May 19, 2025 • 34 mins
Michael and Ryan sit down with therapist and sneaker enthusiast Liz Beecroft to explore the intersection of mental health and sneaker culture. From the legacy of Vans to the viral impact of Damn Daniel, they unpack how sneakers reflect personal identity, spark conversation in therapy, and influence youth culture in the age of social media.
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Connect with Us: Michael Judson Berry | Ryan Wilder
Theme: “Happy Dance” by Mr. Smith is licensed under Attribution 4.0 International License. “Running Fanfare” by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under Attribution 3.0 Unported.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
When I learned that it were named after the guys,
I was like, my first thing that I wanted to
talk about was Dick Van Dyke because that's a person
I loved when I was a kid. I was like, Oh,
it's somebody van something. I was like, oh, like one
of my heroes.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Thanks.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
He did a collapse. He did no?
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Oh damn, I wish there's still time. He's still kicking,
he's still going, he's still working out at the gym.
Welcome back to White Noise friends. I'm so excited about
our guests today, Ryan, would you like.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
To do the others?
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Yes, I would love to introduce everyone. Liz, thank you
for joining us.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Of course, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Oh is an amazing therapist, influencer, social media personality, speaker, collaborator.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
If you're feeling sad about yourself one day, go to
Liz's instagram and you will find all the tools to
feel better as I have before. It's at Liz Beecroft correct. Oh,
thank you so much. As we were saying before, like,
how do we properly introduce you? Because I feel like
you do so many things.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
I know it's too many things sometimes and it's overwhelming
for me to even try and keep count of honestly, because.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
You are perhaps the coolest therapist I have ever seen,
at least based on photos. Like when I like, I'm
watching this Pranos right now, and my mom is a
clinical psychologist, and like my image is usually like my
mom or heart where it's like the sort of buttoned
up let a lady who's just like very like hello,
let me And then I came across you, and you
are so cool?
Speaker 2 (01:37):
How did you end up drawing out the connection to
therapy and streetwear? Like how did this kind of how
did this come together?
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (01:45):
I mean so when I was in grad school, I
was kind of approaching the point of burnout, honestly, Like
it was. Grad school for social work is kind of
wild because you're taking classes three days a week or
two days a week, and then the other three year
in your like practicum or internship, and you're essentially doing
the job of a social worker without getting paid. So
(02:05):
it's also like really hard to and then you're working
a part time job aside from that, trying to actually
make some money so you can afford to pay rent
and live there and go to school. So I was
doing a lot of that stuff, and I was just
like burnt out. And this was before I even entered
the field. So I started kind of just like posting online.
My husband is in the marketing world and he also
(02:28):
does a lot of photo video work as well, and
he was kind of just like really encouraging. He's like,
you know, you need your identity to be something outside
of like social work and being a therapist, So started
just posting my love of seekers, and my love of
seekers really stemmed from growing up an athlete. I was
born and raised in it's called Frackville, Pennsylvania. It's like
(02:49):
middle of nowhere, bumfuck pa on a like, and sports
are pretty much a religion. So I grew up loving
the Philadelphia seven. Alan Iverson is like he's on like
Mount Rushmore for me for sure, and it was him
I got into wearing his sneakers, his reboup questions and answers,
(03:10):
and from there it kind of expanded. I not only
wanted to like be one of the best athletes on
the court, but I wanted to have the best sneekers
and so then through that it kind of led me
into more of the lifestyle sneakers, which is then what
I started posting online when I was in grad school
and then from there didn't even really talk about being
a therapist at that point in time on my digital platforms.
(03:31):
But then eventually it was like, you know, let me
see if there's a way of kind of having these
conversations in the sneaker community, because I was making a
lot of friends who were kind of opening up to
me in person about those things. And then yeah, started
kind of just sprinkling in a little bit of mental
health content and eventually it led to some pretty awesome
opportunities and opened some doors, and I just kind of
(03:54):
went head first and dove into it.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Yeah, how big is You're a streetsheet collection?
Speaker 4 (03:58):
Now, honestly, I've downsized because I've hit that point in
my life where like I'm going to be thirty four
this year, I am starting to just become more intentional
with the pairs that I have. There was a point
in time where I was just buying so many sneakers
because they were like the cool shoe to have. I
wanted to just like have a shoe that I could
like get a quick fit off and maybe get a
(04:18):
repost from hypees. And that was like toxic behavior. Like honestly,
I went through my own like you know, therapy talking
about that kind of stuff. And you know, I've downsized
a lot, so I probably have maybe like one hundred
and fifty pairs in my collection now, but at one
point it was like four hundred or more. So I
job downsizing. When we lived in Brooklyn, we had a
(04:41):
two bedroom apartment and our second bedroom was my sneeker
room slash like office. So we had like the Ikea
Billy bookshelves just like in every single wall pretty much
and stacked high and there it was just filled with sneakers.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Wow, And do you wear all of them or some
of them?
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Just like that's a special pair, like that is meant
to be looked at, it admired.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
Yeah, I'm a big proponent of wearing your shoes. There
were some that I probably never put on that like
maybe I got gifted or just like never got around
to wearing them. But for the most part, I wore
pretty much all of them at least once. And there
was like one pair I can remember getting gifted. It
was like a Rebok Answer five and they did a
collaboration with BBC ice Cream. Pharrell's like one of his
(05:29):
streetwear brands, and it was a really cool it's like
a dark red and like pink and yellow kind of colorway.
And I love post Malone. So I went to post
Alone concert in Philly. He sings white Iverson. I had
my Iverson questions on and we were like right up
front and then I just like shoved my sneaker at him.
He's like, this is so cool. He signed it twice.
(05:51):
I've never worn them again. They're just kind of like,
oh no, yeah possessions.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Yeah, okay, so are they the favorite pair then?
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Yeah? Great?
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Yeh cans go. That's so cool. Also, how was the concert?
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Oh amazing. He's so good live. He is just such
a character. His dance moves our next level.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
I wonder with like clothes and shoes.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
My boyfriend works in fashion and has like I've never
known someone with so much clothing. But because I have
like four T shirts and a pair of boots and
that's my life. So but he's the same where he's like, no,
everything should be worn, like even if it's a really nice,
expensive fancy like that is the reason you have it,
because you should like actually enjoy it, even if just once.
So the topic then is perfect for today because it
(06:34):
is it's not just sneakers, but it's one specific brand.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
It's Vans Snakers.
Speaker 4 (06:39):
Ooh, funny enough history with Vans. I what at one
point dabbled in skating? Ooh, my first skapeboard was a
world industries like this was back fourth grade. All my
friends were boys growing up and love skateboarding. And the
reason my husband and I are together we actually met
on Tinder and in my Tinder profile I have I'm
(07:00):
only on here to find Shane O'Neill. Shane O'Neill, is
this like gorgeous? Australian skateboarder Colin messaged me and was
kind of like, what about Corey Kennedy? And then we
just hit it off and started talking about skateboarding and
ten years later we're married for three years now, so.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Oh well, then this is perfect.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Then you you probably know a lot more about Vans.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Than I do.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
I have the research of it, but that is about
the death of it, and I'll explain that too.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Oh great, now that we've chatted for a second, who
would you like to go first?
Speaker 4 (07:42):
How about Rock Paper Scissors?
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (07:45):
No, one's done that. Yeah, all right, Ryan, are you ready?
