about and his on-going involvement. When discussing the nationwide competition he said, “[Designing shoes] is something I enjoy doing. [Future Sole is] giving high school and college kids the opportunity to design shoes who may never have the opportunity ever again, so that’s how the program started.”