The Story of the Most Forbidden Sneaker ever made
The rare Nike bootleg Ari Menthol 10’s have for the first time arrived in Italy
A story that has traveled a bit like a legend through sneaker culture since the 2000s is that of the Ari Menthol 10’s. A bootleg shoe that simultaneously took on two absolute giants of industry, Nike and big tobacco. As much an art project as an act of defiance, the story of the Menthol 10’s had plenty of layers that made it so interesting. A pair has now for the first time arrived in Italy via the gang down at Dropout Milan, so we wanted to recant the tale of this very special shoe.
After the release and success of the sneaker, it didn’t take very long until both Nike and Newport came knocking on Ari’s door. Nike knocked first by sending a “Cease and desist” letter which is a standard statement saying, stop what you are doing and don’t do it anymore. Newport, on the other hand, came knocking much more aggressively and started legal actions against Ari. They demanded damages, and didn’t believe that the shoe had only been made in 252 pairs, to cut a long legal battle short, the shoe became banned and was ordered to be destroyed, going as far as under the terms of his settlement, Ari cannot legally own a pair of Menthol 10’s, he can’t use them, he can’t own a digital picture of them, can’t profit from them, can’t talk about them, essentially not being allowed to do anything related to the shoe. After a few years, the case died down, but we are now at a point where the exact number of the Menthol 10’s aren’t known and the chances of seeing a pair are pretty much near impossible, especially outside of the US, until now.
Andrea Tuzio & Andrea Canziani
The story of how Andrea Canziani, one of the owners of Dropout, managed to get a couple of them into Italy and his store, is an old school story, made up of alarm clocks in the middle of the night and auctions on Ebay. Andrea told us that he had been keeping an eye on the shoe for a while, after the clamor and success that was aroused by the inverted swoosh of the Air Jordan 1 Reverse Shattered Backboard (which you can always see at Dropout), the Air Jordan 1 "Cactus Jack "and the Blazer Mid" Class 1977 "created in collaboration with Slam Jam. This is because the ARI logo looks like an inverted swoosh. Andrea managed to find a couple of ARIs on Ebay, and he followed the auction and made his offer and went to sleep (the auction closed at 4:00 am) crossing his fingers hoping that no one would make an offer higher than his. Upon awakening, a bitter surprise, Andrea had been beaten by 5 dollars ... but he did not give up, he contacted the seller asking if there was any possibility that the agreement reached by those surpassing his offer could be unsuccessful. The salesman simply told him that he would let him know if this were to be the case. A few days later Andrea found the same announcement from the same seller and did not wait even a second before contacting him and asking for explanations. No explanation, the seller merely told him that he should follow the auction, and wished him luck. This time there was no sleep, Andrea followed the auction to its conclusion (again at 4:00 am) and won one of the rarest sneakers in the world that you can now go see down at Dropout in Milan for a true piece at sneaker culture history.