The Co-Founder of One of Europe's Best Sneaker Shows Shares His Favorite Sneakers

It's pretty hard to be a sneakerhead from the UK and not know about Crepe City. In fact, it's pretty hard not to know about the event if you're a sneakerhead anywhere in Europe. The buying and selling event — which was born out of an online forum — is now in its sixth year, and is bigger than ever, with more sellers, visitors and brands taking part on the day then ever before.

As you'd expect, Crepe City Co-Founder Ron Raichura has been into sneakers for a long time, with the interest taking hold when he was young; "I’ve always been interested in shoes, since I was young" but he attributes his love for collecting to his parents views on sneakers. As is often heard of, Ron was brought up with the ethos of getting one pair of kicks, wearing them into the ground, and then getting a new pair, and since he first was able to spend his own money on kicks, he's known that was what he wanted to do.

But when you oversee what is the one of the largest buying and selling platforms for sneakers in the UK, and you run one of the best sneaker events in Europe, and you've been collecting sneakers yourself for around 15 years, how hard is it to pick out ten of your favorite kicks? We spoke to Ron and asked him to do just that, so scroll to find out what he chose, and why.

"Fusing together two of my favourite shoes; a dunk inspired by the Black/Cement Air Jordan 3. Along with the fact that it was a collab between two of my favourite brands, this was always going to rank highly on my list. A timeless classic for me."

"From what I understand this was the second wave sample for this collaboration. I'm a massive fan of the Gel Saga and have been a big supporter of FP since the St. Ann's Court days, so this one-off sample means a lot to me."

"This was the shoe that really got the ball rolling for me. I remember my parents copping these for me in Foot Locker in the Summer of 2001 and then proceeding to wear my pair into the ground over the next six years or so. I was delighted to find a DS pair kicking around for the low in 2006."

"The flux is one of my favourite solhouettes to debut in recent years and it was a real pleasure to work with adidas Originals on the global launch of this shoe. I was really grateful to be given these by adidas, and they have no become an un-official badge of honour for the Crepe City team."

"The attention to detail and luxury touches from Supreme on this collab really set it apart from what other collaborative projects were doing at the time. All three of the colourways really impressed me but the red is my favourite."

The Spiridon has always been a favourite of mine and the silver and concord colourway on these is just crazy. Definitely a classic Nike silhouette that requires a retro soon."

"I'm a really big fan of the Gel Lyte III, and these are easily the best colourway in my eyes, the turquoise Ronnie Fieg used on these is eye-catching and truly beautiful. It was also a real difficulty to obtain a pair of these with only 252 ever released, making it even more satisfying to fiunally have a pair in my collection."

"These are easily my favourite Air Max 1 colourway. Released in limited numbers — predominantly in Asia — these have always been hard to track down. In a pre-hype era these were a rare pair of Air Max's to move away from the standard materials with a white base and to instead be mainly one colour, constructed in a beautiful suede."

"I found thes in a stock room in France while on a grail-finding mission in a small mountain town with one of my mates. I haven't seen this model anywhere else, making them a really nice pair to own, and they also bring back great memories of a one day round-trip to seek out vintage heat in France."

"The Huarache Light is a real connoisseurs choice. Whilst every time it retros it quickly goes into sale racks, the guys who really know their stuff always fiend for a pair of these. The colourway is stunning and the model is easily one of my favourite Nike silhouettes of all time."