thrillist

There are so many ways to serve the public, from leaving a high-paying job to work with the government, to leaving a low-paying job to brighten the high-paying peoples' street-corners with guitar music! Going from traditional public service to a more stylish variety, the man behind Sneak Attack.

Filling the sneaker-shaped void left by Motiv 807's closing, Sneak Attack was started by a UT grad whose do-gooding activities have included both speech-writing for FEMA and coauthoring a book on positive African-American role models; now he's scouring the country to bring needy Austinites rare kicks of all kinds, saving you shoe leather by bringing you shoe leather. The current collection naturally starts with Nikes like denim SB mid-top Blazers (green/white/red trim), leather/denim Terminator hi-tops with a super-fat tongue, and black/red Air Jordan 1 Hall of Fames, printed with numbers representing Mike's career stats, though conspicuously excluding the number of times John Paxton saved his ass (1). The best of the rest includes classic Vans, artfully colorful Adidas, way-high Muska Skytops by Supra, and the split-tongue Asics GEL Lyte Speed (red/yellow/black/white); to abet their clients' uniqueness, Sneak won't sell the same shoe for a month after someone buys it, giving you 30 days to shine like that special, special snowflake you are.

Once shod, hit up Sneak's streetwear trove, which covers underground action like Bloodbath, No Mas Black Scale, UNDRCRWN, Jamie Marx, and San Antonio's Hero Clothing -- and you must be a hero, if that financial consultant stuck around for all nine minutes of "Freebird".

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Check Sneak's website for news on pop-up shops at local bars and events