For Adam King, his shoe line, 1587 Sneakers, is about more than just footwear. It’s about identity and pride.
“We want all people to be unapologetically themselves,” said King. “For me, that’s being a loud, proud Asian American.”
Growing up in Dover and Wellesley with few Asian Americans, King remembers the feeling of being from a different culture. “Sometimes you hide them a little bit, or you don’t celebrate them as much as you should. We don’t want any Asian American to ever feel that again. If you love it, you should say it proudly in every circumstance, every situation.”
As a local Asian American sneaker company, 1587 Sneakers is dedicated to telling the ignored gems of Asian American stories. Beyond stereotypical icons like dragons and chopsticks, they’ve designed more authentic representations for Asian American culture. “We want our voices heard in this space,” said King. “Because if we don’t tell our stories and you let other people do it, (it’s) not good.”
The Chinese Ah Shirt is one of these stories. Most immigrants were often called “Ah King” or “Ah Wang,” which were nicknames in Chinese instead of official names, due to ignorance and disrespect from their employers. “Our people built the railroad and united a country, and the company couldn’t take the time to learn our names!” reads the introduction on 1587’s website. “It had a huge impact, but if you look at all the history books, they never tell you that. In all the pictures they took celebrating the completion of the railroads, they took all the Chinese out,” King added.
Another example is the Filipino American History Month shirt. “That’s a holiday that’s been in America for 25 years,” said King, “yet nobody’s ever done a shirt celebrating it. So we did it.”
And that’s what King is trying to pursue — telling stories that get ignored.
“Our company is called 1587 because that’s the first year Asian Americans came to America,” he explained. “So every time people say, ‘You’re new to the country, you’re a foreigner, go back to where you came from’ — we’ve been here 400 years.”
With passion and experience in sneakers, Adam worked for big companies like Adidas, Reebok and KOIO for almost 20 years, and he got tired of ignorance of the Asian American market. “Asian Americans are 8% of the population, yet we represent 14% of sneaker sales. They love sneakers and apparel, so the fact that people are not marketing to them was really weird,” he said.
“And the other thing is, my entire life people have tried to tell me Asian American culture isn’t cool, and I thought that was so crazy because I look at our culture, our friends, our family, and we are awesome, right?” That was the moment the team came together, the time King partnered with Sam Hyun, the co-founder. “When I first saw Sam, he was on the cover of the Boston Globe. He’s loud, brash, unapologetic, athletic, everything the stereotype that Asian Americans aren’t. So immediately, I want all our customers to have that energy or feel that when they buy our product.” And so, with an instant rapport, their product was released six months later.
Looking forward, King has a bigger vision for the company, which mainly sells direct to customers through its website. “I would love to have my brand logo on water bottles, computers on every school and college campus. And then people don’t even know exactly what it means, but just be like, ‘Oh, it has something to do with Asian culture that makes it cool.’”
And about his sneaker line, it’s such an obvious idea, he asks, “How has this never been done before?”