The Art of Curation - Sneakers are medicinal 👟Jasmine “Jixie” Gonzalez, Curvy Kicks

Sneakers are medicinal 👟Jasmine “Jixie” Gonzalez, Curvy Kicks

11/08/22 • 44 min

“Unlike the traditional definition of collecting, where you just accumulate, sneaker collecting is to accumulate and wear. The finality of collecting the art is to style it, to make it yours. For me, it's not just about the sneaker. It's about the whole fashion and the whole fit. It's about the whole piece that I'm putting out there while highlighting the shoe.” — Jixie Gonzalez, Curvy Kicks

Sneakers. They’re everywhere!

But for Jasmine “Jixie” Gonzalez, sneakers are more than just footwear. Not only is she the curator of a 30-year collection of over 1,000 kicks, she also describes sneakers as “medicinal.” As a plus-size woman who felt that “fashion never loved me back,” Jixie says sneakers became a language to exert her voice, express her style, and build an uplifting community of other women who love this kind of shoe.

Jixie’s passion for sneakers and their transformative power is infectious. Highlights, inspiration and key learnings:

Difference between collecting and curating sneakers
Finding and acquiring sneakers
How to style sneakers
How being plus-size influences her as a curator
Women and sneaker culture
Other sneaker collectors to know

👋 Say "hi" to Jixie.
🔎 Browse the companion Storyboard to get the episode, plus Jixie’s own curated culture picks.
➕ This podcast was created by Flipboard, the popular social magazine, where enthusiasts are curating stories they recommend across thousands of interests. Learn more.

Sneakers. They’re everywhere!

Jixie’s passion for sneakers and their transformative power is infectious. Highlights, inspiration and key learnings:

Difference between collecting and curating sneakers
Finding and acquiring sneakers
How to style sneakers
How being plus-size influences her as a curator
Women and sneaker culture
Other sneaker collectors to know

Previous Episode

Being a human in the loop 🤠 David Smydra, Twitter

“There's no such thing as an unbiased algorithm, and some companies have probably admitted that sooner than others. But once you do admit it, the only rational step you can take is to try to learn as much as you can about the ways that algorithms can reflect our biases, both positive and negative, and what we can do to tune them so that they are running in line with the principles and standards that we are agreeing to at the outset.” — David Smydra, Twitter

Don’t let the Musk circus detract from the fact that there are good people doing good work at Twitter — people who are behind the scenes trying to build a quality experience and live up to a brand’s promise and values.

One of those people is David Smydra, the Head of Human in the Loop (HITL) Curation at the social network. If you’re not familiar with the term, HITL refers to the practice of uniting human judgment and machine intelligence to create effective algorithms. “It really enhances how our customers understand all those conversations that are only on Twitter,” he explains.

David is amazing at illuminating concepts that are often hidden and easy to take for granted. Highlights, inspiration and key learnings:

How human curators can improve digital products
What the machines can never take from us
The role of taste and individualism in all of this
Hiring for HITL curation
The pendulum swings back to hands-on curation

👋 Say "hi" to David.
🔎 Browse the companion Storyboard to get the episode, plus David’s own curated culture picks.
➕ This podcast was created by Flipboard, the popular social magazine, where enthusiasts are curating stories they recommend across thousands of interests. Learn more.

Next Episode

Building a community-curated knowledge graph 📈 Sari Azout, Startupy.World

“A lot of the curation and knowledge management is happening in single-player tools. It'd be a lot more powerful to combine the richness and the utility of all these tools with a more networked discovery and communal approach to building knowledge.” — Sari Azout

When we talk about curation, the first question that usually pops to mind is: What is the thing being curated? Could be information, music, art, sneakers, NFTs and on and on.

Startupy World founder Sari Azout has another viewpoint. She posits that in conditions of extreme information abundance, like we are experiencing today, what is being curated isn’t as important as how those things are discovered, contextualized and shared.

Sari is adamant that we need more choice around how we discover content. She advocates for going beyond the feed with systems that focus on utility over entertainment and could help to surface content that makes our souls sing. (Gems that might be overlooked or not gamed to death.)

Highlights, inspiration and key learnings:

A “controversial” take on curation
Pros and cons of democratized tastemaking
What even is good taste?
Who thrives in the curator economy?
Curators and monetization

👋 Say "hi" to Sari.
🔎 Browse the companion Storyboard to get the episode, plus Sari’s own curated culture picks.
➕ This podcast was created by Flipboard, the popular social magazine, where enthusiasts are curating stories they recommend across thousands of interests. Learn more.