State your name and where you’re from.
Mark Garcia, TORONTO.
Favourite sneaker brand?
NIKE without a doubt!
What’s your size?:
10 or 10.5 depending on the shoe! Like in Huaraches, I’m a 10.5 but my Salomons are all 10s.
What do you collect, and what got you into it?
To be completely honest, I collect a lot of different things but usually one after the other. I must have started with collecting Nike SBs back in high school. The first pair I ever got was the Nike SB Takashi 2s. After countless hours on Hypebeast and RedFlagDeal forums, I started collecting Supreme through 2010-2013 — most of which I still have 'til this day. I also got into collecting yoyos around the same time. There were so many different shapes and colours and I even discovered one yoyo called the YoyoFactory Superstar that had a Box Logo design on it. I collected a bunch of Supreme and yoyos during that time of my life, and eventually moved on to collecting Designer Toys after discovering Magic Pony and Mindzai.
In 2014, there was an exhibit called This Is Not A Toy. It was filled with rare KAWS pieces, Huck Gee, and BE@RBRICKs. That exhibit was definitely a catalyst for me to collect hundreds of collectible art toys. One of my favourite TV shows, Adventure Time, began collaborating with Kidrobot and I was hooked on blind box toys! The rush you get when you crack open a blind box to see if it’s a design you like will always be a thrill. I eventually started opening up the 100% sized BE@RBRICK Series. I think the earliest set I opened was Series 27 and we’re currently on Series 45. Eventually, I started collecting larger art pieces like the 400% and later the 1000% sizes that are like 2 feet tall. KAWS started dropping stuff on his site in like 2016 and that was my chance to get KAWS at retail because all his older releases were (already) too expensive.
Crazy how time flies! After amassing a crazy collection of Nike SBs, Supreme, yoyos, and designer toys, I eventually started collecting manga and trading cards. My Hero Academia is my favourite series and I have been collecting every volume since they started printing them in English. They eventually did collectible figures, and it became such a big hit! And trading cards! Man, I’ve collected them all: Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Dragon Ball Super, Digimon, One Piece. Not only do these cards sit pretty in my binders, but I sleeve them up and battle it out at my locals or larger events to win high-value prize cards! I don’t think I will ever stop collecting the things that make me happy.
How many years have you been collecting?
15 years!
What’s your favourite item in your collection?
Man, that’s definitely a hard question to answer. If I really had to choose, it would probably be my set of figures from Adventure Time and Korean-based toy company Sticky Monster Lab. This drop was at the height of my toy-collecting phase and I remember copping it on the drop like it was Supreme. It symbolizes a time of self-discovery for me where I knew who I was and what I liked and didn’t care what anybody else thought. Honestly, I might even be the only person in North America who has these because you had to want Adventure Time designer toys to know this was releasing.
What about the rarest item you own?
I think the rarest item I own would have to be the Nike SB x Futura x UNKLEs that I got in a trade with legendary Toronto graffiti artist SKAM. We worked together briefly, and when I told him I got the latest KAWS Flayed Companion (Open Edition), he offered to trade. We both had doubled up on what we were trading, so we just swapped our extras. The Futura x UNKLEs (2004) and the De La Soul Highs (2005) are my only pink box Nike SBs. The rarest of the two gotta be the UNKLEs, no doubt. If I had to choose the rarest toy in my collection, it would be a grey KAWS Dissected 400% BE@RBRICK.
Favourite collectibles and why?
Some of the new stuff that came out this year are pretty solid choices like my BAPE x MEDICOM TOY Shishimai 1000% BE@RBRICK or the recent Jordan 4 Nike SBs because they both remind me that I am still a collector at heart. Hardly do I resell things, so I know these two pieces are permanent in my collection. The Shishimai BE@RBRICK is my second 1000%, and it took one of my favourite designs on a BE@RBRICK and BAPE’d it out.
I think the Jordan 4 Nike SBs are also one of my favourites because I started collecting Nike SBs, and they also remind me of my very first Jordans which were the Toro 4s and Shadow 1s. They released at the same time and I remember being the first one in line to camp out in front of the Foot Locker outside the Toronto Eaton Centre. That was the first and last time I ever camped out for anything. The Jordan 4 Nike SB really gives me a nostalgic feeling even though they just dropped.
And lastly.. what’re you still on the hunt for?
Hmm, a grail for me will always be the Nike SB x MF DOOMs. I shoulda copped them when Adrift first opened up cause another collector told me they had them but I slept, and now those MF DOOM SBs just get farther and farther out of my reach. I'm not actively searching for them because I don't think I can drop all that money for a deadstock pair. Hopefully one day I own them, but I’m in no rush.
