Today we’d like to introduce you to James Allen
Hi James, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I officially launched 6LNCD (pronounced “balanced”) on Instagram shortly after I graduated from Helix Charter in 2019 – mostly out of necessity since I was planning on moving out of my mom’s house by that autumn. At that point, I had virtually zero experience selling things on the Internet, and never considered international sales as an option. So what I lacked in seller experience, I attempted to make up for with the quality of the items I would sell.
Most of the items from the first collection were pulled straight from my own closet. Weeks later, I was sourcing clothes by buying unwanted garments from my friends. Within a month and a half, I would be sifting through yard sales, OfferUp listings, thrift stores, and Depop trying to find attractive, on-trend clothing & accessories to freshen up and resell for a bit of extra cash. Things were going smoothly.
October rolls around, and I manage to move out with the help of my friend & his mom. It would have been time for celebration if I wouldn’t have been scammed out of an authentic designer tracksuit that retailed for north of $1000 just a month into living away from home – the sneakers I received from trading them were counterfeit. The seller blocked my accounts on everything. I was gutted. It was from that bump in the road, however, that I made the pivot from selling streetwear & entry-level designer, to more finely curated, older articles of clothing. I think the day that I specifically decided to center my page around shoes was the day I bought 4 pairs of old Nikes from a former collector for $100.
All of the shoes were basically as old as I was. I would pull them out of their boxes to gaze at all of their minute details. It was like a switch flipped in my brain. Five years later, I’ve got this business where I specialize in sourcing, refurbishing, and reselling collectible footwear from all over the world.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Apart from dealing with counterfeits early on in my endeavors, my biggest hurdle has been remaining competitive in the online vintage sneaker sphere despite where I’m located on the globe. The USA has its sneakerheads, don’t get me wrong – but the most passionate collectors I’ve met are from places like Berlin, Santiago, Melbourne, London, Tokyo, Prague, Rotterdam, São Paolo. Often times the shoes that I’m featuring on my page aren’t nearly as popular in the States as they are abroad, so I feel that some people view them as unobtainable novelties. I don’t mind serving as a small digital museum, but giving people digital tours of my selection just doesn’t pay the bills (yet). I’d love to expand my market locally.
Prolonged heat and sun exposure is already bad enough for most shoes, and even worse if they haven’t seen the light of day in 20 years. It gets hot enough in San Diego for the old adhesives to fail without even touching them – I really have to be careful about how and where I store them as the seasons change. Add in the fact that I’m also sometimes selling shoes that are already unwearable can make storage & shipping even more difficult. Things like explaining to the uninitiated that it’s not a scam just because you can’t wear certain pairs, and why preserving artifacts can be important.
I get tired, but I don’t get tired of it. I’m all for a challenge.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about 6LNCD?
6LNCD is a San Diego-based digital boutique where I source, research, refurbish, & resell footwear and accessories from the 1970s to the present day. I specialize in tracking down discontinued sportswear, collaborations, and samples from brands & niche designers like Nike ACG, Ipath, Raf Simons, Jordan Two3, Adidas, Mizuno, Reebok, Vans, and more. I strive to find the most outlandish and obscure pieces that some these companies had to offer, reintroduce them within the brand’s context, and then pass them along at affordable resale prices so that they can be enjoyed with a new appreciation for design.
I pride my brand on being information-forward, and not pulling any punches when it comes to describing any of the nitty-gritty details. My Instagram (@6lncd) is where I catalog each sneaker that I find, and swiping through each entry will reveal prototype sketches, TV commercials, print advertisements, centerfolds – anything relevant to the topic at hand. By the time you get to the bottom of the post, you will know everything that I know about that particular item.
Soon, I plan on launching a by-appointment sneaker cleaning & boot polishing service now that I have a second space to conduct business within. I was recently invited to curate the footwear section at a new boutique shop called SixtyTwo (@sixtytwooooooo) in Mid-City on El Cajon Boulevard, so I’m in the process of redesigning the bathroom for maximum efficiency.
In the meantime you can message me via Instagram DM, or catch me down at SixtyTwo brushing out a pair of suede boots next to my girlfriend, Izzy. I’m always open to chat or walk you through what I currently have in stock.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
Now that I think about it, I was always collecting and hunting for things as a young kid: bugs, minerals, shells, fossils, lizards, Pokémon, aquarium fish, houseplants. I loved to hike, fish, and scour the tide pools around La Jolla during summer break. Overall, I was pretty quiet in school; not because I was paying 100% of my attention to the lesson, but because I would be daydreaming & drawing during class. However, I always loved exploratory, data-driven subjects like earth sciences, marine biology, and human geography.
I guess I never really stopped digging through mud for shiny things.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://6lncd.bigcartel.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/6lncd
Image Credits
Kasey Nauton
