This story appears in SLAM KICKS 28. Available now.

Every day, Andrew Dutton shows up to school with the coldest kicks in his classroom. They’re probably the cleanest across the school district. Actually, scratch that. He might be the most fitted teacher in all of Utah.

Hoodies, jeans, graphic tees, cargos and fitted caps, all color-coordinated to complement what he’s got on-foot. Fragment Design x Air Jordan IIIs. Jae Tips x Saucony collabs. “De La Soul” Nike SB Dunks. “Cyber Metallic” adidas Harden Vol. 9s. “Black Ferrari” Air Jordan XIVs. The desk inside Dutton’s classroom has seen more heat than the average NBA star’s closet. Nothing’s off limits, from the Js he grew up idolizing as a kid in Pocatello, ID, to the wave of new runners that have been picking up collaborations left and right.

This fall will mark Dutton’s 12th year as a teacher and the fifth anniversary of his viral “Classroom Sneaker” series, where he documents himself wearing a different sneaker every school day on social media. But bridging his kicks with education started long before he was planning out his feets of the week from the front of his middle school classroom.

Growing up, basketball was all that consumed Dutton’s mind. Bootleg AND1 mixtapes, local high school games and the hoop outside his house were his laurels. And the kicks that resided on his favorite players’ feet stood out just as much as their games. He sits back in the chair in his basement, surrounded by hundreds of sneaker boxes, and reminisces on seeing Kevin Garnett’s first few signatures with Nike, and how badly he wanted Garnett’s AND1 pairs after he made the switch in 2001. Steve Francis’ Reebok Wink DMX were top of mind, too.

The tiny Foot Locker in his hometown’s mall became a routine stop. Seeing, feeling the same sneaks that he was watching NBA stars lace up spoke to him. Called to him.

“My parents couldn’t afford some of those ones that I wanted to play basketball in, but I was always keenly aware of what other people were wearing on the court,” Dutton says. “That was kind of my intro to it. So I was like, Oh, if I can get the Iversons, if I can get these Jordans, I can play better. I can do better. So there was kind of like that myth hanging out there.”

While Dutton admired from afar, everything changed when he and his dad attended a local high school game when he was 12. Perched in the bleachers, Dutton looked on and noticed a beautiful mix of white leather with blue and yellow hits. The 2000 retro of the “Laney” Air Jordan V.

“I was just like, Man, what are those? Like, that was the first time I’d seen a Jordan V, any signature Jordan for that matter, out in the wild in person,” Dutton says. “This kid’s out on the court playing in them, and I’m just glued to his feet. I was like, What are those? I don’t even know what those are. They’re beautiful. I want them. I need them. And that kind of started my Jordan fixation.”

Eastbay catalogs became his scripture, studying different models and connecting what he saw IRL. But the Foot Locker he frequented didn’t stock any retros. And if they did, they were cleaned out well before Dutton, just a kid, got the chance to swing by. So while Jordans remained untouchable, his apparatus opened when it came to the season.

“I would get a pair of basketball shoes for that season, wear them all season, and then that would be my shoe to wear the rest of the school year. So it went from basketball to lifestyle,” he says. “Not because I wanted it to, but because that was my situation. That’s what we had.”

Reebok Answer IVs went from the hardwood to the hallways along with the Nike Air Garnett. And for his junior year, a black and silver pair of Air Jordan IIs, the first in his collection to bear the Jumpman logo. So when Dutton began collecting kicks as an adult, Js were the first on the list. Specifically, those Vs that he witnessed all those years ago.

After snagging the 2013 retro of the “Laney” Vs, his quest to fill in the gaps began. “Legend Blue” XIs were a must-have. “True Blue” IIIs were next, along with a pair of “Infrared” VIs.

As of 2025, Dutton estimates his collection sits at nearly 260 pairs. The majority of the real estate is owned by Jumpman logos and Swooshes, but over the past few years, Saucony, New Balance and Asics sightings have spiked. Scroll through his feed—@ad__sneaks—and you’ll see the diversity that we’re talking about. Enough pairs to have one for every day of the school year without doubling up.

Donning a more relaxed wardrobe at school started out of convenience. When Dutton first began teaching, slacks, a tie and a dress shirt were the norm. Except he was teaching wood shop classes, surrounded by saws and maneuvering around desks to tend to students and their projects. After his first year, he switched into polos and different pants.

“And then that’s when I started wearing my sneakers. But then I was like, Nah, I don’t wear polos. I don’t like these pants. And then it just slowly morphed into what it is now,” he says.

While his footwear selection shifted from loafers to runners, Dutton was reminded of the genuine connections he’d established with his teachers when they presented themselves as “real people.” Instead of acting as teacher versions of themselves, “They were just them,” Dutton says. “And so, that kind of hit me, too, in those early years of teaching. It’s like, Man, I’m just kind of sick of wearing all these multiple hats. I just want to be me at work. I want to be me at home. I want to be me all the time. So, starting to do that, relationships with kids started to do better. Kids started buying into what I was doing better in the classroom, just because they were like, Oh, Mr. Dutton’s a real dude. Oh, he likes those shoes? OK, cool. Instant ice breaker.”

Every weekend, Dutton descends into his basement and selects the five sneakers that he’ll wear throughout the upcoming week. And when he puts them away, each box receives a piece of painter’s tape denoting their wear for the year. Every day features a different sneaker as a result. He snaps his outfit pic at the front of the classroom. Takes a sneaker flick of his feet crossed atop his desk. Uploads them to his computer, edits them and then posts them to his story and socials an hour before the bell rings.

“That first year I did it, I was short, like, 10 pairs of shoes. I was like, Man, what can I buy? What can I buy? I got to make it. I’m already this far. So I was scrambling to get some stuff there at the end. But we made it that first year,” he says. “And it’s been fun to do ever since, just because kids know it, too. They’re like, Are you doing it again this year? Are you going to wear a different pair? I’m like, Yeah, we’ll do it again this year. So I think that’s something I’m just going to keep running with until I get bored of doing it.”

Dutton’s “Classroom Sneaker” series has provided his students with the same buy-in that he was afforded with his favorite teachers. They’re tapped into his lessons while relating to the education. Kids who aren’t in his class will pop their heads into his room just to see what he’s rocking for the day. They’ll stop by to boast about the SNKRS draw they hit on just before school started or ask for his opinions on new colorways and models that are releasing. What are those? Tell me about those. Tell me about this colorway. Do you have this shoe? What do you think of this shoe?

“Multiple times a day, kids bring that stuff up and it’s fun. It’s fun to have those conversations with kids because again, they build that trust with you,” Dutton says. “And [they’re] able to say, OK, I can talk to Mr. Dutton about sneakers, but then, when Mr. Dutton’s like, ‘Alright, let’s focus,’ I’ll be able to focus, because we’ve built that rapport.”

Over the years, Dutton’s childhood passion for photography began to flourish with each pair he amassed. Between the repeated shots of him leaning against his desk lie elegant yet reductive aesthetics that fill his profile with color-matched seamless backgrounds. Laces flow and curl like a stream while concentrated shadows provide depth. It’s a never-ending process of tinkering and creating different techniques to capture sneakers in the same way he saw them in the stands of his local high school gym.

“And so, as I’ve gotten older, I’m appreciating footwear more from an artistic side,” he says. “The way that people have brought those products to market and just the functionality of it. And then the aesthetic of it. They’re wearable art.”

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Photos via Andrew Dutton.