Speaker 1 (07:51):
I'm ready, Liz. Do you want to say rock paper
scissors and then welcome?
Speaker 4 (07:54):
Okay, okay, rock paper scissors.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Go?
Speaker 3 (07:59):
What did you do paper?
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (08:01):
I did rock? You beat me?
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Okay, Ryan, you're going first. Okay, Ran, I have your
timer ready to go. Let me know when you're ready
and I shall hit start.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
I'm ready, great and go.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
So I did my typical did a little research on
vands because I wanted to know the history and how
they became what they are, and thinking about shoes growing
up kind of brought up a personal story for me,
which I'll share at the end. But Van Shoes were
created by Paul Van Doren in Anahem, California, in nineteen
(08:36):
sixty six, and it was originally called the Van Dorn
Rubber Company. Their novel idea was to make shoes on
site and cell direct, so completely cut out the middleman.
So you walked in and you figured out what you wanted,
and they made them and you got them, which is
kind of cool. But as it turns out, the very
iconic waffle Bottom held a skateboard incredibly well and as
(08:59):
a result was kind of ingratiated into the skating community.
It also helped that they were durable construction, so like
canvas and leather, and they were relatively cheap, so you
could beat the shit out of them. And like the
thing that I was reading is like their parent approved
because they were easy to replace. But in seven and
this is, by the way, this is kind of how
things developed through the seventies for them. And then in
(09:22):
seventy six they partnered with Tony Aliva and Stacy Peralta
and they created the Era, which is the low top
sneaker that was padded and really kind of cemented their
place in the skating community and as a skating shoe.
And then I love this. Do either of you know
what was behind the ascent of the slip on, the
(09:45):
checkered slip on authentics?
Speaker 4 (09:48):
No?
Speaker 3 (09:48):
No, the way is it the movie.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Fast Times at Ridgemont High Sean Penn, the Stone or them?
And it's kind of cemented their place in pop culture
or even like counterculture, which I thought was kind of cool.
Odd than if I haven't seen Fast Times at Ridgemont High,
I'm like, oh, i think I'm missing out.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Neither have I, And I feel like it was one
of those movies that I would see at Blockbuster as
a kid and be like, oh, that looks fun, and
then I would just rent clue.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Again.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
I feel like I've failed as an elder millennial here
on that one. But oh well, in the eighties they
like overextended themselves, so they kind of got like way
into it. They started to make break dancing shoes, which
was like the thing highlighted is like, what the hell
were they thinking. They ended up in bankruptcy in eighty four,
but Paul van Dorn was still at the Helm and
(10:42):
realized that what they needed to do is back away
from this kind of like Nike strategy of rapid growth,
and it's say, get back to like the basics, get
back to like where their kind of heart and soul was.
So in the late nineties they really started to lean
back into action spores. They backed the Warped Tour, they
(11:03):
built skate parks, They were big supporter of BMX and
the punk scene, and ultimately just kind of started to
become synonymous with youth and rebellion, which I would say
at some level they still today. And I think what's
interesting about where they are today as a brand is
they grew up with millennials, like they've been a part
of millennial culture in essence since we were born, and
(11:27):
like you know, they'd collaborated with the Simpson, Supreme, Vivian Westwood.
But now in terms of where they are, they went
public on Nasdaq in ninety one and were bought up
by VF, so VF owns They now owned Supreme, they
own north Face, they own Timberlain, and it's worth like
(11:47):
they bought it for like four hundred million and now
is one of their top producing brands at close to
three billion dollars a year. I did, I was like,
I wonder if they're still made in the United States,
and that answer is absolutely not. Part of their growth
strategy drove them to start getting supplies or find cheaper
supplies outside of the US, but then ultimately moving most
(12:09):
of the production out of the US was part of
the survival strategy and a candidate, if they hadn't done it,
the brand might not be around at all today. So
it just kind of like is what it is. I
do remember when VF took over Timberland, so I liked
Temberlance a lot, and I still have one of my
original pairs actually because they're well made and Timberland was
(12:31):
known for it didn't matter how how much you beat
the shit out of them, you could return them to
them and they'd send you a new pair. VF brought
that to an abrupt end. Kind of unfortunate. I mean,
they're still pretty supportive of I what it call like
iconic brands that have very loyal followings for very specific reasons,
which I think is cool. And apparently they maintained the
(12:54):
leadership for Vans and that's why Vans continues to have
the kind of authenticity that they carry. But yeah, that's
kind of where they're where they are at today. And
this made me reflect on like I'm like, what the
hell were Vans? Like why didn't I wear them as
a kid? Like why wasn't this like a thing for me?
(13:14):
And like, you know, Michael, it just like why does
it always go back to mom?
Speaker 1 (13:21):
That's a better question for Liz. You have you literally
have a therapist on on the pod right now.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
Already we're gonna do some unpacking together.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Money at the end of this, my cove is only
five dollars. Let me know how file.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
I was brought to you by Ryot's Health Insurance.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
But my my mom, I mean, my mom would have
never let me wear anything associated with streetwear. And I
think it's because she was a teacher and like the
whole like her impression of I mean, it was a
it was a rebellion street ran right, so and her
impression was rebellion, and there was no way her child
was going to be rebellious. So you know what did
(14:08):
this translate to for shoes for me? So my mom
was hyper pragmatic and very thrifty. And you know, my
mom was one of these moms that was like, I
would never I would never spend fifty dollars on a
pair of shoes. You don't need fifty dollars shoes what, like, uh,
(14:28):
just ridiculous. So my mom goes to Kmart finds these
incredible shoes known as Jordas Street Legends, which were really
kind of a replica of a Nike basketball shoe that
were solid leather. That was that they were ryan, They're
solid leather, they're well made, they're solid leather. You can
(14:49):
so I had to wear these Street Legends. I wore
these Street Legends for probably three consecutive years, and like,
you know, I was kind of an awkward kid to
start with. At the end of the day, like didn't
really know who I was, was not connected with like
my sexuality at that point, like why am I so
weird and different? And then on top of it all,
(15:09):
I'm wearing these shoes that just made me feel that
much more like out. But my mom at the end,
for my mom that wasn't like this is the pragmatic
like why would anyone care?
Speaker 3 (15:20):
They look good?
Speaker 2 (15:21):
They're made of leather.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
I don't know, I'm picturing little brown hoofs made out
of leather.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
They were. I actually went and looked them up and
there is a little bit of like information on them. Essentially,
they were a byproduct of Jordash's like rapid expansion with Kmart,
where Jordash was just slapping their brand on everything, which
is unfortunate because I mean they were kind of like
the hot gene to have through the eighties, and I
guess when that kind of like wound down, they were like,
(15:50):
how do we keep making money? And they're like, yeah,
put our name on everything in Kmart And they were
a blue light special. I want to say, my mom
got me like five pairs of them. There were ultimately
like two pairs that I never wore ever because I
just refused but this whole thing came to an end.
I want to save my sophomore year in high school,
and I don't. I was gonna, I'm gonna gamble. It
(16:10):
was like at a ross, do you guys know dress
for less?
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Ross Ross? Dress for less, of course, And I found.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
A pair of Nike Air Max or Airturf Max dan
Marinos and they were probably like they were slightly out
of date, like they were obviously what remained in some
sort of stock. But I was so excited to find them.
