 Today I'm going to be giving you guys five tips to help you protect your sneaker collection. I know we've all seen the crazy horror stories of people sneakers falling apart or shoe walls collapsing at people's houses, mid-soles yellowing, or sneakers just simply getting really dusty. So hopefully in today's video I can give you guys some of the insight over the things I've learned over the past 15 years when it comes to collecting sneakers. And if you guys didn't know by now, my name is DJ and this is The DNA Show. On this channel I love giving you guys tips and tricks of things that I've learned so if you haven't already consider subscribing and joining the fam. We're on the road to a million subscribers and you could be the next one to get us there. Now let's take it to tip number one and that's going to be cleaning your shoes. Now I understand that there's going to be a lot of questions that come along with this so hopefully I can answer a couple. And as we go throughout this video if you guys want to get more in depth with any of these topics that we talk about in today, I'll try to make another video for you guys as well if you have any more questions. So basically when it comes to cleaning your shoes people always wonder how many times should I clean my shoes? What part of my shoes should I clean the most? What product should I use? Trust me there's a million other questions but basically what you need to do is understand when you have a rotation of sneakers that you rock pretty often and know okay yeah I'm going to wear these, I'm going to get them dirty over the next month, I'm going to clean them up at the end of the month and I'm going to have my little rotation or then I'm going to have my beaders which I really don't care if they get dirty and I might not clean those for you know maybe four or six months. It might be a while before I clean that shoe and then you got the shoes that you got in your stacks that you're like you know what these are fresh, I pulled them out for this one time, I need to clean them and put them back so those are always something that you need to be aware of every time that you're wearing a pair of sneakers and understanding what kind of category does that sneaker fall in? Is it a beader? Is it a daily rocker? Is it a nice rotation sneaker? Is it more of a collection type grill and I'm pulling it out for a specific event? You got to really understand that first so that way you know how to prioritize what shoes to clean and when. Now when it comes to the different sneakers and the materials and the cleaners and all those other factors there is a lot of variations when it comes to that and if you guys want another in-depth video specifically on just cleaning sneakers and how to clean so many different types and what products to use and everything I can make that for you guys as well but basically again understanding what materials you have on your shoes and what products you need to use and I think one of the most important things is when we see a lot of sneakers if they have especially with Jordan Ones they have a white midsole right and you got the white stitching so when that starts to get dirty you definitely want to clean that a little bit more often and not leave too much dirt on there because it can start seeping into the rubber and then making it kind of yellow over time and increasing that aging process and I understand some people like that aged look and that dirty look but at the same time if you want your shoes to look really fresh and really clean all the time especially if it's a more expensive sneaker and you have dirt on the midsole and different stuff like that when it comes to shoes definitely make sure you always clean that off pretty often that way it doesn't sit on there and say you don't wear the shoe for you know three months or six months from now and that dirt is still sitting on there well now the shoe is going to be sitting just caking on there and it's going to be a little bit harder to clean off and a low key might even actually stain those materials or those rubbers or whatever it is depending on if it's dirt or clay or whatever you know I'm saying so definitely be aware of those things when it comes to the midsole and cleaning those as often as you can whenever you plan on knowing that you're not going to wear that shoe for a while again now tip number two is going to be storage now as you can see back here I have the sneaker thrown drop side display cases I love these things right here if you guys are ever interested I have a discount code for you guys DNA show that'll get you 10% off of your orders whenever you order anything off of their website but as you can see I love these right here and the reason why I love these is not only because of display the look the aesthetic and all those things but it's so easy to access my sneakers compared to when you have a stack a wall of sneakers and it's just shoe boxes all lined up well now you got a problem because when you get ready to pull out a pair of shoes you got to hold the top ones and then pull them out and then the shoes fall down what people don't realize when they do that is let's let's take it like this every sneaker is roughly four pounds right and if you got you know 10 boxes stacked up and you're pulling one from the bottom well that's 40 pounds of weight going down on each other right boom boom boom boom now we know that the boxes are protecting the sneakers but what we don't realize is every time that we do that pulling the boxes out pulling the boxes out jerking the shoes around they're