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It sounds simple enough; if you love sneakers, make your own.
But it’s not always that simple. Marques Brownlee, popular for his YouTube videos shot in sharp High Definition formatting has gone from tech reviewer to fashion entrepreneur with an ever growing showcase of brand merch collaborations.
With his newest product, the M251, Marques brings his signature red-black stying to these new bad boys, paying homage to his humble YouTube beginnings, and his love for casual outwear.
It’s been 2 years of work and BTS designing
You’re probably like me; its the first you’re hearing of Atom. That’s the company Marques’ partnered with to create his latest work. His newest babies – a pair of sneakers called the M251, named after the length of his very first YouTube video some 14 years ago. The video was 2 minutes, 51 seconds long.
Since then he’s grown much taller, spotted a beard, a hightop haircut, and shot over 1000 hours of content, for 14million+ subscribers. But that’s not his most impressive feat; Marques, professionally known as MKBHD, has grown into America’s favourite tech YouTuber, with a growing team, and sleuth of expressions, including even a podcast channel.
Marques admits in his latest video, that it’s been 2+ years of work with the ATOM design team putting this together, and he wants people who buy the shoes to go all out and #wearyourkicks, because obviously nobody does that anymore – thank you Kanye!
But why sneakers?
If you’ve watched enough of his videos, you’ll discover that Marques is first matte black, red, before anything else. Colours that have come to be a distinctive part of his signature branding. He’s gone on to release tiny wallets, numerous t-shirts, and even that wild showcase of a holiday sweater in those same colours. Yet this may be the first time he’s going full throttle on a major piece of fashion-wear yet, the M251 sneakers.
I’ve dabbled in lifestyle-ware production myself, so I can bear witness to his claims of this being his biggest project yet. Making t-shirts is easy. It’s textbook break-into-the-fashion-world shortcut, but once you start looking further down the body, you enter into full production facility territory.
Now, it’s no surprise that Marques would do sneakers. I always suspected he would. Remember when he went cray cray Nike Air Jordan 1 shopping with Complex? Yep, I’ll leave you to guess how much he spent on that spree, or you could just watch the video below, but it was no $189. He admits in that video that his love for sneakers began with his hooper cousins who did have some influence on his style.
He’s had a thing for mid-tops, high tops with thick soles, especially the Air Jordan 1s, and the M251s seem to sit comfortably within that footwear class.
The M251
There’s no sugar-coating it; these look look like Air Jordan 1s. Granted, the Jordans have a timeless silhouette, appear to be Marques’ favourite, and spot a style that goes with every jean-cut, so we could expect some of that charm would make its way unto the M251.
Here’s what the M251 spec sheet looks like:
- Breathable mesh upper with 100% recyclable yarns
- Synthetic vegan leather
- Antimicrobial copper lining
- Embroidered details and 251 marking
- Durable, cushioned external TPV outsole
- 8mm heel-to-toe drop for increased support
- Iconic Atom stretch laces
- Foam midsole
- Available in US sizes 3.5 - 15
You can cop a pair here: http://atoms.com/MKBHD just in time to be 1 of 2300 orders shipping instantly!
Otherwise you have to wait till May 23rd 2023 to grab the M251s
Will Marques ever make a his own tech hardware product?
It’s hard to say. His product portfolio appears to show a progression, despite they all being partnerships with existing brands. He’s yet to go full blown self-made, and that’s why this is hard to say. I imagine first that we may see a collaboration with a tech brand for limited edition signature pieces of some tech product, like we did see with RED some years ago, but a full blow MKBHD phone before 2030, errr.
One thing’s certain though, we’re definitely seeing more fashion and lifestyle collaborations like the M251, and of course tons of amazing High Quality video content from his channel.
Fun fact: The K in MKBHD is Keith. But did you know the M in M251 stands for Model, not Marques? 😂
End.
Weekly Product Find
With every post, I’ll share (a) remarkable product/s I discovered that may be a game-changer in its space:
- BEST OF TWITTER (https://tweethunter.io/tweets) – Explore TweetHunters online collection of some of the very best tweets ever. 100’s of tweets to copy and templatise.
- FASHION MEETS TRENDS (WARDO TENGO. blog) - The blog for WARDO TENGO. showcases all the growing fashion stories and trends across the globe.