And I remember like taking them to my mom and
being like, and it's funny, I had my own money.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
I'm almost you can finish your story again. Rules yeah,
oh that's right. We're kind of doing rebellion, right, that's
that's the theme. So my mom like, even though I
had my own money, my mom would still kind of
approve what I would purchase, and like, so I had
to like convince and I was like, look, mom, these
(17:00):
were originally sixty five dollars shoes.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
They're down to thirty dollars now. And I got the
approval to wear them. I was so proud of those
damn high tops, Like I remember I wore them. I
wore them to school. One of the first times I
wore them to school, like one of the guys that Now,
as I reflect on it, I think I was attracted
to complimented them, and I was just like I was like,
(17:23):
I knew these shoes were amazing, and I wore the
shit out of them. I wore the soles off of them,
but I maintain them, Like if they got the least
a little bit dirty, I clean them. If I got
scratches on the white leather, I cleaned up the white
leather off of this. I was so intrigued by it,
and I'm currently trying to negotiate with somebody on somebody
on eBay to buy a pair of them right now.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
So, oh, that's really cool.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
So like in terms of therapy and like shoes and like,
you know, obviously I just went through some brain damage.
Do you ever do you ever clock people on their
shoes when they walk in Do you ever like look
at shoes and go and kind of like, oh, those
shoes are a lot of fun. I bet you this
person's fun or like something like that.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
Sometimes, like sometimes it's also a really good wait to
engage a client, and it throws people off guard, especially
like if they're not like they don't know that I
know seekers like that. There's times where all have a session,
we spend fifteen minutes just talking about sneakers or whatever
because the person's just anti therapy, or they're because their
(18:26):
coach or you know, someone in their life is kind
of like pressuring them into this and they don't want
any part of it. So it's more of a strategy
of just like, okay, like let's talk about what you're
comfortable with for now, and you know, like let me
show you that, like I'm also a human, and when
you're ready to have, you know, all the harder conversations,
we can cross that bridge. But we don't need to
do it right now. But it's funny sometimes too, like
(18:49):
with if I have seekers on, like I'll get clocked
by like a client and being that I am such
a diehard Phillies fan. I do have clients that like
work for different teams in the that's always I always
have to be very cognizant of like what I'm wearing
in sessions. I can't be wearing a Philly's hat with
you know, someone from you know a different team and.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
You're like, no, how does it make you feel thinking
about how I feel about it?
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Are you ready, Michael?
Speaker 3 (19:28):
I think so all right, ready, set go.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
So it's funny before I even start, when you were
like clocking somebody by their shoes and like the type
of shoes you liked when you were a kid. I
loved Penny Loafers. And now I'm just like what did
that say about me? Not surprised and why does this
still feel so correct? I feel like I grew up
from like a Penny Loafer kid who had a brief
moment with Converse where I was like I'm gonna have
(19:55):
every color Converse, where I was like my moment of fun,
and then I just accepted who I which is Berry's
and Birkenstocks, and like there we are Vans. That actually
is when I first when when we were signed Vans,
my first thought was just like a flashback to being
at the mall in high school and very much realizing
(20:15):
accepting that I was not a cool kid, which is fine,
Like it makes me think of like the Spencer's Gifts
and like Off the Wall and like Journey, like yeah,
and the town where I grew up, like the mall
was very much like a social center. We very much
were like one of those nineties movies where it was cold.
It was always knowing there wasn't much to do to you,
but we had a huge mall and so you would
(20:37):
just go hang out there. And I always liked Vance
because I thought the patterns and stuff were really fun.
They looked comfortable. I think I may have had one
pair at some point in college when I had a
moment of like I'm cool and you know. So that
was my first thought with Vance, was just like this
feeling of like inferiority, but then sort of acceptance. It
where I ended up because I was like, Okay, let
(20:57):
me actually learn about Vans also quick Side not again,
welcome my add brain. When I learned that they were
named after the guys, I was like, my first thing
that I wanted to talk about was Dick Van Dyke
because that's a person I loved when I was a kid.
And I was like, oh, it's it's somebody van something.
I was like, oh, like one of my heroes.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
He did.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
No, Oh damn, I wish there's still time. He's he's
still kicking, he's still going, he's still working out at
the gym. Vans might be good for leg day I
don't know, they're flat.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
It's true. Actually, yeah, right.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
But where so I learned a little bit about them,
But where I ended up was on the Damn Daniel video,
which I don't know if you remember clearly, Liz, you
remember man, Damn Daniel, Damn Daniel spicy with the white fans,
(21:56):
which why they were spicy?
Speaker 3 (21:58):
Were not sure.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
So this was such a joy for me to learn
about this because I remember when everyone was saying, like,
damn Daniel, and I lived under a rock, so I
had no idea what any of this meant. And I
was one of those people who said, like damn Daniel,
having no clue what I was referencing.
Speaker 4 (22:16):
Was it Vine?
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Was that from Vine when like yep and became started
on Snapchat, moved to Vine and YouTube and Facebook with
over four.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Hundred million views. Wow.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
And those guys it was Daniel Lara who's the Damn Daniel,
and then Joshua Holtz was the buddy who said it
were named two of the most influential people on the
Internet in twenty sixteen by Time magazine. And it's again
like it came back to like this barrel of thing
of like inferiority than acceptance, where like I had my
little like fifty minutes of social media fame during COVID, right,
(22:51):
I did Moiro Rose Impressions, and so within the Shit's
Creek community, I was like, but before that, the irony
was I had friends who were like you, like you
can barely turn your phone on, let alone know how
social media works, Like you don't know about trends. It's like, yeah,
but I got awake and I can do weird voices,
and so it was no shock to me that I
(23:12):
had heard of this but had no clue who these
two were. But it was just fascinating learning about them.
Like I watched they went on Ellen after this happened,
and they had this great Ellen interview where she's like
so and they're like, I don't know, we're fourteen and
the one kid is a swimmer, and he was just like, yeah,
I think I knew we were famous when I went
to a swim meet and like ten people asked me
to take my picture with them. And it's just so
(23:34):
sort of like sweet to watch, like influencers before influencers
were a thing, yeah, or it was like a career, yes,
And it's interesting to think about if that had happened
to those kids now, because they did it purely on accident,
and it's so sort of sweet to watch them. And
I even tried to find what's happened to them since,
(23:57):
and no one really knows what happened to Daniel. He
stopped posting on social medi Joshua, I think, is like
a filmmaker now and like kind of photographer seems. And
again I think they're only what like twenty four now,
so they only just so. But it's interesting because like
if they had done that now, they'd probably be in
like starring in a Ryan Murphy series or like have
(24:18):
their own line. And it's like it kind of stopped
right there, which was like the sweet innocent moment of
like pre influencers, but they seem like sweet kids. It
was interesting, like looking into their reactions to fame and
like Daniel, like I love that he got a lifetime
supply Vans, which I think was it really a lifetime supply,
but it was just like a whole bunch of Vans,
and I didn't realize they gave them ultimate once.
