FOOT LOCKER / SNEAKERPEDIA

Shoe emporium Foot Locker has launched a new project through its agency SapientNitro that aims to be the biggest archive of sneakers ever. The Sneakerpedia, as it will be known, is hoping to gather the collections of sneaker obsessives from around the world into a hub, noting each shoe's respective histories and variations.

Users can search what will hopefully soon be a vast database of kicks using a number of seriously detailed tag words, including the type of stitching on the shoe, the material, linings or even by association, if you fancy seeing what pumps Kanye or Pharrell have been wearing. Much like other well-known internet information source Wikipedia users of the site will be able to search and add to existing content, building up the information and making the resource bigger and better.

Adding some of your own collection to the database is pretty straightforward, just photograph, upload and tag, naming it and sharing some of the history - where it was brought from, how long you queued etc.

The video above states that Sneakerpedia is 'a community space not a marketplace, run by sneakerheads, for sneakerheads', but the fact that it's being driven by a corporation has led a few die hard collectors to get their shoe laces in a knot.

On street culture blog hypebeast.com the comments section is littered with polarised responses. One user comments: 'Just dont think something like this should be run by Footlocker, they don't carry every spectrum of the sneakerhead world in their stores, just think it shouldn't be used as another marketing tool for them imo, real sneakerheads shop at boutiques and not corporate spots'. Another responds: 'Real heads shop at boutiques? Most of the kicks that i wanted as a kid came from stores like Foot Locker and the like... A good shoe is a good shoe... And that's it! it doesn't matter if you buy it from Foot Locker or a boutique like Footpatrol.'

With well-established communities like sneakerplay.com and kicksonfire.com already in existence, partnering and supporting one of these could have been an option, but you can almost guarantee a reluctant welcome from these existing communities, so it makes sense for the brand to start with something fresh and use their high street omnipresence, marketing klout and budget to build something bigger and better that befits the store's more mainstream appeal.

The site is currently in beta with a select bunch of collectors drafted in to give the database a head start, and will open to the masses shortly.