Sneaker Designer John Geiger Talks Future of Sports Kicks and More

When John Geiger opens up the Notes application on his iPhone 6, he starts firing away. Ideas, concepts and innovations fly from his fingers onto the blank digital canvas developed by the Apple brain trust in Cupertino, California.

You wouldn’t realize it at first glance, but what he’s doing in that app is taking everything we know about sneaker culture and shredding it down the seams.

Before we can look forward to all the things Geiger is plotting for his eventual takeover of the sneaker industry, we first have to take a trip down Memory Lane.

Geiger didn't make his foray into sports and culture in the traditional way. He actually graduated with a criminal justice degree from Point Park University in 2010. Instead of getting his Detective Jimmy McNulty on, the Steel City native moved to New York City and started working with All-Pro cornerback Darrelle Revis.

“It wasn't hard to learn with a person like Revis. At the time with the (New York) Jets, endorsements were rolling in,” Geiger mentions.

As fate would have it, Revis was offered his very own signature shoe from Nike. Being a sneaker guy his entire life, Geiger jumped at that opportunity and got to work.

Image via Nike

“After we knew he would be getting a signature shoe, I immediately started drawing up ideas that him and myself envisioned. After that, I was part of the team along the whole way,” Geiger explains.

“It kind of sucks that it didn’t move forward, because he was about to have a whole line—socks, tees, hats the whole nine. It was a sad day learning they were not going to make the (Revis) 2s. But the 1s will forever be a classic.”

The numbers Geiger refers to represent the Nike Zoom Revis 1—a game-changing shoe at the time of its release. Of all Nike's collaborative efforts with NFL players over the years, few sneakers matched the design, quality and flare of the Revis 1s.

Though Revis’ line with Nike didn’t expand past the first shoe, Geiger’s experimental habits and dedication to altering the landscape of the sneaker industry were just beginning.

Today, the launch of Geiger’s very own signature line of kicks has sent the Internet and all its loyal followers into a frenzy. An avid Instagram user—he has around 88,000 followers—Geiger leveraged the social media giant to release one of his first shoe models.

He called those kicks “Misplaced Checks.”

Misplaced Checks have an airtight, white silhouette dressed up with 16 unique check emblems courtesy of a brilliant sneaker designer dubbed The Shoe Surgeon.

The shoe itself looks like it passed through the cosmos, picking up elements along the way before crash-landing on Earth.

Ever since that image of the Misplaced Checks surfaced, the sneaker industry has been officially put on notice. The metamorphosis that began with the Zoom Revis 1 has evolved in ways we never thought were possible.

Geiger’s personal expansion has led to the birth of the John Geiger Collection—a creative line that’s looking to push the limits within the sneaker industry.

“My line is just beginning; it’s basically all the ideas I shopped to numerous brands and got shut down,” Geiger says. “Instead of just giving up, I started to get things made in-house, and I will have my own releases.”

Going against the grain has always been the 29-year-old’s mantra. Through his involvement in the sneaker and sports industries, he’s worked with brands like Motorola, Land Rover and Google.

In all of his experiences, Geiger has always trusted his instincts. “I have a lock-loaded amount of ideas I feel can change the game,” he says.

When Michael Jordan and designer Peter Moore got together 31 years ago to create the Air Jordan 1, no one could have envisioned how culturally significant athletic shoes would become.

Decades after Moore put the finishing touches on those kicks, designers like Geiger are still out here creating Frankenstein-like concoctions that are providing a sense of vitality to sneaker consumers across the globe.

Like all the greats, Geiger doesn’t just stop with sneakers. Down the line, he wants to become a “designer on a larger scale.”

Essentially, he wants to take everything we think we know about sneakers and sports apparel and destroy it. After he’s done doing that, he’s going to build it back up his own way.

And how will one of the biggest fashion influences around achieve that goal?

By believing in himself, of course.

At the end of our conversation, I asked John what advice he had for the future generation. “Be you,” he says. “Take a risk.”

Those are fitting words coming from a designer who took a chance on himself and is now in a prime position to change the sneaker industry.

All quotes obtained firsthand.

Follow John Geiger on Twitter for more information.