Maino Gives the First Look at His Fila Sneaker Collaboration

Maino is already a platinum-selling artist, but the Brooklyn rapper is now moving into the sneaker world.

The New York artist sat down with XXL to discuss his new Fila collaboration and gave us the first look at his upcoming signature shoe. "My Fila collab, it's dope man," he said. "Dope, real dope. I will say that I'm honored to have been a part of that... Me being from Brooklyn, growing up wearing Filas is classic for us, it's culture for us."

According to Maino, the collaboration came after he and a friend had the idea to wear only Fila apparel for the summer. The rapper says he went to stores buying up all the classic Fila sneakers and started hashtagging the trend.

"My man Bless hit me one day and told me that he was connected with some of the people from Fila and that he could put a meeting together and we just created a relationship," Maino told us. "It came out to a point that now I got my own sneaker—K.O.B.'s."

The sneaker is black with grey camouflage that features suede and leather. "I wanted to make it a little high-end," Maino said. "I make it a little simple but poppin'." The rapper revealed he would be making a few changes to the sneaker before it releases in April.

Maino previously spoke with XXL about his most recent project, Party & Pain. According to Maino, the record is his life. "It's my ups and downs, it's my pains, it's my passions, it's my love, my rocky life."

He also discussed his role in hip-hop culture, saying, “Because here’s the thing: once you’re the new nigga, you can only be that new nigga one time. Everything after that is about trying to reinvent that." He added, "You deal with the ups and downs of that, you know? Just as much as we like to get money and buy cars, you know, ride around in Rolls-Royces and Bentleys and stuff like that, we still live a real life. So that’s what Party & Pain is."

Check out our interview with Maino below.

See New Music Releases for October 2017