I traveled all the way to Jakarta to check out the Streetwear scene in Indonesia, at an event I had discovered called Urban Sneaker Society. I went with the intention of flexing on them with my Bape and Supreme merchandise. But what I witnessed, put me in my place. Rightfully so.

If you follow me on Instagram (@bowtiesandbonesblog) you would know that I was all packed and set to get to Sneakercon Hong Kong. Unfortunately, calamities (natural and personal) made me cancel my flights and my trip altogether. I was quite disappointed to be honest, that my plans for the event that I was really looking forward to attend (and my plans) fell through the cracks. I immediately began looking for alternatives. Sneakerness Warsaw and Sneakerness Cologne were up next. But from whatever little I have seen, they felt very transactional. I wanted something that was a lot more “street”.

Then one day, as I was scrolling through the gram, I see a profile that was talking about the streetwear and sneaker culture in Indonesia – Urban Sneaker Society. I slide into their DMs and get to know the brainchild behind this – @jejouw. One look at his Instagram feed and you know this man is all hype. But he is also all heart. When I told him I was keen on attending USS 2.0 (this was their second season) he helped me plan my itinerary and also recommended places I could check out while I was there. He gave me a complete low down of what was going to occur at the event. And I thought I was gonna be well prepared since I knew what was in store.

You will be forgiven for making the same mistake as I did, assuming Indonesia is nowhere close to being on the streetwear charts!

I get there, Day 1, in my Supreme Sade Tee and Stone Island Shorts with my Gold Medal UltraBoost 2.0 on feet. But all I saw around me was Off-White and Bape in plenty. There were a few Supremes here and there, but plenty of the former two. Yeezy’s were a dime a dozen (luckily for me, I only wore the Yeezy’s during my flight). Don’t think I have seen as many tomatoes at the supermarket as I saw Yeezy’s at USS 2.0! And then obviously there was Vetements, Jordans, etc. What really blew me away was the availability of the Off-White X Nike Jordan 1, Presto and Blazer at one of the stores. In-fact, this lady @smir.nov picked up the Off-White Jordan 1 for USD 3,000 and wore them right off the bat. By day 3, she was beating them up. Haha. Treating them like they should be, a pair of sneakers.

USS 2.0 had hourly raffles through the 3 days. And although Jeffry had to pay reseller prices to acquire the merchandise that were listed on the raffle, the winner only had to pay the retail price for it. He also had Seek (a multi-brand streetwear store originally from Singapore) on-board as the primary event sponsor. So imagine, Supreme Box Logo hoodies, Supreme X CDG Bogo hoodies, Jordan 1 SBB, SupTempo Gold and Red, etc. I was lucky enough to win the Palace Zodiac sign hoodie which I then got swapped out with a Supreme Nasty Nas tee. I also picked up a pair of Jordan 1 Storm Blue and the Ultra Boost Parley 3.0 from the event. The only 2 pairs I could afford and I did not want to return empty-handed, you would understand.

USS also collaborated with Indonesia based Streetwear community @pahi.id who run a page similar to Hypebeast and also have one dedicated to the ladies called @pahi.bae! Hey Sam Sicilya, you know am looking at you. They had limited drop tees, from which I picked the Off White Jordan 1 print.

To sum things up, this was a bloody awesome “first” sneaker event to attend. I know, that sounded like a juvenile statement. But that’s how I was at the event, a little kid at a candy store. I went to Urban Sneaker Society Indonesia with zero expectations but then through the 3 days, my mind was continually blown by all that I saw and experienced. I only wish Indonesia was not that far from India, because I would want to attend USS 3.0 fosho! Ah well, perhaps their Singapore leg? Because Sam of Seek Official told me, they were looking to take the event to Singapore in the coming months.

I shot some images/videos when I was there and am yet to get down to editing them. But you should see them pretty soon here and on Instagram. Until then, leaving you with these shots that I sourced from the USS team.

Shot by @18thVisuals for @UrbanSneakerSociety

My CDG outfit shot by @brandonidgc