Speaker 4 (24:40):
They'd probably also like get dry rotted over time. I
would assume if you don't wear them.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
And they all were the white van you know that
he wears so very sweetly.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
He gave them almost all of them to like kids
at like at a university children's.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
Hospital there you go. Yeah, see he had to look
it up. I was like, I gotta do, which just
seems so lovely.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
And then poor Joshua though after so then he got
a surfboard from Ellen, which he was a big surface,
so awesome, but he got swatted, which I had never
I did not know this term. I don't know to
get swatted. So apparently it's right after it happened, like
right after they were on Ellen and they like really
really blew up and they're going to award shows and
(25:22):
stuff like this. So to get swatted is when somebody
calls in a fake nine to one one call and
it's something so seemingly serious that swat teams are sent
to you, and it's called getting swatted. And somebody did
this to this poor fourteen year old kid or I
think it was fifteen Joshua Holtz. Somebody called in a
(25:42):
nine to one one that his mother had been shot
and there was an armed attacker in their home. And
so they were just like chilling at home and then
full like a full swat team just like blew into
their house like guns drawn, like looking for the armed deta.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Which, like, God, that's so dramatic.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Right, And it seems like no surprise that after that
they both sort of went a little radio silent as
far as social media. And again, like nobody really knows
what happened to damn Daniel. And after this poor like
swat incident. And that's what I mean, even as a
therapist must be interesting to be like what what would
that do to you? And they like skyrocketed to fame
(26:25):
before we knew what influencers were like and not.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
Having any I guess, any of the tools or resources
that you have now to like take advantage of to
help you through that.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Yeah, or like I think a lot of times like
now they're like teams who swoop in. It's like I'm
a manager for influencers, I'm abr person and they sort
of like help you handle it and navigate it, Whereas
there you were just sort of like thrown to the
internet wolves and the trolls. I could only imagine what
these two poor kids went through because the one kid
with Daniel apparently he was getting proposals from like fully
(26:58):
grown women and he was fourteen like anyway, So yeah,
that's what it just brought me back to, Like Damn
Daniel with.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
A weird little voice.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
But yeah, that's I don't know how much time I
have left, but that's what it made me think of. Oh,
I'm in a twenty Okay, well then since we have
some bonus time, we're just gonna riff for a quick second.
What this won't have anything to do with vans, But
then damn Daniel, And that makes me think, like what
(27:31):
was sort of your first like viral thing that you remember,
like not that you did, but like you were like,
oh that was awesome.
Speaker 4 (27:38):
Okay, this is bad, remember ed Basemaster?
Speaker 3 (27:42):
No, what's that?
Speaker 4 (27:44):
So like this is like I guess I was in college,
but he was this guy and he was on YouTube
and he would just like prank call people, and so
he would like dress up and film himself frank calling places.
But like he called like a nail Like in hindsight,
probably like now he would probably get canceled for a
lot of the things that he did, but in hindsight,
(28:04):
he like called a nail salon, and he was like
I came in last week and I got a pedicure
and you told me I had man toes, and like
he was never there, never got the pedicure. And then
the woman like this poor like Asian woman who's just
like no, no, no, I told I'd asked you if
you wanted mentoes, and like was trying to like cover
up something that never happened. And it was just like
(28:27):
this whole thing. So like I would go around with
my friends in college of like he said I had
mentoe And then he also like would just go out
in public and like just like have someone would be
video video on him and he would just kind of
act as this like he had a bunch of different
characters and he would go to people like walking their
(28:49):
dogs and it was like this lady walking and he's like,
what is that a pony and she's like no, it's
a greyhound, and like he would just like fuck with people,
like he would put it on YouTube and it was
like funny, and that was like one of the first
things I guess I can remember.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
It was like that for me.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
The advent of all of this actually kind of precipitated
on email. So like in college, my first few years
in college was when people just had started bringing It
was like a mandatory requirement to have a computer, and
so we all had computers and people would distribute pretty
(29:28):
awful videos across list serves for various classes.
Speaker 5 (29:33):
And I remember this one guy in one of my
classes sent a very interesting movie with a horse and
it was in our communications class and I just remember
walking into class that day and I love that professor
and he was just like, I think the guy's name
was Tony.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
He's like, well, Tony, thanks for distributing that content out
to everyone, and like everyone just kind of laughed. I
didn't know what to say because everyone I was like,
I was like, is this allowed? Like you can do this?
And then and then I forget who's somebody I was
talking to you. They're like, dude, we're adult. Like, wow,
that's how old I am.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
All right, well that's that's my van's presentation. It went
a little off the wall, but we got there. Okay,
this you you get the fun time now of choosing
of choosing our winner whatever literally whatever that means to you,
and there are no parameters, it's just.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
Whatever you think. I'm going.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
With Michael, because I love the discussion on like the
cultural impacts that it has and like how seekers are
you know, like impact social media and trends and this,
like the cultural impact.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
So yeah, that's my okay, I wonder and vice versa.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
Because Van sales went like through the roof after the
damn Danielle, Yeah, the white ones.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
Yeah, I definitely bought a pair because of it.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
That's oh nice.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
I was influenced by daniel You were influenced before we
even before we even really knew what was happening.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
So I was gonna say, listen, make to me thanking
of something you did a fun collaboration with Nike. If
you were to asked again to do a fun collaboration
with Vans, where would you go with it.
Speaker 4 (31:20):
I'm very intentional with my collapse when especially when it
comes to like mental health messaging and storytelling, Van says
a lot of really cool They have a nonprofit that
actually gives back to the mental health of like young
skape boarders. I probably would do something with you know,
the stories of the any of their sponsored pros that
(31:44):
they work with to like trying to understand, like you know,
whether it's like having them write out like their affirmations
or like I don't know something around like performance and
mental health and like including their storytelling in.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
It all right, and and you have the fun job
giving us our topic for next week.
Speaker 4 (32:02):
So I'm a big Disney adult and I want it
to be on Club thirty three at Walt at Disney.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Oh I know, I don't wait, what is that? Like
the secret club in the Castle.
Speaker 4 (32:16):
It's like a member's club that Disney all Disney properties have,
and they actually just increased their so there's like a
fifty I think they just increased it.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
I think it's like.
Speaker 4 (32:27):
Fifty grand just to like initiation fee, and the wait
list to get on to get to become a member
of Club thirty three is like years long. They also
do like extensive background and credit checks to even make
sure that you could financially become it. But like it's
wild and there's a lot of like weird so like
apparently Walt Disney was a freemason. And then there's also
(32:49):
some like weird stuff that is rumored that happens in
Club thirty three. I don't know if it's true or not, but.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
There's some public dreama in the previous five years. That's
how I know about it, and it hit the It
hit media in the previous series. I don't remember who
it was, but yeah, there was something weird that went
down and somebody came out and went public about it,
and it was like.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Oh, this is I was gonna say, because I'm not
surprising you said Freemason because it was kind of giving
like the little freemasony vibes. Okay, cool, I'm excited because
I know next to nothing about this, So this is beginning.
This is gonna be fun to lose the research, all right?
So where where should people follow?
Speaker 3 (33:27):
You? Find you? Where all the all the things?
Speaker 4 (33:30):
Yeah, so my personal Instagram is Liz the Letter B
and then croft that is where you can find me
as a human and my life outside and behind the
scenes of being a therapist. And then if you want
like the mental health content, my private practice is mental
sash m NTL dot s E s H and that's
where you're gonna get more of the mental health content is.
(33:52):
But honestly, like, I love just my own platform because honestly,
when I'm done work, the last thing I want to
do is create content around mental health.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
For the day.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
So fair, Yeah, that's totally fair.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
So chat about cool sneakers and Disney and pretzels and Billies.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
Yah yeah awesome. Well, thank you so much for having me.
