Chase B Shouts Out DJ Clark Kent, MF DOOM On His CJ1 T-REXX

Matt Varga: You’re someone who’s been interested in sneakers since you were a kid. What was your collection like growing up? Any particular silhouettes you gravitated towards?


Chase B: I used to live in Philly when I was a lot younger, so Allen Iverson was the guy. Some of my first models were Questions and Answers on the Reebok side of things. But then moving to Houston, our whole culture was just Air Force 1s; getting as many models of those as you could. Some of my earliest memories are being in high school, damn near fighting over the “Woodgrain” Air Force 1, the “Easters,” anything abstract. That was when I first realized “this is a culture, this is something I want to be involved in.”

What made this the right moment to put out the first shoe with the Chase B name officially attached?

Man, I think it just makes sense for everybody involved. It’s kind of cool to be doing so many things for the first time now. I’ve been DJing the last 15 years of my life, and I just feel like now it’s about being more than that. Now it’s about just impacting the culture as much as I can and just influencing where I can.

It being Trav’s silhouette — it’s one thing to have a Retro — but for so many people to be excited about this shoe is really, really cool. For him to have his own silhouette and for me to take the shoe to a new height, which I think we were able to do, everything is coming around at the same time.

Getting into the actual shoe — materials, colorway, walk us through the process of why everything on the Chase B x CJ1 T-Rexx looks the way it does.

My thing is I wear my shoes a lot. So I really wanted a pre-aged look; that’s why we went with the brushed suede, it’s gonna adapt as you wear it. Then, on the colors, I’ve always been a big fan of greyscale, black and white film, everything like that. I wanted that to be represented. My logo has always been pink since I first developed it.

There’s DJ Clark Kent’s “112” colorway, which is where that “Volt Green” comes in. I went with that as an overall theme because of what he taught me in terms of the business of DJing, of music, of sneakers, relationships, everything. I wanted him to be subtly represented with my first collaboration, and luckily, I got to show him while he was still alive.

The ostrich leather and the reflective piping come from the MF Doom SB Dunk. I didn’t actually personally know him at all, but just what he did with that shoe, what he represents from a cultural standpoint — I just always thought he was the coolest dude ever from afar.

Then we have the glow-in-the dark. I wanted something that’d let the shoe stand out as “the Chase B sneaker” amongst everything else. A lot of times, you’ll see glow-in-the-dark comes with a bone, off-white color, but I thought if you actually make that section green, it’ll probably illuminate it even more. My experience with DJing really does mean illuminating dark spaces, whether it be a club or a late-night festival stage, so it just felt natural.

When did you start getting into the design process?

We probably started talking in May or June of 2023. I remember Reggie [Saunders, VP of Entertainment Marketing at Jordan Brand] kind of put the bug in my ear about doing a colorway of the Jumpman Jack. October is when we sat down in Orlando and just really went through colorways. I like to work really fast. I don’t like to second-guess myself at all. The actual color-making process probably only took 45 minutes; we just sat down and did five different colorways.

There’s a yellow sample I did that I actually performed wearing in Chicago — probably was too dark to notice, but you might see those on social media soon. Then there’s a black and “Sail” that I wore at Art Basel not too long ago.

This one, especially on paper, looked like more of a collector’s item; they were just really distinct. When it came to the material choosing process, that probably took a good six or seven months. It’s honestly the most intricate part. We played around with different suedes, different meshes. You can bring out the coloring book all day, but when it comes to real comfort, wearability, and durability, that’s a whole different conversation.

You’ve mentioned in a couple of past interviews that you were in the room when the Reverse Swoosh really became the defining thing for Travis Scott shoes. In terms of recent Travis Scott designs, what’s the level of involvement you have in those?

In the early days with the Reverse Swoosh on the Jordan 1, the SB, the Air Force 1, I was always at those meetings in Portland with [Travis] and Easy. We’d go through colorways and just cook up all day until our f***ing heads hurt. I’ve always been a part of the process for sure.

