It’s no secret that many were confused at the termination of Ron Crawford from the infamous sneaker retailer he helped brand through savvy marketing decisions and celebrity connections. But while some may have perceived the transpiring events as the end for the street wear guru, it in fact became a series of lessons learned, gained opportunities, and a settling of mixed emotions.
Phrequency: Lets recap your past couple of years in this market.
Ron: Past couple of years of my life...I guess I've been at Ubiq trying to make it be the epitome of the sneaker culture in Philadelphia. I used to hate that word, culture, but when you get into certain markets you start to see the select few loyalists and I guess you'd label, maybe in Philadelphia there's like 80 strong, the kids who are really into this stuff and not all of them just do it to be cool. They're in it because it's just what they do, everybody in this culture is different. I have seen a lot of kids grow up throughout the last couple of years at Ubiq, it's been very very enlightening, but at the same time I felt like there was a need for me to do more, nationally. I was always sitting there saying hello to the same people, here comes Phil, here comes Al (Ubiq employees and Philadelphia streetwear aficionados).
I'd just sit at Ubiq and start to lose the love for it because corporate wanted me to do so much on the business side. Corporate would say you're in business school, Ubiq is business school. I never wanted to be in business school. I just wanted to make Ubiq cool for Philadelphia and once the love got replaced with the bottom line, my heart was not in it anymore.
P: From your affiliation with ?uestlove, Ninjasonik, and even Diplo, how has music affected your life?
Ron: Music is probably the second most important aspect of my life. Actually as I got older it became the most important, because back in the day it was athletics. I love football, I’ve always inspired to be an athlete and I was like okay I can't run anymore my knees are busted, but I can still DJ. I just lived that life of having fun everyday and not really feeling like I was going to work, similar to ?uestlove, Diplo, The Deathset, SpankRock, and Amanda Blank. It's funny because some of them are actually customers.
I remember Amanda back in my Afficial days, she used to sit on the bench and say, 'I'm never leaving Philadelphia.' And today you look and she's one of the top 20 artist on iTunes and she's never in Philadelphia. It’s driven me a lot, to see these guys do what they want and the love what they are doing. Like Ahmir, [?uestlove] dude's never home, he works even when he has a day off. He's either djing, or doing somebody’s remix, or helping me out in some type of aspect, or twittering. The kid is the best. And Diplo is the main reason I'm trynna get outta Philly [leaving for Sneakerpimps] this weekend. The Mad Decent Block Party is hands down the best day to be in Philly! So these guys definitely affect me on the day to day, and Ninjasonik , the deathset and the entire Newmore Switchblades Crew is my extended family. It's just like watching them come up, it’s both fun and rewarding.
see more photos of Ron here...
P: If you could change one thing in your past what would it be? Any regrets?
Ron: Probably, definitely would have stayed in school. That's something that I always wanted to finish. If I'd had a degree what would I be doing? But at the same time I think about the major I was studying would not be anywhere related to this industry I'm in now. If I could go back in time and redo it, instead of doing communication and sports marketing I'd probably would have went into something more design or a tech field, gotten my math up so instead of just giving insight to Nike, Addidas, and Converse, I could actually do it myself. Cause when it comes to design stuff, I'm stuck. I have no idea. I have concepts that I need someone else to apply and sometimes that hinders my progression.
P: You're currently with SneakerPimps, will you continue to work within the street wear community or is this it for you?
Ron: I will be with SneakerPimps until the wheels fall of. This is my 4th year on the tour so far, and every year it gets better and better. I remember we used to sleep four to five people deep in one hotel room and all travel in the same van. But now we all get our own hotel rooms and we fly everywhere. It's pretty fun and at the same time it's becoming more popular and society is embracing it. I remember our first show in Australia, it was like 200 people and we do stuff like New York last month and had 4,000 people. I just recently saw pictures from SneakerPimps New York last week. Once you see that picture you're like damn, I was a part of that, I did that?
Seeing Jamal Smith [pro-skater] rock backstage with Jadakiss and skating his ass off it's just exciting. People never forget stuff like that, so I will never stop doing SneakerPimps. Sometimes when I get off stage people are lined up to say thank you or just shake my hand. I even had one kid a few years ago tell me i was his hero, that wierded me out.
As far as my future, I'm hoping I can do a lot of consulting with my friends Ninjasonik and the Deathset, Amanda [Blank], and Spankrock. And doing a lot of national stuff like trying to help brands get into Philadelphia’s various retailers, and get paid. Make Philly something before I have to run away and go to New York. I don't want to go to New York right now. I like my house, I like my neighborhood, and I love Philadelphia so I hope I can stay here. But being in this industry, and what you have to do in this industry and it's where you have to be. New York is close, and it’s always calling you.You never know. I might have something new here as soon as November! So cross your fingers!
P: As far as your history with Ubiq, is their anything you can tell us about the dissolution of that relationship?
Ron: It's really weird, I trust John Lee [owner] and he just became more hands off with it and it wasn't his ideas anymore. It became the bottom line, who didn't care about the product. The substance of that store was dead, it became all about the money, and that kind of turned me off cause like you just can't go into this industry for the money, you have to do it for the love or the respect or to make a statement. You can't just do it for the money, cause if you're doing it for the money you might as well be at Footlocker and just sell white on white, or classics. I wish Ubiq the best though.
P: Do you see yourself as the be-all and end-all of Philadelphia’s street wear community? If not, who is?
Ron: I wouldn’t say that I am, I actually just work in this industry, and if anything I would classify myself as a Philadelphia connector rather then a sneaker thing. This is just what a lot of people in the last couple of years have known me for. In Philadelphia there’s a lot of closet heads, I've been to Ahmir's and if you saw his garage a lot of kids would fan out, and it's not accessible so you can't really see. I know Adam Goldstein [DJ AM] still holds a house here and you best believe that house is probably filled with sneakers that nobody's going to see. I can't really put a name on who the sneaker god is. I wouldn’t even want to classify anyone as that. But I would probably say maybe Ahmir (?uestlove) probably has it, hands down. Nah ex that. There was a guy over the past few years who is a medical supply salesman. He used to sneak his shoes in his house and his wife never knew that he had like a thousand pairs of shoes in his basement!
P: Any last words?
Ron: Thanks for all the support over the last couple of years, it's been fun. Hopefully the next project that I have is better than what I've done before.
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