This was so fun. Oh good, yay,
When I learned that it were named after the guys,
I was like, my first thing that I wanted to
talk about was Dick Van Dyke because that's a person
I loved when I was a kid. I was like, Oh,
it's somebody van something. I was like, oh, like one
of my heroes.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Thanks.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
He did a collapse. He did no?
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Oh damn, I wish there's still time. He's still kicking,
he's still going, he's still working out at the gym.
Welcome back to White Noise friends. I'm so excited about
our guests today, Ryan, would you like.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
To do the others?
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Yes, I would love to introduce everyone. Liz, thank you
for joining us.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Of course, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Oh is an amazing therapist, influencer, social media personality, speaker, collaborator.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
If you're feeling sad about yourself one day, go to
Liz's instagram and you will find all the tools to
feel better as I have before. It's at Liz Beecroft correct. Oh,
thank you so much. As we were saying before, like,
how do we properly introduce you? Because I feel like
you do so many things.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
I know it's too many things sometimes and it's overwhelming
for me to even try and keep count of honestly, because.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
You are perhaps the coolest therapist I have ever seen,
at least based on photos. Like when I like, I'm
watching this Pranos right now, and my mom is a
clinical psychologist, and like my image is usually like my
mom or heart where it's like the sort of buttoned
up let a lady who's just like very like hello,
let me And then I came across you, and you
are so cool?
Speaker 2 (01:37):
How did you end up drawing out the connection to
therapy and streetwear? Like how did this kind of how
did this come together?
Speaker 1 (01:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (01:45):
I mean so when I was in grad school, I
was kind of approaching the point of burnout, honestly, Like
it was. Grad school for social work is kind of
wild because you're taking classes three days a week or
two days a week, and then the other three year
in your like practicum or internship, and you're essentially doing
the job of a social worker without getting paid. So
(02:05):
it's also like really hard to and then you're working
a part time job aside from that, trying to actually
make some money so you can afford to pay rent
and live there and go to school. So I was
doing a lot of that stuff, and I was just
like burnt out. And this was before I even entered
the field. So I started kind of just like posting online.
My husband is in the marketing world and he also
(02:28):
does a lot of photo video work as well, and
he was kind of just like really encouraging. He's like,
you know, you need your identity to be something outside
of like social work and being a therapist, So started
just posting my love of seekers, and my love of
seekers really stemmed from growing up an athlete. I was
born and raised in it's called Frackville, Pennsylvania. It's like
(02:49):
middle of nowhere, bumfuck pa on a like, and sports
are pretty much a religion. So I grew up loving
the Philadelphia seven. Alan Iverson is like he's on like
Mount Rushmore for me for sure, and it was him
I got into wearing his sneakers, his reboup questions and answers,
(03:10):
and from there it kind of expanded. I not only
wanted to like be one of the best athletes on
the court, but I wanted to have the best sneekers
and so then through that it kind of led me
into more of the lifestyle sneakers, which is then what
I started posting online when I was in grad school
and then from there didn't even really talk about being
a therapist at that point in time on my digital platforms.
(03:31):
But then eventually it was like, you know, let me
see if there's a way of kind of having these
conversations in the sneaker community, because I was making a
lot of friends who were kind of opening up to
me in person about those things. And then yeah, started
kind of just sprinkling in a little bit of mental
health content and eventually it led to some pretty awesome
opportunities and opened some doors, and I just kind of
(03:54):
went head first and dove into it.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Yeah, how big is You're a streetsheet collection?
Speaker 4 (03:58):
Now, honestly, I've downsized because I've hit that point in
my life where like I'm going to be thirty four
this year, I am starting to just become more intentional
with the pairs that I have. There was a point
in time where I was just buying so many sneakers
because they were like the cool shoe to have. I
wanted to just like have a shoe that I could
like get a quick fit off and maybe get a
(04:18):
repost from hypees. And that was like toxic behavior. Like honestly,
I went through my own like you know, therapy talking
about that kind of stuff. And you know, I've downsized
a lot, so I probably have maybe like one hundred
and fifty pairs in my collection now, but at one
point it was like four hundred or more. So I
job downsizing. When we lived in Brooklyn, we had a
(04:41):
two bedroom apartment and our second bedroom was my sneeker
room slash like office. So we had like the Ikea
Billy bookshelves just like in every single wall pretty much
and stacked high and there it was just filled with sneakers.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Wow, And do you wear all of them or some
of them?
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Just like that's a special pair, like that is meant
to be looked at, it admired.
Speaker 4 (05:05):
Yeah, I'm a big proponent of wearing your shoes. There
were some that I probably never put on that like
maybe I got gifted or just like never got around
to wearing them. But for the most part, I wore
pretty much all of them at least once. And there
was like one pair I can remember getting gifted. It
was like a Rebok Answer five and they did a
collaboration with BBC ice Cream. Pharrell's like one of his
(05:29):
streetwear brands, and it was a really cool it's like
a dark red and like pink and yellow kind of colorway.
And I love post Malone. So I went to post
Alone concert in Philly. He sings white Iverson. I had
my Iverson questions on and we were like right up
front and then I just like shoved my sneaker at him.
He's like, this is so cool. He signed it twice.
(05:51):
I've never worn them again. They're just kind of like,
oh no, yeah possessions.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Yeah, okay, so are they the favorite pair then?
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Yeah? Great?
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Yeh cans go. That's so cool. Also, how was the concert?
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Oh amazing. He's so good live. He is just such
a character. His dance moves our next level.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
I wonder with like clothes and shoes.
Speaker 1 (06:10):
My boyfriend works in fashion and has like I've never
known someone with so much clothing. But because I have
like four T shirts and a pair of boots and
that's my life. So but he's the same where he's like, no,
everything should be worn, like even if it's a really nice,
expensive fancy like that is the reason you have it,
because you should like actually enjoy it, even if just once.
So the topic then is perfect for today because it
(06:34):
is it's not just sneakers, but it's one specific brand.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
It's Vans Snakers.
Speaker 4 (06:39):
Ooh, funny enough history with Vans. I what at one
point dabbled in skating? Ooh, my first skapeboard was a
world industries like this was back fourth grade. All my
friends were boys growing up and love skateboarding. And the
reason my husband and I are together we actually met
on Tinder and in my Tinder profile I have I'm
(07:00):
only on here to find Shane O'Neill. Shane O'Neill, is
this like gorgeous? Australian skateboarder Colin messaged me and was
kind of like, what about Corey Kennedy? And then we
just hit it off and started talking about skateboarding and
ten years later we're married for three years now, so.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Oh well, then this is perfect.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
Then you you probably know a lot more about Vans.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Than I do.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
I have the research of it, but that is about
the death of it, and I'll explain that too.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Oh great, now that we've chatted for a second, who
would you like to go first?
Speaker 4 (07:42):
How about Rock Paper Scissors?
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (07:45):
No, one's done that. Yeah, all right, Ryan, are you ready?
Speaker 1 (07:51):
I'm ready, Liz. Do you want to say rock paper
scissors and then welcome?
Speaker 4 (07:54):
Okay, okay, rock paper scissors.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
Go?
Speaker 3 (07:59):
What did you do paper?
Speaker 2 (08:01):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (08:01):
I did rock? You beat me?
