10 Things You Need to Know About Rick Williams and His Sneaker Collaborations

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If you've looked at Williams' collaborations with Burn Rubber and Distinct Life and wondered why there are a lot of runners, there's a reason for it: That's what Williams likes. And when it comes to Reebok, he prefers the GL 6000. He told us, "Aesthetically I love runners. Tech running is my thing. When I looked at everything that Reebok had to offer, the GL6000 was my favorite silhouette."

When talking about his latest Reebok GL 6000, Williams told us, "It’s a subtle shoe. When you look at it at first glance, you’ll say, 'Ah, this is a shoe I can wear everyday.' But when you get up close and see all the nuances and the material choices, you’ll see what I was trying to get across."

It's a common occurrence to see a sneaker online and get hyped, only to see it on release day and not want to buy it because it looks shoddy. Williams said about this heart-shattering experience, "It happens a lot. There’s a certain huge brand, and when you grab the sneakers, you’re like, 'Man, this is cheap!'

There's endless stories of unreleased sneaker samples, but for Rick Williams, he rarely has to delve into scrapping sneakers. He told us, " Most of the time for the shoes that I design, Burn Rubber and Distinct Life, I’ve got it right in one or two samples."

When you think Rick Williams, you think of Detroit - even though he's originally from Milwaukee. But with his Distinct Life project, he doesn't want the work to be directly inspired by Detroit. He told us, "The only connection to Detroit is this is where I live.  It’s going to come through with some of the projects that I do, but I try and reserve that for my Burn Rubber projects. We try to tell the story of the city through those projects. I’m involved in both, but when I make decisions on what I’m going to do for each project, I try to make decisions to differentiate them from one another."

Getting wrinkles in runners is the worst. Running sneakers are supposed to be light and airy, and Rick Williams thinks so, too. He said, "With a lot of runners, if you use leather on the toebox, then you start to get wrinkles after awhile – like you see on the Air Force 1. That’s wack to me. For me, when I do most of my runners, I got to have mesh on the toebox. If it’s not mesh, it’s going to look beat up way before it needs to be. Then there’s the feel: When someone grabs a shoe, and they’re going to pay over $100, they don’t want it to feel like plastic and cheap."

Shock value is the easiest way to get someone's attention. Just ask Howard Stern or Vince McMahon, but Williams doesn't subscribe to this line of thinking. For Distinct Life Dry Goods, Williams said, " It’s clean and wearable. It’s what I like. There’s a message behind the brand, and it’s a positive message. I feel like there’s a void right now. People try to sell things using shock value, and that’s so clear. I’ve never really been a big fan of that. I could care less. I want to put out something that has a deeper meaning to me and reflects my upbringing."

If you pay attention to Rick Williams' projects or social media, it's obvious that him and Frank the Butcher are close friends. They've worked together in the past, but it's a bigger bond than sneakers that brings them together. Williams said, "Our relationship grew because we have a lot of similar interests – not even in the industry. We have the same type of profession, but it’s about our views on family and life. We found ourselves communicating and talking about these things, and then it developed into doing our “NOVEM” projects. Most of the projects we do, we consult each other on them. "

The majority of Williams' sneakers are understated. That's not a bad thing, and it works for him. But with certain people wanting bright and loud sneakers, Williams didn't totally dismiss him making something bright. He said, "We’ve never done a neon sneaker. The brightest sneaker we’ve ever done, with Burn Rubber, is probably The Spirit of Detroit. When the story calls for it, I think I’m going to use bright colors. But right now, these are the colors that really inspire me."

By now, it's a cliche that Detroit is run down. Rick Williams isn't going to take that and let it bring him down. He said, "You hear about Detroit all the time: the economy, all of the bad things. We make it our point, me and my business partner, we have a voice, people, are listening, and we want to tell them something good."