With this shoe, I feel like I’m a very effective critical thinker / executive decision maker. But whether I was in Portland or not, Travis would call me literally every single step of the way. Even if it was just a quick FaceTime: “What do you think the heel tabs should look like? What material do you think for this?” Or even just a “come try these on!”

You bring up the early days of the Travis Scott x Jordan relationship. Since we have you, maybe you could close the loop on a story for us. There was a Jordan Trunner LX that hit social media in 2017; is there a larger story on those? Will we ever see those release?

I don’t even have mine! I hit Reggie once a month about these shoes — I swear to God, you can check the texts. That pair was really just a conceptual thing. We were about to get a little deeper involved with the Trunner, and that was a starting point. I don’t think they’ll ever release, but those are some of my favorites that we ever cooked [up.] I really need a pair, and I can’t find ’em for nothing.

I’m glad you brought up DJ Clark Kent; he’s someone you’ve cited as an inspiration in this space alongside people like Don C. Any words of wisdom you’ve picked up from them that you brought into this project?

Don’s always strictly been Don C, whether you like it or not. He’s gonna take it as far as he can go in meshing his two worlds of high fashion and streetwear. Seeing his steadfastness when it came to executing his exact vision, he’s always been great at that.

For me, Clark’s main thing was always his bravado. He walked into the room, and everybody knew exactly what Clark Kent was about: God’s Favorite DJ, the freshest in there. It was undeniable. That mentality, going into a DJ set, going into a design, that’s what I picked up from him.

You said you were able to put this design in front of him at some point. What was his reaction?

I got to show both him and [his son] Mage when we taped our Father’s Day episode of the Aux Money podcast. He was like, “These are dope, I’m proud of you man — but y’all gotta let me do some of these too!”

Keeping with the people that you’re associated with; Easy [Otabor] got his first collab this year with the Infinite Archives Jordan 17 Low. Given the history between you guys, those memories of trying to hunt for pairs together, how does it feel that you get this moment so close to each other?

It’s fire. At times, this is all we talked about. Not even just having our own shoe, but what we would do with the space when it’s our turn, when our number is called. How are you going to act? Easy even had a position at Jordan Brand, living in Portland. Seeing how everything came together, I’m really proud of him. I’m proud of both of us. Everybody knows that me and Easy don’t play at all when it comes to sneakers. We’re still hunting down certain [pairs.] I don’t think it’s a coincidence at all that these two shoes came out so close to each other.

Going back to those conversations, are there any surprises that have come along the way now that you’ve achieved what you and he set out to accomplish?

Like I said, we designed these probably two years ago. The whole process that comes after that is really what I learned; even down to what stores you want to retail in, how to really execute the story.

Speaking of, there’s the “Little Bizzle” animated character that’s been a focus of the overall marketing push. Can you give us any insight into how that came about?

Little Bizzle, man, he’s perpetuating everything I got going on. That’s the cartoon character that we developed, shout out to Lord Stingray that executed the whole vision. I knew that I was going to be traveling a lot, touring in Asia. I’m probably on a plane three or four times a week. Instead of a concrete photo shoot, Jordan Brand asked whether I’d be willing to do something animated to give me a bit of leeway in [scheduling.] We conceptualized the “Little Bizzle” character, and it’s really the same narrative: being a positive light in a dark space to share with the world and share with your community.

You said previously that the packaging is your favorite part of this shoe. What makes it so special?

So during the process, I asked if anyone had ever done a glow-in-the-dark box before. Everyone looked around the room before landing on “I don’t think so.” If someone had, I didn’t want to do it. We came up with this watermelon color box, found this specific vinyl finish to accomplish that. If you leave these in the sun for 20 minutes and then put it in the closet, shit’s going to light the f*** up. Even the tote bag inside, I wanted to make sure everything was aligned.

Obviously it was important to start out this journey on a Travis Scott sneaker. If you do get the chance to work on an Air Jordan Retro silhouette, which would you pick?