rattling around inside the boxes and what we know when sneakers they have you know a suede or a nice material and the shoes are laying on their sides what happens you get that little shiny spot on the side of the shoe next thing you know you're like where did this come from the shoe is brand new and it looks like it's been worn it's because of those type of things so you're kind of unconsciously doing that and kind of damaging your shoes a little bit every single time that you're pulling the boxes out of the stacks and letting them fall down on each other even if you're gently moving them around and doing all that they're still just slightly shifting a little bit in those boxes so to me it's very important because when you have hundreds of shoes and you want to take care of every single sneaker in the best way possible so that they last as long so they look as good and all those different things you got to be aware of all those things so one way you can do it is having containers like this and there's a bunch of different organizing methods right there and again we can talk about sneaker organization in another video if you guys would like but i love the containers and there's a bunch of different brands as well whatever you decide to pick on that's up to you um also you can do racks so if you do racks it's going to be similar concept but it's typically about three shoeboxes high by three shoeboxes wide depending on the size of the rack and then you have the rack there so that way when you're pulling a shoe out you're only pulling you know two or three shoes compared to ten stacked on top of each other so a lot of people like to buy racks so they can do it that's a lot cheaper option um i'll have a link for you down below in the description on some racks if you guys are interested in those as well but i know a lot of people like to do those i do those sometimes depending on which shoes they are where they're located and all those different things so i kind of have a mixture of display containers shoes still in boxes because i haven't really found a place where i want to put them yet and then other shoes just sitting on racks still sitting in the boxes as well so there's a lot of different ways that i still do it myself personally but yes i know the display cases in particular is my favorite when it comes to overall storing the sneakers and making sure that i'm doing something that will protect the sneakers on how i store the sneakers and how i treat them when i move them around now tip number three is going to be focusing on lighting so what you want to do is when you go into your room look in the room understand what light bulbs do you have is there a natural light coming from a window somewhere in the room all those different things so first thing i love to do is blocking the windows with something so that way there's no natural light coming into the room and it's almost like a cave like if you close the door and turn the light off you're not going to be able to see any light coming into the room sneakers like to be in a dark environment and by doing that that can help slow down the aging process in the shoes from yellowing and different things like that so i know some people ask about well you have shoes right here they have a clear front on the display case yes but i also have a very controlled environment the only time i turn the lights on is when i come into film and different things like that and then another thing to focus on if you have a light fixture on the ceiling what you want to do is try to make sure that it's led as well that way it doesn't burn it's hot it's not as aggressive on the shoes and all these little things i know it may sound crazy but trust me when i tell you adding led lights to the room covering the windows and doing that will also make it a little bit cooler in the room which means the shoes won't heat up and that takes us to tip number four and that's air flow and temperature control so what i love to do for my sneaker collection every single room that the shoes are sitting in i'll always make sure that the ac is correct for the room and if i need to install an ac unit into the window or something like that it's well worth the investment you can find one for pretty cheap at home depot so if you're willing to pay a couple hundred bucks on a pair of shoes and you got hundreds of shoes i'm pretty sure you can pay a couple hundred bucks for a ac unit and put that in the window to protect your thousands of dollars worth of sneakers but again i know everybody doesn't feel the same way i'm just giving you my tips on what i feel and i think it's a really good investment because also it's going to help you filter the air which is going to be something important we'll talk about in a bit but having a cool temperature in the room i like to keep my room on that 68 degrees somewhere around there and really making sure that it's keeping the room cool when it gets you know hot in the summer times and then also when it gets very very cold you want to also heat up the room a little bit as well you don't want to let it get too cold in the room you want to have that nice neutral temperature all times throughout the entire year now i know some people may be saying well the electrical bill and everything like that realistically it's not going to impact your bill that much and that drastically and like i said i think it's still a really great investment because if you want to protect your sneakers and allow them to last for a longer period of time or wait for them to go up in value so you can sell