Josef McNeal and John Dillinger started showing love for sneakers at a young age, but it was always more about how sneakers could bring the culture and community together. That led to the creation of the Collection Plate Brand, a fashion company that helps you elevate your style and exude confidence but also value individually over fitting in. They aim to bring a fresh perspective to streetwear culture by always staying ahead of the curve.
When did you all create the Collection Plate Brand?
Josef: John and I have known each other I would say over the last 10 to 12 years in our corporate life. In the middle of COVID, he and I were exchanging conversations about what we wanted to do, what we have passions for, and how we could blend in sneakers, along with educating people on financial literacy and being able to combine the two, especially for our community. I was on the verge of taking a course learning how to create my sneaker from scratch down from the insole to the outsole. We said, “You know what, we have this passion, we understand how businesses work, but we feel as if we can do a better job of creating a very unique and quality product, but not have it be so expensive.” That kind of started our process of the Collection Plate Brand.
John: The whole idea of the Collection Plate Brand is not just about sneakers or apparel but to collect a creative group or a following of sneakerheads that have a passion, but come from different walks of life. We’re just getting started, but we have ideas to not only do business consulting but also financial literacy and bring communities together. Giving back is something that we’re passionate about. To bring others up to show them that it doesn’t matter what stage of life you are in, if you have a passion, we have a blueprint. In this short period, we’ve learned a lot and we’ve made mistakes. I think that there are things that we’ve learned and are going to continue to learn that will be viable for that next person.
Tell us about your “Love & Hip-Hop” sneaker.
Josef: The biggest thing that is very unique is the cracked leather. The cracked leather is cool because it gives back to the graffiti artists who started in sneakers in the culture as well as with hip-hop. When we had our set that was at the Curls on the Runway, we had a live artist that was painting in our spot. The red signifies the blood, sweat, and tears that went into hip-hop and the ability for hip-hop to be able to continue to grow for years to come. I love the bottom of our sneaker where it says, “identity over conformity,” and that’s what we’re trying to do, which is allow people to be able to express themselves through sneakers, but then also learn more about how the market works.
