There will always be something or someone out there trying to pimp hard to the sneaker freak in you. You know it’s there inside you, that itch, that need, that part of you that lights up at the mere mention of limited to 400 Air Jordan’s in mauve and neon pink. So when satiating this need, you gotta have someone you can trust. Vancouverites have Livestock.

Not a shop but indeed a boutique and rated #18 in Dime’s Top 50 Sneaker Stores (it may not mean anything to you, but it holds weight with the sneaker fiends), Livestock is a mecca for the sneaker heads. You know it, they will have it or have had it. For many, this is as close to a trip to the sneaker churches of NYC as you’re gonna get, right down to the massive 7am lineups of sneaker heads waiting to get their hands on the limited edition stuff that will drop that day and only that day.

Thankfully, there are two locations. The West 4th shop may not carry all the limited editions that that the serious pimps are craving, but they tend to carry a lot of consignment stock and different stuff that will provide the right amount of satiation. The Gastown shop is the original, the home; nay, the church. It’s more of a sneaker boutique and it shows in the design and layout of the store. It’s clean, it’s simple and it lets the majesty of the product do the talking.

Who do we have to thank for this temple to the mighty sneaker? Gastown’s favorite sons, Gman and Rizk.

It just makes sense, they were b-boys from the get go and the city’s biggest hip-hop promoters. It’s less that their fingers are on the pulse, and more that their heartbeats are the pulse itself. With direct lines into the heart of Timebomb Trading and NLA, they’re only a step away from the fashion industry.