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Okay, Ryan, you're going first. Okay, Ran, I have your
timer ready to go. Let me know when you're ready
and I shall hit start.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
I'm ready, great and go.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
So I did my typical did a little research on
vands because I wanted to know the history and how
they became what they are, and thinking about shoes growing
up kind of brought up a personal story for me,
which I'll share at the end. But Van Shoes were
created by Paul Van Doren in Anahem, California, in nineteen
(08:36):
sixty six, and it was originally called the Van Dorn
Rubber Company. Their novel idea was to make shoes on
site and cell direct, so completely cut out the middleman.
So you walked in and you figured out what you wanted,
and they made them and you got them, which is
kind of cool. But as it turns out, the very
iconic waffle Bottom held a skateboard incredibly well and as
(08:59):
a result was kind of ingratiated into the skating community.
It also helped that they were durable construction, so like
canvas and leather, and they were relatively cheap, so you
could beat the shit out of them. And like the
thing that I was reading is like their parent approved
because they were easy to replace. But in seven and
this is, by the way, this is kind of how
things developed through the seventies for them. And then in
(09:22):
seventy six they partnered with Tony Aliva and Stacy Peralta
and they created the Era, which is the low top
sneaker that was padded and really kind of cemented their
place in the skating community and as a skating shoe.
And then I love this. Do either of you know
what was behind the ascent of the slip on, the
(09:45):
checkered slip on authentics?
Speaker 4 (09:48):
No?
Speaker 3 (09:48):
No, the way is it the movie.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Fast Times at Ridgemont High Sean Penn, the Stone or them?
And it's kind of cemented their place in pop culture
or even like counterculture, which I thought was kind of cool.
Odd than if I haven't seen Fast Times at Ridgemont High,
I'm like, oh, i think I'm missing out.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
Neither have I, And I feel like it was one
of those movies that I would see at Blockbuster as
a kid and be like, oh, that looks fun, and
then I would just rent clue.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Again.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
I feel like I've failed as an elder millennial here
on that one. But oh well, in the eighties they
like overextended themselves, so they kind of got like way
into it. They started to make break dancing shoes, which
was like the thing highlighted is like, what the hell
were they thinking. They ended up in bankruptcy in eighty four,
but Paul van Dorn was still at the Helm and
(10:42):
realized that what they needed to do is back away
from this kind of like Nike strategy of rapid growth,
and it's say, get back to like the basics, get
back to like where their kind of heart and soul was.
So in the late nineties they really started to lean
back into action spores. They backed the Warped Tour, they
(11:03):
built skate parks, They were big supporter of BMX and
the punk scene, and ultimately just kind of started to
become synonymous with youth and rebellion, which I would say
at some level they still today. And I think what's
interesting about where they are today as a brand is
they grew up with millennials, like they've been a part
of millennial culture in essence since we were born, and
(11:27):
like you know, they'd collaborated with the Simpson, Supreme, Vivian Westwood.
But now in terms of where they are, they went
public on Nasdaq in ninety one and were bought up
by VF, so VF owns They now owned Supreme, they
own north Face, they own Timberlain, and it's worth like
(11:47):
they bought it for like four hundred million and now
is one of their top producing brands at close to
three billion dollars a year. I did, I was like,
I wonder if they're still made in the United States,
and that answer is absolutely not. Part of their growth
strategy drove them to start getting supplies or find cheaper
supplies outside of the US, but then ultimately moving most
(12:09):
of the production out of the US was part of
the survival strategy and a candidate, if they hadn't done it,
the brand might not be around at all today. So
it just kind of like is what it is. I
do remember when VF took over Timberland, so I liked
Temberlance a lot, and I still have one of my
original pairs actually because they're well made and Timberland was
(12:31):
known for it didn't matter how how much you beat
the shit out of them, you could return them to
them and they'd send you a new pair. VF brought
that to an abrupt end. Kind of unfortunate. I mean,
they're still pretty supportive of I what it call like
iconic brands that have very loyal followings for very specific reasons,
which I think is cool. And apparently they maintained the
(12:54):
leadership for Vans and that's why Vans continues to have
the kind of authenticity that they carry. But yeah, that's
kind of where they're where they are at today. And
this made me reflect on like I'm like, what the
hell were Vans? Like why didn't I wear them as
a kid? Like why wasn't this like a thing for me?
(13:14):
And like, you know, Michael, it just like why does
it always go back to mom?
Speaker 1 (13:21):
That's a better question for Liz. You have you literally
have a therapist on on the pod right now.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
Already we're gonna do some unpacking together.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
Money at the end of this, my cove is only
five dollars. Let me know how file.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
I was brought to you by Ryot's Health Insurance.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
But my my mom, I mean, my mom would have
never let me wear anything associated with streetwear. And I
think it's because she was a teacher and like the
whole like her impression of I mean, it was a
it was a rebellion street ran right, so and her
impression was rebellion, and there was no way her child
was going to be rebellious. So you know what did
(14:08):
this translate to for shoes for me? So my mom
was hyper pragmatic and very thrifty. And you know, my
mom was one of these moms that was like, I
would never I would never spend fifty dollars on a
pair of shoes. You don't need fifty dollars shoes what, like, uh,
(14:28):
just ridiculous. So my mom goes to Kmart finds these
incredible shoes known as Jordas Street Legends, which were really
kind of a replica of a Nike basketball shoe that
were solid leather. That was that they were ryan, They're
solid leather, they're well made, they're solid leather. You can
(14:49):
so I had to wear these Street Legends. I wore
these Street Legends for probably three consecutive years, and like,
you know, I was kind of an awkward kid to
start with. At the end of the day, like didn't
really know who I was, was not connected with like
my sexuality at that point, like why am I so
weird and different? And then on top of it all,
(15:09):
I'm wearing these shoes that just made me feel that
much more like out. But my mom at the end,
for my mom that wasn't like this is the pragmatic
like why would anyone care?
Speaker 3 (15:20):
They look good?
Speaker 2 (15:21):
They're made of leather.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
I don't know, I'm picturing little brown hoofs made out
of leather.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
They were. I actually went and looked them up and
there is a little bit of like information on them. Essentially,
they were a byproduct of Jordash's like rapid expansion with Kmart,
where Jordash was just slapping their brand on everything, which
is unfortunate because I mean they were kind of like
the hot gene to have through the eighties, and I
guess when that kind of like wound down, they were like,
(15:50):
how do we keep making money? And they're like, yeah,
put our name on everything in Kmart And they were
a blue light special. I want to say, my mom
got me like five pairs of them. There were ultimately
like two pairs that I never wore ever because I
just refused but this whole thing came to an end.
I want to save my sophomore year in high school,
and I don't. I was gonna, I'm gonna gamble. It
(16:10):
was like at a ross, do you guys know dress
for less?
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Ross Ross? Dress for less, of course, And I found.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
A pair of Nike Air Max or Airturf Max dan
Marinos and they were probably like they were slightly out
of date, like they were obviously what remained in some
sort of stock. But I was so excited to find them.
