Rollie x Jesse Boykins III: Steps Tell Stories

If you mapped every step you've ever taken, it would tell the story of who you are. That's the idea behind Steps Tell Stories, our October campaign. It also marks the launch of our limited-edition collaboration with LA-based, Grammy-nominated artist, director and musical executive producer, Jesse Boykins III.

Jesse and our founder Vince met 10 years ago over a shared love of music. A decade on, that friendship has evolved into a collaboration featuring two shoes: the classic Derby Step on a Vibram® Carrarmato outsole and our new Kumo sneaker. Both come in an exclusive earthy print, a leaf Jesse found while spending time in nature. The collection debuts this weekend at ComplexCon LA (Rollie’s third time exhibiting) as the event marks its 10th anniversary.

We sat down with Jesse to speak through his creative process, who inspires him and why storytelling is so important.

Rollie: Jesse, you're an artist, songwriter, producer and now footwear designer. What drew you into such a creative profession? And has living in LA helped foster that creativity?

"I think the root of it is storytelling and then also learning. My desire to implement some sort of emotional reaction to a story or how you experience something has kind of been what I'm rooted in. And so whatever medium that is, I always try to find the truth and try to mark a moment at the same time."

Even coming up with the idea to put the leaf print on the shoe, I was just on a walk and I was in a good mood and I looked down and I saw something that made me feel something. So to be able to crystallise that moment in the design is actually one of my favourite things to do.

When I was living in New York, I was strictly focused on music - then I got into storytelling and writing concepts for things. When I moved to LA, I was given a lot more opportunity to see through a lot of those concepts outside of myself. People instilled trust in me to creative direct for them or executive produce their albums or come up with the call to action for their companies.

I've always cared to do these things, but I didn't necessarily give them a title for each thing. To me, they were all kind of the same thing. So while I am grateful that I'm in LA and I love it, it just brought out more of what I already was."

Rollie: Your company is called New Growth Creative Activities. What's the name and intention behind it?

"Firstly, you have to have both creativity and action. I think a lot about energy and I think about where I place my energy and I'm continuously challenging myself to try and grow a new aspect of my perspective on something. As humans, you become a creature of habit. You go to a restaurant and you order the same thing every time. And then after a while, you might just ask the waiter, ‘Yo, what you like? What else is good here?’ To me, that's me being active and me trying to grow and learn something about the menu... That's how I feel about my company.

It's like healthy, sustainable partnerships. And healthy to me don't mean always good. It just means that we still in it."

Rollie: When you're looking for new artists, what tells you you've found something truly special?

"I look at it more of like if I align with somebody, if we want the same thing. It's a really psychological thing. It ain't really like a feeling. Some of the artists I work with, I've made them take personality tests... so they can see themselves.

Recently I just directed a narrative music video for an artist... she had a reference point that to me was just off. If I would've just went with her reference and I wouldn't have challenged it, then the end result wouldn't have been as powerful and impactful and it wouldn't have been such a life-changing experience for me as well. 

She telling me, I watched this with my wife and we crying. I'm like, all right, well, that's the point... So yeah, I think more about alignment and trying to find the truth."

Rollie: Steps Tell Stories is about the steps that make us who we are. What are the defining steps that led you to where you are today?

"I moved around a lot as a kid and I was always in a new environment that I had to learn really fast. I think for me it's about being able to adapt and then add value to what I'm adapting to at the same time.

I think my steps are more so like who I've been able to come in contact with based on what I've been willing to give. I'll meet a stranger on the street and have a conversation and ask a certain amount of questions and they'll put a perspective on me that I didn't have... So I would accredit it to being open while I'm on these steps.”

Rollie: You've mentioned authenticity a lot. What does it look like for you?

"Authenticity to me is just being present. With how I feel. I'm not gonna feel good every day, but I'm gonna try to figure out why. And if somebody asks me, I'm gonna tell them straight up... To me, that's authenticity, is vulnerability, for real."

Rollie: You and Vince have known each other for 10 years. What do you remember about first connecting and what's kept that going?

"It ain't really even feel like 10 years for real. I think it was a mutual respect thing. I just remember the excitement in Vince about just design, about art, about everything. I'm not excited about events as much as I am excited about discovering something.

A lot of things Vince communicated to me, he went and did. And that's the testament, right? That's a testament to who he is, not only as a designer, but as a man. Because of our shared excitement and discovery, this happened naturally."

Rollie: The ComplexCon booth follows the shoe's connection to nature and energy. Where do you go in nature to recharge?

"I just go outside. I don't got no specific place. I'm either just on a walk and I just find myself in a park with some trees and I just sit there, or I'm on my bicycle and I'm just riding around.

Living in Brooklyn... you had to make a trip. You had to get on the train and be like, we gonna go to Fort Greene Park. So here (in LA), I could just go outside, ride my bike.

Even at my studio, I'll be working for like three hours and then I just go outside and take an hour walk just because... You go outside like you want to learn something new about science if you're paying attention."

Rollie: What do you hope people feel when they interact with the booth at ComplexCon and the product?

"I feel like it's kind of refreshing. To be able to connect nature with a kind of elevated shoe as far as the derby's concerned, I haven't really seen that as often as I have seen in sneaker design or trainers or workout shoes. But to be able to bridge those two things like that, that excites me.

As far as the booth is concerned, I think it's kind of like a calling card for that. To be able to create interest and then have a product that actually connects with that.

I've seen a lot of prints. But we was like, all right, well... let's just do our own. I think it speaks to nostalgia as far as a print is concerned, but it's still new because it's not a repeated print. That's what excites me about the print and that's what excites me about the design, even how light the shoe is in contrast to most derbies.

I like when the brain starts being automatically creative based on the thing that is being received." 

Rollie: If someone reading this is at the start of their own first step, what's one thing you'd want them to know? 

"Make sure you finish. Make sure you close out strong. That's the hardest part. Every other part of the creative process is fun as hell until you gotta finish. You start feeling like a maniac. You like, what is happening? Why is this happening to me? You gotta finish. And then right after you finish, you gotta let it go."

Rollie: Who are the creatives that inspire you? Whose steps inspire you?

"Vivienne Westwood, one of my favourite humans. That's a cold lady. Marcel Duchamp... he galvanised the people. Langston Hughes, that's a cold dude.

"What do they have in common? They got revolutionary spirits... I connect with people who are highly creative but highly misunderstood. No one gets me, so I gotta keep trying to make them understand with the things I make. André 3000 is another human that I look to for that. 

Also Frank Ocean. I call Frank Ocean a unicorn. He's not a goat, he's a unicorn."

Rollie x Jesse Boykins III collaboration is launching October 3 at ComplexCon LA. Available online at rollienation.com.