I’ve thought about these things a lot, even before the T-Rexx. I used to exclusively DJ in Jordan 3’s, I would literally go home and change if I had to before a set. 7s haven’t really been attacked too much, [so it could be those.] 15 and above are always something that would be more challenging, but you can really get some knowledge off. If I had to pick, it’d probably be somewhere between the AJ5 and the AJ9. But I’m ready for whatever challenge there is.

Widening out to more Jordan Brand news from 2025, Houston got their own Air Jordan 11 with the “H-Town” this year. Any thoughts on that pair?

So actually, Ryan Grant was one of the key designers [on that shoe.] He went to Elkins High School, I went to Hightower. Even if I wasn’t involved in that process, getting the shoes in the mail, seeing the commercials they were shooting down the street from where we all grew up, it’s super important. Especially, it being an 11, because Houston doesn’t play about Jordan 11s. Those December 23rd lines were crazy all the time, fights. Especially when I was in high school with the “Cool Greys.” So representing all of that was dope.

“Opening the vault” is another thing that’s been in the conversation this year: Nike/Jordan Brand re-releasing “grails.” Are you for it or against it?

Yeah, I love it, man. First of all, going back to Clark and Don, those are two of the biggest historians when it comes to street culture in general. These kids don’t know, bro! We were there. Me being 35 years old, I remember when the Undefeated came out, or the Kennedy New Balance with CNCPTS. Just because I literally remember all of these things, doesn’t mean that some younger kids can’t care about that type of stuff. I like the education of it, the resurgence of the hype. Everybody’s whole debate now is if sneaker culture is dead, but the Wale x GT Future had lines down the block. If you bring something back and are able to get them excited, I don’t see why not. There’s other things to worry about, honestly.

So hypothetically speaking, let’s say 15, 20 years down the line, Jordan Brand decides they want to bring back the Chase B x CJ1 T-Rexx, you’d be on board?

Hell yeah! Who knows what I’ll be doing in 2045, but why wouldn’t I want them to have that same kind of enjoyment as we did?

It seems pretty clear that your moves right now are not exclusively about this shoe, it’s an overarching Chase B moment that you’re launching. I know we’ve got a single coming alongside the shoe. Can you tell us more about the music on the way?

So “Satellites” is coming out on Friday, November 19th. This album has some songs as old as five years and some that are as new as two weeks ago. In terms of them coming together, I was just like, “Man, why not just make it this moment at the end of the year? Let’s just release everything we got.” As far as DJ sets go, there’s not really a tangible thing that I can give to people, so packaging the music and the sneaker is really a way to give back to this community, this fanbase, in a big way.

There was an interview you gave several years back where you spoke about putting out a shoe, but “not wanting to do it just as a DJ.” You wanted everything aligned when that moment came.

That’s what I’m saying. I don’t believe in coincidences at all. I think everything is in God’s time. I’ve tried to drop albums for the last three years; with clearances, hip-hop culture moving so fast, needing to keep up with artists’ release timing — you look up, and it’s four years later. For all this stuff to be finally coming together now, I’m just really excited about it.

Full court press.

Literally. Everything.

Any general teasers you can drop regarding the album? The overall concept, what people can expect?

This album, to me, is about launching into the future. It’s very genre-forward; there’s some house on there, there’s some electronic on there, there’s hints of R&B music on there. Obviously, there’s hip-hop on there. On social media, there’s been a whole conversation about whether open format DJing is still a thing, because people want to know exactly what they’re getting. I came up in New York, being at the Darby, Up&Down, 1 Oak; for me, the concept isn’t dead. It’s about being that talented, caring to educate crowds through music. This is just my way of building my brand as an open-format DJ. I feel like the only way you can build to the next level is by releasing music with your name on it.

Any closing thoughts? Details about the shoe people might miss, activations coming around the shoe?

We’re doing something really cool at Union in LA on Saturday [12/20] for the shoes, during the day. Then at night, I’m going to play the album and do a whole meet and greet. 2026 is gonna be dedicated to just pushing this label of “glowing in the dark.” Perpetuating positive energy mentally, physically, spiritually. This is my testament to that.