NoFreeDrip in short, is the byproduct of purchasing way too many Supreme New York t-shirts and exclusive sneakers. 

Early in my high-school days, I was infatuated by those who wore unique and head-turning garments. The first  streetwear piece I can remember being exposed to was the Jordan 10 Retro Charlotte after I begged my family for this sneaker, what followed can only be described as a snowball affect. 

Whether it was the Yeezy, or the Jordan, most streetwear enthusiasts start with something that is semi-accessable to the public and depending on their passion for the culture, and willingness to get up before dawn just to wait in a virtual queue will end up finding themselves consistently looking for the next hottest item that no one in your circle will have. Naturally, the further you go into the rabbit hole, the more unique and exclusive the brands you discover become. Discovering these brands is one thing, but figuring out when and where the item is going to drop is it’s own art. Luckily (not for the wallet) there are cult-like communities that are committed to securing a W on drop day. 

   During my freshman year, I was introduced to a “raid group”- a raid group is a group of people who are “in the know” one way or another. Maybe one member has a friend who works at Nike, and another member has an ex fling that works at the local footlocker who knows what sneaker is set to hit the shelves within the month and just might leave the back door unlocked for a returned favor. Regardless of what that connection is, if you are in the group you are expected to bring something to the table.

What did I bring? Absolutely nothing. I still am unsure how I got into the group. But I sat like a fly on the wall and like clockwork would send in a well timed usher meme or an already seen py_rates post. After earning the trust of the group through humor, I eventually felt comfortable enough to fire off novice questions like what bot should I use? What is the estimated price for this peace? To my surpise the group was incredibly helpful, I ended up learning the industry inside and out from guys who would later start legendary vintages brands and crypto communities (naturally). I leveled up so-to-speak and as the raid group faded I was introduced to my first sneaker plug (yes you read that right).

A sneaker plug is like a drug dealer but for shoes. These people have all the sizes and colorways of the  shoe you want, and if they dont have it, they know someone who does. But more often than not, anything that has the word “plug” attached to it isn’t all sunshine and daisies. The sneaker resell game is messy, maybe just as messy as the drug selling game (I have no experience in dealing drugs). Like the risks in picking up from a plug named Smokiana, there are multiple risks when not buying directly from the manufacturer, i.e., Nike. Counterfeits, credit scams, theft, are all prevelant in this industry. Finding the right shoe plug is like finding your wife/husband. You as the customer take your vow to always select the friends and family option when sending through paypal, and the reseller vows to always send tracking the moment the USPS store prints the receipt.

Fortunately for me I was introduced to an up and coming plug that would turn out to be one of the realist in the game. The reseller I was introduced to was PrettyBoyThePlug also known as Prettyboymatt. PrettyBoyMatt was a sneaker reseller out of Sacramento, he started off slinging sneakers to the Ball family and would later build his brand into a concierge service for luxury clients.

Matt and I didn’t do a whole lot of business together, I think I picked up one or two pieces from him when he was still selling out of the back of his BMW 3 series. In the reselling game, it is pretty common for the plug to post inventory on their various social accounts, and usually the captions would detail price, wear, and other general information about the item in question. These posts are littered with comments asking for handouts, discounts and other freebies. After observing dozens of these posts, there was one recurring theme in all PrettyBoyThePlug’s post. What can only be described as a powerful repellent, all sneaker posts were signed with a hashtag that read #nofreedrip.

Over the course of my social life, I consistently had wacky and odd usernames. Though many settle for the firstname.lastname10 username I always thought it was more exciting to have a fun play on my name like splashlarson, or supremelarson. After stumbling across the #nofreedrip tagline, I thought, if this is available as an instagram name I absolutely have to have it. To my surprise, when I typed those 10 letters into Zuck’s pandoras box a brief loading screen followed and NoFreeDrip was immortalized. 

What followed, was a lot of shit talking from friends new and old. I didn’t have plans at this time to launch a streetwear brand, I really just wanted to raise an eyebrow for the doomscrollers.

What started out as a joke ended up blooming into one of the most recognized clothing brands at Arizona State University.