Girls Got Kicks Brings Out Female Sneaker Fiends

Positioned in one of D.C.'s most cultured areas—on 14th Street NW, a few blocks off of U Street—Palace 5ive was a seemingly perfect location to host D.C.'s stop on the Girls Got Kicks book tour. And if the scenery set the tone, then the skateboard shop/streetwear boutique with its urban design and plethora of dope sneakers certainly set the stage for the book's creator, Lori Lobenstine, to introduce the District to her masterpiece.

Girls Got Kicks is the world's first ever photo documentary about women and their sentiment for sneakers. Each vibrant page is filled with colorful photographs and stories that chronicle a movement of women from around the globe who feel their best in their kicks. The book tour has been booming across the states, and D.C. was fortunate enough to receive it—to the excitement of Female Sneaker Fiend fans in the DMV area.

Long before the conception of Girls Got Kicks, Lobenstine—who works full time as youth worker—founded the popular Female Sneaker Fiend blog in order to give female sneaker fanatics like herself a portal to meet each other, showcase their styles, and make an impression on the sneaker world.

"I started Female Sneaker Fiend after going online and seeing other sneaker sites that were very male dominated and sexist," Lobenstine said. "There were these forums with pictures of half-naked girls running around with sneakers in their mouths. And I'm like that's not what we're about. So I decided to start Female Sneaker Fiend so that A. we could find each other and B. no one could deny that we exist. Girls are represented everywhere through FSF and no one can be like girls don't have sneakers. We do."

The idea for a book came to Lobenstine's mind not long after Female Sneaker Fiend began to receive high acclaim from the blogosphere and from women everywhere, though she admits that the process of creating the book was harder and took longer than she expected.

"I had been thinking pretty early on with FSF that I wanted to do a book and document this," Lobenstine said. "I was so inspired by some of the other sneaker books, but I'm like let's have one on the shelf that represents our part of the culture—that represents us."

Lobenstine certainly achieved that goal. Hundreds of women are depicted within the pages of Girls Got Kicks including D.C. natives Imani K. Brown, a sneaker customization specialist and tattoo artist, and 10-year old DJ Beauty & the Beatz.

"She reached out to me," Brown said. "They supported my first launch party for Artistic Sole. It was all about customized sneakers so they sent down things, and we just kept in touch ever since. So, when the opportunity came up she reached out and I was with it."

Lobenstine admits to being a fan of sneakers since her childhood. According to her, the most fascinating thing about sneaker culture is how girls use sneakers to express themselves. Girls Got Kicks and Female Sneaker Fiend are for all of those women.

She recalls the book tour's stop in New York City:

 "There were like 75-80 people there, and about 20 of them were in the book," Lobenstine said. "So it wasn't about me, it was them talking to each other. They were hype."

"The one girl that comes in wearing Jordans, I think she's pretty cool," said Yukil Takahashi, a fulltime skater and Palace 5ive employee. "There's only one girl that does it and she sticks out in my mind."