them and put that money to a down payment to buy a property or whatever your plan is went for having the sneakers for seven or ten or fifteen or twenty years whatever you decide to do it's going to all be very very important later down the line i've learned this over the years i've been testing this and trying this for many of years and people are like how are you pulling those out the collection and they still haven't fallen apart yet which we can talk about midsoles and wearing your shoes and everything like that in another video as well but basically at the end of the day temperature is going to be very very important so i like to keep mine at that 68 69 degrees somewhere around there and having that cool medium temperature throughout the entire year and you know obviously if the room is you know 55 degrees or something is cold we're going to need to heat it up just a little bit but for the most part definitely pay attention to the temperature of the room and the lighting of the room and the lighting and darkening the room is going to make it a lot easier to make the space cooler like i said earlier okay on to tip number five and this is going to be one that some people just don't want to hear but at the end of the day i feel like this is just what you got to do you got to make sure you have no pets around your sneakers so if you have a sneaker room or it's your bedroom and you got all your shoes in your closet and all the stuff and the shoes is you know all around your bedroom everything make sure you keep the pets out of there cats dogs i guess you can have a goldfish in there that hair and the dandruff and all the other things that it's going to go in the air and then it's going to affect the sneakers it's going to make them smell funny there's going to be a lot of different things that can impact your sneakers in a negative way by having pets and other animals and different things like that inside the house even us humans right we could be a problem to it as well we need to make sure that we keep the room clean and not have dust and all that stuff and just everything flowing around but again with having like a ac uner or a nice air filtration system that you can put in the room you can find something on amazon to filter the air as well that's going to be something that's very important on not only having you live a healthier life but protecting your sneakers for the longevity and allowing them to last a little bit longer as well and when it goes back to actually cleaning your shoes right if you have a pet and you walking around the house and you got your socks on and you got dog fur or cat fur all over your socks and then you just put your shoes on now it's all matted and caked inside of the insoles and on the sock liner and everything and i'm sure a lot of sneaker heads know exactly what i'm talking about me personally i am not a fan of that i feel like that is just no disrespect to anybody that does that i'm just very aware of making sure that i don't have all that stuff on my socks and then it's getting inside of my shoes and then you got to like scrape it out and clean it because i purchased shoes from people in the past and then i found out they had a pet and then i look inside of the shoe and i'm scraping out of the insoles and cleaning out the you know i'm saying so if again if you're looking to sell your shoes later down the line or something like that that could be something that could really devalue your sneakers as well so a lot of different things to think about but those are going to be five tips that can definitely help you protect your sneakers and build that longevity and allow you to wear your sneakers a little bit longer keep them fresh and if the value of your sneakers is something that's important to you then you can also do that as well i think shoes have a very strong impact on our lives when it comes to material items that we can wear we can enjoy we can express ourselves and then if we want to make a bigger step in life by taking that sneaker money and making that towards a down payment or remodeling a property or buying it into another investment sneakers can definitely do that for us so if you want to protect your kicks and make plays later in life trust me it'll be well worth taking care of them you're going to enjoy every single moment you're going to love the cleanliness of your place as well and that's going to be a big thing just again like i said keep things clean you'll make things a lot easier in your life as well if you want more tips and tricks trust me i have a ton more for you guys when it comes to collecting protecting and all those other fancy things yo if you enjoyed this video and want to grow your collection or make extra money on the side i built a vip mastermind that will teach you everything that i've learned about growing my sneaker collection over the past 15 years this will also give you access to the dna fam in my vip community where we talk about investing outside of sneakers and don't worry if you don't plan on joining the vip community it's okay i also set up a private dna fam community that gives you access to all the behind the scenes looks from the studio and multiple chances to win free sneakers and gear from weekly and monthly challenges so all you need to do is click on the link down below in the description or the first link pinned in the comment section that will get you set up and into the community i'm excited to see you guys on the inside if you made it to the end of this video drop a comment down below and let me know what city you're from