According to ComplexMag Nelson Cabral (NT founder) is the 50th most influential person in the sneake

imvictor said:
Complex is a joke and even tho 99.99% of their lists don't mean ish to me, Niketalk should've been in the top 10.
But hey that's Complex the same people that said Wiz Khalifa's album is the most anticipaded album for the rest of 2012
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LOL
 
A Nelson C sighting is like a double rainbow... You don't know what it means, but it is amazing when you see it.
 
Grizzlyboy said:
NT is probably the most influential. How can you not respect the birthplace of these so called influential people? That doesn't make sense.
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see: Cleveland; Lebron James (he's from Akron but you get what I'm saying)

but yea for all you guys that never step foot outside the lounge there are some very insightful discussions in the sneaker forums. the intellect of the average NTer always impresses me
 
As a collective group, I feel that Niketalk should have been higher on that list. Not because of my association to NT, but because in my opinion, I truly believe that our members have contributed just as much as anyone else to the sneaker industry. Our voice and influence is unmatched.
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Nelson's a humble guy, so it's difficult for him to accept that he, as an individual, is one of the most influential people in the industry - but statements like the above demonstrate why that's actually the case.  He thinks in terms of community. 

When we launched NikeTalk together in December of 1999, the whole point was to empower sneaker fans, to make YOUR voices heard.  Most sneaker sites, at that time, were about all about the "webmaster."  They were about one individual sneaker fan sharing their information.  They were the stars.  NikePark was actually the same way.  Its message board was intended as a sideshow, not the main attraction.  

Nelson turned that paradigm on its head.  On NikeTalk, the USERS were the stars; the webmasters, simply facilitators.  There were no ads (we ran it at a loss for as long as we could possibly afford it), there was no personal agenda, there was no "angle."  It wasn't about trying to get in good with Nike or resell shoes.  It was simply about putting in the work necessary to provide sports and sneaker fans like us with the type of community experience we believed they deserved. 

Few people likely remember this, but Nelson actually had his own website in the late 90's.  He essentially gave that up to focus on NT.  It's difficult to imagine a better way to set the tone for what NikeTalk would become.  

If you think about NikeTalk's core values, concepts that have been with us from the very beginning, they're all very basic lessons often learned through sports:  sacrificing for the benefit of the collective, working together to bring out the best in each other, setting high standards, and holding ourselves accountable.

In a way, NikeTalk was modeled after the Dream Team.  Individually, many of our original members had their own sites.  They were used to being the first and final say on their own little domains.  With NikeTalk, they all came together and shared the floor.  It was inspiring to see. 

Nelson deserves a tremendous amount of credit for his efforts to truly galvanize sneaker fans in a way that would force the industry to sit up and take notice.  

He has not ONCE used his influence selfishly.  

Now, I haven't read the article - but I wonder how many other people on that list can truly say the same.  
 
Method Man,

It's interesting that you say this. i remember retrokid aka JumpmanSt and I would go on retrokid.com before I even knew about Niketalk. Haven't heard anything about Alex in forever. Is he still part of the team here at Niketalk? I miss his website and pics.
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JumpmanSt actually works for Nike these days.  You can thank him for personally saving several retro shoes that would otherwise have been mangled.  His passion for sneakers is unmatched and I know he's doing all he can to help sneaker fans from inside the belly of the beast.  

We certainly still consider him a part of the NikeTalk family, but he no longer has formal administrative access on the site due to the potential conflict of interests that creates.  

Case in point, someone mentioned "Nick de Paula" earlier, he actually abused JumpmanSt's staff access for self-serving reasons, presumably to try and ingratiate himself with Nike.  It was a shameful episode, and one that underscores the importance of our policy.  Even though we trust JumpmanSt and AirRev implicitly, we know that there are those who work for Nike and Puma who could benefit from access to NikeTalk's administrative tools to remove unflattering material or look up usage data of users who demonstrate access to inside information.  That makes anyone with such access a target.  And while they would never directly compromise the integrity of the site, all it took, in JumpmanSt's case, was to trust someone he considered a friend around his computer.  That's a sorry state of affairs.

I actually heard from JumpmanSt recently and, though he's been incredibly busy of late, you can be sure that he's still around and we'll always consider him a true NikeTalk Legend.  23JumpmanSt and, later, Retrokid.com were standard bearers for their era.  If you think about those sites, you can understand why he's been quiet lately.  He doesn't do things halfway.  
 
for good or for bad

i believe niketalk has made sneaker collecting more popular then ever before
for that reason alone Nelson Cabral should be number on on that list


a message board and a passion for collecting and buying sneakers has put a lot of money in nike's pocket and other's over the past 10 years
it also started a few people out in the selling/reselling business
i'm not talking about nickel and dime resellers like myself

i'm talking about people who have a hand in why the hobby is where its at right now
 
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man people dont understand how much a role NT play in the shoe game.. i swear everwhere i go I see **** that i see on NT first.. NT is my always first place to go and it always beats everybody when it comes to New news
 
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