Hey everyone!

Hey everyone! I’m Nick DePaula, and some of you may know me from Sole Collector magazine or as ‘Billy Hoyle’ from messageboards like InstyleShoes and Niketalk. I’m the newest of the ShoeIQ.com bloggers and hopefully I can bring you info about what several brands are up to, some stories about the industry, and discuss shoes I like, dislike, and would rather never speak of again. (Fila Infila anyone?) I’ll be focusing on hoops, running, and anything else that strikes me as interesting.

Have a question or comment about sneakers in general? Feel free to leave a comment or reply, as I’m always in the mood to talk shoes. Prefer email? No problem, hit me up anytime at ‘NickLM20@gmail.com’ if there's something on your mind. (Sneaker company needing a product review? I gladly wear size 13-14!)

Since this is a shoe website, I'll start off with my favorite pair of shoes, the Nike Zoom Flight ’95. A young and flashy point guard from northern California who then played for the Dallas Mavericks, Jason Kidd's flair on the court captured my imagination as an impressionable young hooper as to what could be done with the ball in a 5on5 setting. Passes of the behind-the-back and no-look variety were commonplace, and I patterned my own game much after that of Kidd's. Now the shoes you're probably wondering about? Well Jason Kidd wore none other than the Zoom Flight 95's as he burst onto the scene. The shoe was not only one of the first to implement Nike's most responsive cushioning system in Zoom Air (then called 'tensile air'), but they also featured a beautifully sculpted midsole with carbon fiber patterned rands of accent colors on the upper and an incredibly effective wavebone traction pattern. Unfortunately, the Eric Avar-designed model also hurt the wallets of many. At a retail price of $125, I wasn't able to afford them while in the 5th grade, and although I begged my mom for them, she instead bought me the 'take-down' version -- the Thrill Flight. Though I grew to love the Thrill Flight, a nice shoe in its own right, deep down I always wanted a pair of the big brother in the Zoom Flight.

Years went by and my Thrill Flights had long been worn entirely out, but the search for Zoom wouldn't stop. Ebay searches, forum searches, and several dollars later, and I was able to call the Zoom Flight mine. At the count of 6 now, there still remains a desire to reconnect with my childhood and the shoe that escaped me early on. The white/red and white/purple are severely needed, and most of all, a deadstock pair of the carbon fiber colorway still eludes me, but that’s what makes the search so much fun!

Here’s a pic of Jason Kidd wearing the beloved 95’s (his featured a stitched '5' in place of the swoosh) and taking it to the hole against Patrick Ewing and the Knicks:

And here’s my current group: