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[0:10] Robert Bannon: Are you ready? It's the Roundtable with me, Robert Bannon. Well, you know, all the sneakerheads out there. There's brand new content you have to check out. If you have to get for free three full episodes, and we have the start, we got the big names. We got the big star, we got the hosts, we got the people here. If you're a sneakerhead, if you're out of the street, if you're trying to get your limited edition of whatever new whatever, look, it's not my ministry. So, Don, they're gonna come on and teach me. Teach me, what am I gonna learn? Don Benjamin, welcome to the show.

[0:41] Don Benjamin: What's good? What's going on? Look, people try to get me to be sneaker people, and tell me what am I gonna learn in this show? Help me, Don.

[0:53] Don Benjamin: I have faith that you already know about sneakers, but we can put you up on the newest, the newest Air Forces, the Jordans, top designer. I mean, we're gonna show you, we're gonna show you some things for sure.

[1:06] Jadi Torres: Oh, JD, what was it like to be a part of this show? It's what, three episodes, right? So we have three episodes, they're all airing right now. Um, we have different varieties. I mean, you name it, basketball players, actors, um, entrepreneurs, um, you name it, we have it on the show. So it's just a little bit of everything, and it's not even just tying in the sneaker culture, but we're also tying in fashion and music and like all sorts of different areas of life that I think people would just get connected to some way or another. Um, so even if you're not a sneakerhead, you know, tune into the show and you'll find other things you love.

[1:41] Don Benjamin: And Jotty also pulled up with the heels for the girls. She got no, you gotta bring in the next one. It ain't just about sneakers.

[1:50] Robert Bannon: Well, how did this Don? How did this come to you? You have a full plate. I mean, you model, you sing, you act, you do all of those things. Yeah, and then you show up and say, "Hey, you want to take on another gig?" What about this was appealing to you?

[2:01] Don Benjamin: You know, I love sneakers. I love fashion. I love music, and I love doing projects with people that I genuinely like being around. And so, you know, when Antoine Wade, the creator of the show, got connected with Rhyan LaMarr, who then connected with me and pitched me the concept, you know, I fell in love right away, and I seen the vision for the project. And then when he told me who else was going to be involved, um, you know, Jotty West, DJ Who Kid, uh, Worldwide Wayne. So I was like, man, I was like it's a no-brainer for me, you know.

[2:33] Robert Bannon: Absolutely. Jotty, can you tell us you have some big name guests that show up on the set? Who are some of the people that we can be streaming right now for free at Crackle.com?

[2:42] Jadi Torres: Well, for starters, you know, if you're a basketball fan, we have, uh, you know, John Salley, we have, um, who else? Who else can we?

[2:50] Don Benjamin: Alan Iverson.

[2:51] Jadi Torres: Yeah, Alan Iverson. Like, come on. We talked Kobe on the show. We have Jordan Clarkson coming up. Um, and then we have, you know, some musical guests as well, and Bun B and um, we have some actors, Jesse T. Usher, and like it's just it's such a full cast of and such a broad spectrum of creatives that join um throughout the show. Like if there's something that you're not seeing in one episode, you're bound to see it in the next.

[3:19] Don Benjamin: There you one and a half billion sneakers sold worldwide in 2023, a 22 billion dollar business and rather in the United States number one sneaker market in the world, John. John, what do you look for when you go out shopping for a sneaker?

[3:36] Jadi Torres: You know, uh, it's funny because it all depends. You know, you know. I mean, usually what catches my eye is a color of the season that I'm hooked on right now, you know, if I'm in the greens and I'm out and I see a green sneaker, I gotta grab them. You know, if I see a, uh, you know, a Jordan one or something that is like an unreleased or hard to find, I'll have to grab it. Um, but you know, I'm more about the seasons and the I tell people I'm not a sneakerhead per se, I'm just a sneaker collector. Like I have a lot of sneakers. Not gonna wait, I'm not waiting in line all night for no sneakers, but I will go online and order a sneaker and I will shop till I drop with shoes.

[4:13] Jadi Torres: Okay. Johnny, what about you? What do you look for? Are you a sneakerhead? Are you gonna do that?

[4:16] Jadi Torres: I am, you know, I definitely am a sneakerhead. Um, I think there's like a good mixture of like being a sneakerhead and like a collector at the same time because I'm not just in for what's cool like within the season, I'm also looking for just shoes that call my attention. Like it doesn't have to be a crazy pair that everybody's in the know, like a duck low or anything like that, but just you know, if I like it, I get it. And you know, just fashion around it, and then you have to tie in like the heels and like all the stuff that girls get to um you know wear as well.

[4:47] Robert Bannon: So, well, you guys are both fashion, you need you both have known for fashion, but also for music. So, John, how do you coordinate? How do you pick in your career? I'm a print model, I'm a runway model, I'm singing, I'm hosting. How do you kind of organize? You know, multi-hyphen it is the word of the day. You all have to have 50 jobs to make money and make a living. How do you both, both of you organize your career so that you can do everything you want?

[5:12] Don Benjamin: You know, I mean, for me, I'm constantly battling my mind because one week I'm, you know, one week I'm in music mode and I'm in the studio, and then the next week, you know, I'm booked and busy with photo shoots and traveling, doing you know, fashion shows or what have you, and then one week I'm producing a TV show and I'm locked in for a month or two producing a movie or a show. And so I'm constantly battling my mind. And you know, I guess I just go wherever my creative juices are flowing. If I wake up and I feel like doing music, I'm gonna write a song that day. If I wake up and I feel like doing a script, I'm gonna start writing a script. So I just go where my creative juices take me.

[5:52] Jadi Torres: Absolutely. I bet I piggyback off of what Don is saying, you know, like when you're in a creative, um, when you're in a creative world and like us, like just being creatives. Um, we get to like kind of dip into all these different areas where um we have skills. We've been given God given skills to just expand on those things. And so, you know, music is one thing. Music is my first love, but to be able to get again to film and hosting and like all these other different areas that I enjoy and then doing it with people that I love, you know, it's been just an amazing ride so far.

[6:24] Robert Bannon: I'm excited to check it out. Don, tell us about Crackle. What is Crackle? Why should we have it? Why should we go find it? What is that platform?

[6:31] Don Benjamin: Yo, Crackle, the main reason you should have it is it's free, so you don't gotta pay a subscription fee. The second option or reason is they actually have a lot of good content on there, both original content and you know, a lot of films that you may be familiar with. So it's a new platform, but I think that the cool thing is it's a free platform for a lot of people that have a million subscriptions already and don't want to pay another subscription. They can add this to their, you know, their catalog and not feel guilty about it and go get to catch some new original content, like Just for Kicks and other shows, you know, but mostly Just for Kicks. Go, you know, go watch Just for Kicks like 20 times a day.

[7:12] Robert Bannon: Right, and we get it up there. Look, here it is Just for Kicks and and and here's uh it's on Crackle right now it's Crackle.com my dog is very angry that I've locked him away he wants to be in the chat he must be into sneakers for sure. Jody, when I when I see with my cousins my Christmas is coming my my younger nieces nephews I'm a teacher students they line up at the mall they are at the Footlocker at the Finish Line at the wherever they go to get sneakers. It wasn't as crazy as it was when I'm 40 it wasn't as crazy as it was now what do you think is the reason that sneakers have become even bigger they get bigger and bigger as the years have gone on.

[7:50] Jadi Torres: Well, you know, um, sneakers have always been in high demand and the way that the culture right now has been especially like with social media and um, you know, the trends that go on you can't go wrong with having a Jordan one on your foot like it's just, you know, it's part of culture now that's just what people are doing. And so wherever you see sneakerheads gathering and people, you know, making some type of connection with each other based on sneakers and what they're wearing and things like that. It's, you know, the genuineness of connection between fashions and sneakers and music and you know everything all together. So you can't go wrong go buy yourself a pair of Jays look I remember being a kid I remember being a kid on in Minneapolis and when the Jordans would come out and Footlocker and Champs would sell out there was a little store on the north side that would sell upsell the Jordans and you know they had add on a little extra for them and so I think what is so popular is the upsell on these shoes.

Like even if you get them right now you can always go and sell them and make a couple, you know, extra hundred or a couple hundred or thousands of dollars on these shoes. So I think that upsell is enticing for a lot of people.

[8:54] Don Benjamin: I know you see that resale is huge. You know, go into a store with the plastic wrapped sneakers up against the wall, and that is a whole big business. When I was growing up in Jersey, Packard Shoes and T-Deck was famous for their shoes. Now you can go to the little street down the block on Main Street Richard Park Little Town, and there's a resale shoe. It's big business for it is it's really big business. I mean, you have people like Rick Ross who have you know collector's items of sneakers that two, 10, five years from now, like it'll be worth so much more money. And so um, definitely resale value is an insane reason why you should become the sneakerhead alone. Like there's a lot of money behind it for sure. It's a multi-billion dollar company right now.

[9:37] Robert Bannon: So yeah. All right. So if I'm I'm just Amex, I'm letting you know it's their fault. I'm going, let's go. Let's charge it up.

[9:47] Don Benjamin: Hey, the bank account will be happy though when you get that resale.

[9:51] Robert Bannon: That's exactly right. Doug, can you tell us besides this? Would you have anything else you want to talk about? Anything else you have up on down the pike for both of you? Music, stream it, what could we watch?

[10:02] Don Benjamin: You know, uh right now I'm going into the holiday season, so I'm about to be chilling with the family, but I do plan on working on some new music. I've been having the itch to put some new records out. So, you know, maybe I'm gonna have Jotty hop on a record with me and we've all yeah, I'm not you know, that's a done deal. It's a done deal.

[10:18] Robert Bannon: But if you want to follow Don, follow him at Don Benjamin on Instagram. If you're listening to some of the podcasts, just make sure you follow if you're one of the eight people in the world who are not following him. And right how about you?

[10:29] Jadi Torres: Um, you know, saying we're going into the holidays, I kind of just winding down just a little bit to be with the family. But I have some good music on the works, you know, done stuff, and um definitely go and check out Crackle because Just for Kicks is streaming right now for free.

[10:45] Jadi Torres: So go and check that out. You could be listening to us right now, and you could jump right off of this and could go to Crackle.com and you could listen to it and watch it for free. You don't even have to worry about all those subscriptions. You add them all up at the end of the month and you say, "What the hell? What if I freeze? Free, no fees."

[11:03] Robert Bannon: All right. So when I go shopping to get a new pair of kicks, um before I get them, I'm sending you both a DM. I need the thumbs up because I don't trust me.

[11:10] Don Benjamin: All right, I got you.

[11:11] Jadi Torres: I got you too.

[11:12] Robert Bannon: I got you. We look forward to this and all the other projects you have going on. Make sure you stream their music, follow them on social media so you can stay up to date and make sure you watch Just for Kicks on Crackle and uh and get your shoe game up. Thank you both so much for being here. I'm such an honor to talk to you both. Appreciate you.

[11:27] Don Benjamin: Thank you so much.

[11:29] Jadi Torres: Bye.

[11:31] Robert Bannon: Take care.