And I remember like taking them to my mom and
being like, and it's funny, I had my own money.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
I'm almost you can finish your story again. Rules yeah,
oh that's right. We're kind of doing rebellion, right, that's
that's the theme. So my mom like, even though I
had my own money, my mom would still kind of
approve what I would purchase, and like, so I had
to like convince and I was like, look, mom, these
(17:00):
were originally sixty five dollars shoes.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
They're down to thirty dollars now. And I got the
approval to wear them. I was so proud of those
damn high tops, Like I remember I wore them. I
wore them to school. One of the first times I
wore them to school, like one of the guys that Now,
as I reflect on it, I think I was attracted
to complimented them, and I was just like I was like,
(17:23):
I knew these shoes were amazing, and I wore the
shit out of them. I wore the soles off of them,
but I maintain them, Like if they got the least
a little bit dirty, I clean them. If I got
scratches on the white leather, I cleaned up the white
leather off of this. I was so intrigued by it,
and I'm currently trying to negotiate with somebody on somebody
on eBay to buy a pair of them right now.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
So, oh, that's really cool.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
So like in terms of therapy and like shoes and like,
you know, obviously I just went through some brain damage.
Do you ever do you ever clock people on their
shoes when they walk in Do you ever like look
at shoes and go and kind of like, oh, those
shoes are a lot of fun. I bet you this
person's fun or like something like that.
Speaker 4 (18:05):
Sometimes, like sometimes it's also a really good wait to
engage a client, and it throws people off guard, especially
like if they're not like they don't know that I
know seekers like that. There's times where all have a session,
we spend fifteen minutes just talking about sneakers or whatever
because the person's just anti therapy, or they're because their
(18:26):
coach or you know, someone in their life is kind
of like pressuring them into this and they don't want
any part of it. So it's more of a strategy
of just like, okay, like let's talk about what you're
comfortable with for now, and you know, like let me
show you that, like I'm also a human, and when
you're ready to have, you know, all the harder conversations,
we can cross that bridge. But we don't need to
do it right now. But it's funny sometimes too, like
(18:49):
with if I have seekers on, like I'll get clocked
by like a client and being that I am such
a diehard Phillies fan. I do have clients that like
work for different teams in the that's always I always
have to be very cognizant of like what I'm wearing
in sessions. I can't be wearing a Philly's hat with
you know, someone from you know a different team and.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
You're like, no, how does it make you feel thinking
about how I feel about it?
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Are you ready, Michael?
Speaker 3 (19:28):
I think so all right, ready, set go.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
So it's funny before I even start, when you were
like clocking somebody by their shoes and like the type
of shoes you liked when you were a kid. I
loved Penny Loafers. And now I'm just like what did
that say about me? Not surprised and why does this
still feel so correct? I feel like I grew up
from like a Penny Loafer kid who had a brief
moment with Converse where I was like I'm gonna have
(19:55):
every color Converse, where I was like my moment of fun,
and then I just accepted who I which is Berry's
and Birkenstocks, and like there we are Vans. That actually
is when I first when when we were signed Vans,
my first thought was just like a flashback to being
at the mall in high school and very much realizing
(20:15):
accepting that I was not a cool kid, which is fine,
Like it makes me think of like the Spencer's Gifts
and like Off the Wall and like Journey, like yeah,
and the town where I grew up, like the mall
was very much like a social center. We very much
were like one of those nineties movies where it was cold.
It was always knowing there wasn't much to do to you,
but we had a huge mall and so you would
(20:37):
just go hang out there. And I always liked Vance
because I thought the patterns and stuff were really fun.
They looked comfortable. I think I may have had one
pair at some point in college when I had a
moment of like I'm cool and you know. So that
was my first thought with Vance, was just like this
feeling of like inferiority, but then sort of acceptance. It
where I ended up because I was like, Okay, let
(20:57):
me actually learn about Vans also quick Side not again,
welcome my add brain. When I learned that they were
named after the guys, I was like, my first thing
that I wanted to talk about was Dick Van Dyke
because that's a person I loved when I was a kid.
And I was like, oh, it's it's somebody van something.
I was like, oh, like one of my heroes.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
He did.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
No, Oh damn, I wish there's still time. He's he's
still kicking, he's still going, he's still working out at
the gym. Vans might be good for leg day I
don't know, they're flat.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
It's true. Actually, yeah, right.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (21:35):
But where so I learned a little bit about them,
But where I ended up was on the Damn Daniel video,
which I don't know if you remember clearly, Liz, you
remember man, Damn Daniel, Damn Daniel spicy with the white fans,
(21:56):
which why they were spicy?
Speaker 3 (21:58):
Were not sure.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
So this was such a joy for me to learn
about this because I remember when everyone was saying, like,
damn Daniel, and I lived under a rock, so I
had no idea what any of this meant. And I
was one of those people who said, like damn Daniel,
having no clue what I was referencing.
Speaker 4 (22:16):
Was it Vine?
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Was that from Vine when like yep and became started
on Snapchat, moved to Vine and YouTube and Facebook with
over four.
Speaker 3 (22:26):
Hundred million views. Wow.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
And those guys it was Daniel Lara who's the Damn Daniel,
and then Joshua Holtz was the buddy who said it
were named two of the most influential people on the
Internet in twenty sixteen by Time magazine. And it's again
like it came back to like this barrel of thing
of like inferiority than acceptance, where like I had my
little like fifty minutes of social media fame during COVID, right,
(22:51):
I did Moiro Rose Impressions, and so within the Shit's
Creek community, I was like, but before that, the irony
was I had friends who were like you, like you
can barely turn your phone on, let alone know how
social media works, Like you don't know about trends. It's like, yeah,
but I got awake and I can do weird voices,
and so it was no shock to me that I
(23:12):
had heard of this but had no clue who these
two were. But it was just fascinating learning about them.
Like I watched they went on Ellen after this happened,
and they had this great Ellen interview where she's like
so and they're like, I don't know, we're fourteen and
the one kid is a swimmer, and he was just like, yeah,
I think I knew we were famous when I went
to a swim meet and like ten people asked me
to take my picture with them. And it's just so
(23:34):
sort of like sweet to watch, like influencers before influencers
were a thing, yeah, or it was like a career, yes,
And it's interesting to think about if that had happened
to those kids now, because they did it purely on accident,
and it's so sort of sweet to watch them. And
I even tried to find what's happened to them since,
(23:57):
and no one really knows what happened to Daniel. He
stopped posting on social medi Joshua, I think, is like
a filmmaker now and like kind of photographer seems. And
again I think they're only what like twenty four now,
so they only just so. But it's interesting because like
if they had done that now, they'd probably be in
like starring in a Ryan Murphy series or like have
(24:18):
their own line. And it's like it kind of stopped
right there, which was like the sweet innocent moment of
like pre influencers, but they seem like sweet kids. It
was interesting, like looking into their reactions to fame and
like Daniel, like I love that he got a lifetime
supply Vans, which I think was it really a lifetime supply,
but it was just like a whole bunch of Vans,
and I didn't realize they gave them ultimate once.
Speaker 4 (24:40):
They'd probably also like get dry rotted over time. I
would assume if you don't wear them.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
And they all were the white van you know that
he wears so very sweetly.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
He gave them almost all of them to like kids
at like at a university children's.
