Ramon Blackburn Talks Avia Collab & Sneaker Industry's Future

Ramon Blackburn discusses Avia collaboration and future of the sneaker industry.

Avia sneakers. / Avia

For more than 20 years, Ramon Blackburn has been a trendsetter in the sneaker and apparel industry. A native of Portland, he was one of the first streetwear designers to have his collections featured in major department stores in the country and eventually worldwide.

Blackburn is the owner of Hush Lifestyle Boutique with locations in Englewood, N.J., and West New York, NJ. As one of the most popular stores in the tri-state region that specializes in exclusive and indie brands, Blackburn is among the 1% of minority-owned stores with Nike and Jordan Brand accounts. Employing a predominantly minority workforce, he is committed to diversity and inclusion in the industry.

Sports Illustrated caught up with Blackburn and he spoke about his sneakerhead origin story which led him to becoming a designer.

“During the 80s, there were a lot more sneaker brands, but I was a big fan of Air Jordan when they first came out. Also, I was a big fan of the Air Jordan 2 and it was one of the first shoes that was made in Italy. It was probably the most expensive sneaker at the time,” Blackburn said. “I've been on the East Coast for about 25 years but I was born in California and Chuck Taylor were always big. I loved Avia and Etonics too. But the Jordans were when I really got into sneakers.” 

Since he first got into the game, Blackburn shared his thoughts on how the sneaker industry has revolutionized over the years.

“The biggest change to the sneaker game was the resale market. Paying a price for sneakers and then watching people turn around and buy them for a much higher price was very different for me,” he argued. “If you had a pair of Jordans somebody may pay a little bit over the original price. But what you see happening on a continuous basis for a lot of different products is so different.”

With his keen sense of style, Blackburn has worked with some of the premier brands in urban fashion as hip-hop was expanding into a global phenomenon.

“When I started in the mid-90s as a fashion designer, I was in the urban market as it was called at the time. So I was designing for Cross Colours, Mecca, Roc-a-Wear, and a lot of other brands,” he recalled. “On the retail side of things, I started to design storefronts for different accounts that had top tier footwear brands and had to redesign them to keep them elevated, to be able to get more elevated products. Then I started to get a little bit more hungry, I wanted to be in retail.”

In 2015, Blackburn opened the doors of Hush Lifestyle Boutique with a vision of spotlighting hard-to-find brands, up-and-coming Black designers, and to showcase his love of sneakers.

“When I was in Japan, I was told they put the stores in certain areas where  finding the stores it's like finding a hidden treasure. Hush was created as something that’s not easy to find. We call it a “destination location.” Once you find it, you go in and discover we have a lot of brands that you can’t find anywhere else,” Blackburn said. “ Because I was a Black designer,  I know how difficult it is to get in certain locations. So I wanted to open up that opportunity for small brands of color to sit next to some of the more premium brands”

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“One of the main things that I do to make sure that I give up-and-coming entrepreneurs that opportunity, as long as it fits the aesthetic and our direction, then we bring it in,” he continued. “If they don't fit the aesthetics, and they want to learn how to get their products more elevated, we assist in that as well.”

One of the latest product launches by Hush Lifestyle was their collaboration with Avia on the classic 880 which took place in June. To celebrate the launch of the collab,Hush hosted  star-studded event was attended by Fabolous, G Herbo, Taina Williams, Mainor Ron Browz,  Lady Luck, Johnny Nunez, DJ Doo Wop, and many more. Blackburn shared how began partnering with Avia.

“I was sitting down and just trying to figure out how we could get a collab.  We felt like we deserved collabs from some of the bigger brands right because we are in a higher tier than most of the footwear brands that we carry,” he said. “The minimums were extremely high that you had to commit to so we went through some brands and Avia came up/” 

“Avia’s was worn by Clyde Drexler, John Salley, John Stockton, and Scottie Pippen before he went to Nike. It was also worn by the hustlers as a way to show they were getting money,” he continued. “We started doing research and we realized that that was the shoe used by Virgil Abloh for Louis Vuitton. He used the body of the 855 Low and 880 was what the hi-top Louis was based on.”

Along with having a plethora of exclusive sneakers and apparel, Blackburn said that Hush Lifestyle prides itself on impacting the local community and working with the next generation of sneaker entrepreneurs. 

“We are involved in the community of Englewood. We gave the baseball team free cleats and we worked with several  AAU teams. We went to one of the local high schools and spoke to the senior class about just being an entrepreneur and what it takes. A lot of kids want to be entrepreneurs, but I always tell them how to count the cost and think through different things so that they can be successful.”

Today, there is such an advantage because of the internet you can start a brand and go directly to the market with a sneaker that cost $20 bucks to make and sell them for $100. But you also need to showcase your product and tell a story with it. So it's good to be able to go direct and also to be in retailers and that's what I've tried to teach him as well."

Further Reading: Nigel Sylvester elevates bike culture with new Air Jordan sneaker collaboration.