“Work and Travel” is lifelong.

On a hot summer evening at the extreme sports festival in Crimea, “Championship” met with Slava Glushkov, ex-art director of “Gipsy” and one of the creators of “the Misia” brand, to talk about work, travel, modern music and sneakers.

– Slava, where does this crazy love for sneakers come from?
– Just for the record, the love for sneakers in Russia came from a slightly different direction than in the rest of the world. There it came from basketball, while here it all started with the street, dancing and graffiti. I found myself in this wave by accident, because at some point I just came to Gogolevsky Boulevard, to a house that was next to Nike Arbat, and bought a pair there. It was so beautiful and fit so comfortably that I immediately bought one just like it, only in a different color. I put them on the shelf, but they looked so cushy that I bought two more pairs. And then I thought that if there were four pairs, I should have four more. Then I started to get interested in the background of the models, to find out the reasons for their appearance, the players who played in them, and so on.

– How many pairs do you have now?
– I can’t say exactly, I last counted about two years ago. During this time I gave away a certain number, because there are sneakers that do not carry much value with their history. They are beautiful, so I wear them for a season and then give them to someone or sell them at a super cheap price, because I don’t have a lot of space in my apartment to store them all. I think there are about 200 pairs right now.

– How did the story of “the Misia” begin?
– “The Misia” is just the logical continuation of the whole sneaker thing because for seven years I’ve been blowing a lot of money on it. Somewhere in the back of my mind I dreamed of not only spending but also making money on sneakers. I saw the Misia project at a stage when it was still closed. I went inside for a coffee, checked out the interior. I liked it so much that I wrote them on Instagram and they invited me to come in for a chat. I was curious to see what was even planned because I’ve been into the sneaker theme for a long time. I showed up and we talked for three hours about sneakers, style, fashion and swag. At the end of the conversation I was asked, “Well, are you in?”. And I, of course, said yes. And for a year and a half we have been trying to do something together.

– And how did you end up in “Gipsy”?
– The story with “Gipsy” is very logical. It’s a very logical career path. I was at university and worked as a waiter at Simachev’s.

One day at lunch, by a strange coincidence, I found myself at the same table with Ilya Lichtenfeld, the owner of Simachyov. He, of course, was tense at first, because he was not used to sitting at a table with his own staff. But we did talk, and in the end he said that he saw potential in me and was ready to help mold something out of me. I replied that I was still learning, but I didn’t mind globally. At first he sent me to work at Novikov’s, where I was opening Cherdak on Kuznetsky Most. Then I returned to his restaurant as a manager, three months later I became deputy manager for personnel and opened Zu-Cafe on Arbat. Six months later, I told Ilya that I was bored at Zyu and that fast food was not my thing at all. The next day he called me and told me that he was opening a new bar (“Gipsy”) and invited me to come and have a look. The place was completely empty and the lawn was empty, but I immediately said that I wanted to work there. For three months I worked on the staff, but I didn’t really succeed. There were some moments when something went wrong, and I realized that it was because I had missed something. Ilya and I discussed it and decided that I would go into the art department because it was closer to me. At first I was assistant art director, and after six months I became art director myself.

– It’s no secret that you travel a lot. Tell us about the three coolest places you’ve ever been.
– I love America. It’s quite a popsy destination now, but I still love it – I can’t help it. First of all, my aunt and uncle live there, not far from San Francisco, so the first time I was there was a long time ago, back in 2004. Then in 2007 I spent a whole summer in Miami on “Work and Travel”, worked as a waiter, slept on the beach. Traveled a lot of places. I don’t like Miami, for me it’s like an American version of Sochi. I love Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco. And if we talk about Europe, I love it because it’s close and I can get away for a weekend, but most European cities seem the same to me.

– Are there any places you haven’t visited yet but want to?
– I would fly to Tokyo, I really want to go there. I’ve been watching some of the guys who live there for a long time, and it seems to me that they have a different world there. They think differently, their movements are different, and in general the format of pastime is different. It’s insanely beautiful there, there are new technologies, there are interesting people and fashion, and I am immersed in it in one way or another. And I also want to go to Australia and Barcelona, I haven’t been there yet either and that’s a big omission.

– What kind of music do you listen to?
– Honestly? I listen to everything. I like to listen to classical music in the car in the morning after some crazy set, because it calms me down and puts me in the right frame of mind. I respect the new generation of Russian musicians, be it Pharaoh, T-Fest or Husky. It’s not that I’m a fan of them, but I listen to them because I’m interested in how the scene is developing in Russia. I respect Egor Creed, who many people criticize because it’s some kind of pop. But his new album is very cool both in terms of production and reading. But mostly I listen to foreign music, preferably American. Although sometimes I like to listen to something unusual in a language I don’t understand, like German rap or French folk. I can play anything in my sets too. I have one thing: at four o’clock in the morning, when everybody is already in a wild frenzy, I play Celine Dion, and everybody starts crying, girls throw their bras, somebody does a slow dance, everybody sings in chorus, wherever I play it. And it’s awesome.

– What do you think of X-Fest?
– It’s cool. I went without any expectations of something colossal, because I’ve toured a lot and I know how our provinces look like. But here everything is done cool. I like that it is all timed to sports, that they built a cool skate park here and brought high-level athletes from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Amsterdam and other cities. Sevastopol is developing, moving somewhere, and it’s nice. We had a great party under the “Bricks”, I was very happy to hear them, because this is the music of my childhood, I listened to them in their heyday, but at the concert I realized that there is still powder in the powderkeg. In general, I am satisfied with the festival, and if I am invited next year, I will definitely come.