Speaker 3 (24:55):
Hospital there you go. Yeah, see he had to look
it up. I was like, I gotta do, which just
seems so lovely.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
And then poor Joshua though after so then he got
a surfboard from Ellen, which he was a big surface,
so awesome, but he got swatted, which I had never
I did not know this term. I don't know to
get swatted. So apparently it's right after it happened, like
right after they were on Ellen and they like really
really blew up and they're going to award shows and
(25:22):
stuff like this. So to get swatted is when somebody
calls in a fake nine to one one call and
it's something so seemingly serious that swat teams are sent
to you, and it's called getting swatted. And somebody did
this to this poor fourteen year old kid or I
think it was fifteen Joshua Holtz. Somebody called in a
(25:42):
nine to one one that his mother had been shot
and there was an armed attacker in their home. And
so they were just like chilling at home and then
full like a full swat team just like blew into
their house like guns drawn, like looking for the armed deta.
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Which, like, God, that's so dramatic.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Right, And it seems like no surprise that after that
they both sort of went a little radio silent as
far as social media. And again, like nobody really knows
what happened to damn Daniel. And after this poor like
swat incident. And that's what I mean, even as a
therapist must be interesting to be like what what would
that do to you? And they like skyrocketed to fame
(26:25):
before we knew what influencers were like and not.
Speaker 4 (26:29):
Having any I guess, any of the tools or resources
that you have now to like take advantage of to
help you through that.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Yeah, or like I think a lot of times like
now they're like teams who swoop in. It's like I'm
a manager for influencers, I'm abr person and they sort
of like help you handle it and navigate it, Whereas
there you were just sort of like thrown to the
internet wolves and the trolls. I could only imagine what
these two poor kids went through because the one kid
with Daniel apparently he was getting proposals from like fully
(26:58):
grown women and he was fourteen like anyway, So yeah,
that's what it just brought me back to, Like Damn
Daniel with.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
A weird little voice.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
But yeah, that's I don't know how much time I
have left, but that's what it made me think of. Oh,
I'm in a twenty Okay, well then since we have
some bonus time, we're just gonna riff for a quick second.
What this won't have anything to do with vans, But
then damn Daniel, And that makes me think, like what
(27:31):
was sort of your first like viral thing that you remember,
like not that you did, but like you were like,
oh that was awesome.
Speaker 4 (27:38):
Okay, this is bad, remember ed Basemaster?
Speaker 3 (27:42):
No, what's that?
Speaker 4 (27:44):
So like this is like I guess I was in college,
but he was this guy and he was on YouTube
and he would just like prank call people, and so
he would like dress up and film himself frank calling places.
But like he called like a nail Like in hindsight,
probably like now he would probably get canceled for a
lot of the things that he did, but in hindsight,
(28:04):
he like called a nail salon, and he was like
I came in last week and I got a pedicure
and you told me I had man toes, and like
he was never there, never got the pedicure. And then
the woman like this poor like Asian woman who's just
like no, no, no, I told I'd asked you if
you wanted mentoes, and like was trying to like cover
up something that never happened. And it was just like
(28:27):
this whole thing. So like I would go around with
my friends in college of like he said I had
mentoe And then he also like would just go out
in public and like just like have someone would be
video video on him and he would just kind of
act as this like he had a bunch of different
characters and he would go to people like walking their
(28:49):
dogs and it was like this lady walking and he's like,
what is that a pony and she's like no, it's
a greyhound, and like he would just like fuck with people,
like he would put it on YouTube and it was
like funny, and that was like one of the first
things I guess I can remember.
Speaker 3 (29:05):
It was like that for me.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
The advent of all of this actually kind of precipitated
on email. So like in college, my first few years
in college was when people just had started bringing It
was like a mandatory requirement to have a computer, and
so we all had computers and people would distribute pretty
(29:28):
awful videos across list serves for various classes.
Speaker 5 (29:33):
And I remember this one guy in one of my
classes sent a very interesting movie with a horse and
it was in our communications class and I just remember
walking into class that day and I love that professor
and he was just like, I think the guy's name
was Tony.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
He's like, well, Tony, thanks for distributing that content out
to everyone, and like everyone just kind of laughed. I
didn't know what to say because everyone I was like,
I was like, is this allowed? Like you can do this?
And then and then I forget who's somebody I was
talking to you. They're like, dude, we're adult. Like, wow,
that's how old I am.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
All right, well that's that's my van's presentation. It went
a little off the wall, but we got there. Okay,
this you you get the fun time now of choosing
of choosing our winner whatever literally whatever that means to you,
and there are no parameters, it's just.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
Whatever you think. I'm going.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
With Michael, because I love the discussion on like the
cultural impacts that it has and like how seekers are
you know, like impact social media and trends and this,
like the cultural impact.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
So yeah, that's my okay, I wonder and vice versa.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
Because Van sales went like through the roof after the
damn Danielle, Yeah, the white ones.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
Yeah, I definitely bought a pair because of it.
Speaker 3 (31:04):
That's oh nice.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
I was influenced by daniel You were influenced before we
even before we even really knew what was happening.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
So I was gonna say, listen, make to me thanking
of something you did a fun collaboration with Nike. If
you were to asked again to do a fun collaboration
with Vans, where would you go with it.
Speaker 4 (31:20):
I'm very intentional with my collapse when especially when it
comes to like mental health messaging and storytelling, Van says
a lot of really cool They have a nonprofit that
actually gives back to the mental health of like young
skape boarders. I probably would do something with you know,
the stories of the any of their sponsored pros that
(31:44):
they work with to like trying to understand, like you know,
whether it's like having them write out like their affirmations
or like I don't know something around like performance and
mental health and like including their storytelling in.
Speaker 1 (31:56):
It all right, and and you have the fun job
giving us our topic for next week.
Speaker 4 (32:02):
So I'm a big Disney adult and I want it
to be on Club thirty three at Walt at Disney.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Oh I know, I don't wait, what is that? Like
the secret club in the Castle.
Speaker 4 (32:16):
It's like a member's club that Disney all Disney properties have,
and they actually just increased their so there's like a
fifty I think they just increased it.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
I think it's like.
Speaker 4 (32:27):
Fifty grand just to like initiation fee, and the wait
list to get on to get to become a member
of Club thirty three is like years long. They also
do like extensive background and credit checks to even make
sure that you could financially become it. But like it's
wild and there's a lot of like weird so like
apparently Walt Disney was a freemason. And then there's also
(32:49):
some like weird stuff that is rumored that happens in
Club thirty three. I don't know if it's true or not, but.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
There's some public dreama in the previous five years. That's
how I know about it, and it hit the It
hit media in the previous series. I don't remember who
it was, but yeah, there was something weird that went
down and somebody came out and went public about it,
and it was like.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Oh, this is I was gonna say, because I'm not
surprising you said Freemason because it was kind of giving
like the little freemasony vibes. Okay, cool, I'm excited because
I know next to nothing about this, So this is beginning.
This is gonna be fun to lose the research, all right?
So where where should people follow?
Speaker 3 (33:27):
You? Find you? Where all the all the things?
Speaker 4 (33:30):
Yeah, so my personal Instagram is Liz the Letter B
and then croft that is where you can find me
as a human and my life outside and behind the
scenes of being a therapist. And then if you want
like the mental health content, my private practice is mental
sash m NTL dot s E s H and that's
where you're gonna get more of the mental health content is.
(33:52):
But honestly, like, I love just my own platform because honestly,
when I'm done work, the last thing I want to
do is create content around mental health.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
For the day.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
So fair, Yeah, that's totally fair.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
So chat about cool sneakers and Disney and pretzels and Billies.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
Yah yeah awesome. Well, thank you so much for having me.
This was so fun. Oh good, yay,
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