09 Sep 2004 | Mike said...

I remember when he first started that site, when it was just a small niche thing and then he just blew up. It's really a tale of how one person can dominate an entire industry online and build a fanbase of thousands upon thousands of devoted people through perseverance. Over anything else, I'm sure the Prof has made a lot of friends and admirers, and he's most definitely famous within certain groups of people.

Good luck Ernest it's been great.

09 Sep 2004 | Brad Hurley said...

I never dreamed I would spend time reading reviews of basketball shoes (my brother was the hoops player in our family, not me), and yet I'm a regular visitor and fan of Kicksology. As Jason says, it's not the subject matter so much as the passion and the execution. It's an inspirational site from any perspective, the writing and the design are brilliant, the reviews have just the right depth and rigor. I'll miss it.

09 Sep 2004 | Darrel said...

EK sure liked shoes.

09 Sep 2004 | Daniel Burka said...

I've always considered Kicksology was one of the best produced sites on the web. Seriously, the overall design esthetic, the content, and especially the photography were all consistently top-notch. I actually wasn't aware until today that this was largely a sole effort. Congratulations on a great run Ernest.

09 Sep 2004 | Ryan Mahoney said...

Sad to see it go! I found Kicksology to be a source of visual inspiration. I have to admit, I have never read a single article! (More of a retro shoe fan myself) But I have visited regularly just to look at the colorful and clear design. It's all good, the Bigha site is very lovely also ;)

09 Sep 2004 | hartmurmur said...

Daniel Burka said:

I actually wasn't aware until today that this was largely a sole effort.

A sole effort! Hilarious.

09 Sep 2004 | hartmurmur said...

I was chuckling at the "sole effort" comment that I missed the "great run" sentence that followed.

Even more hilarious.

09 Sep 2004 | Grant said...

Imo, Ko was indeed as stalwart you've made it out to be--definitely a self-pub tour de force. Shame to see it go away, I can appreciate his personal reasoning--does it say something negative about the future of niche publishing on the web if something like this isn't presently sustainable beyond the mass infusion of personal love and dedication?

Meaning, I've bought more shoes because of Ko reviews than I have (in my life) due to print/tv ads from shoe companies. You could probably self-fund a year of Ko operations for the price of running one LeBron spot during the playoffs.

Oh well. The revolution actually was televised. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

09 Sep 2004 | F2 said...

Hate to see this site go! No other site could hold EK's jock strap whether it was in basketball shoe reviews, shoes for other sports, sports shoe retailers, or even hardcopy magazines that did shoe reviews like Running Magazine. The content and site design made it a pleasure visiting and reading the latest reviews even if you were just another brick layer.

10 Sep 2004 | Ryan Mahoney said...

To Grant: re: does it say something negative about the future of niche publishing on the web if something like this isn't presently sustainable

I don't take the shutdown as a strike against this type of publishing. It seems like he wants to move on an do other stuff. More of a personal choice than an indusrty trend. I can think of numerous ways the site could generate more revenue (if that's how success it measured...), but I doubt they would gel with his personal vision for the site.

Personally, when I do something for the enjoyment or satisfaction, the motivation to work long hours comes naturally. When the joy is gone though, it's hard to find the motivation.

I see gawker.com as a similar experiment in publishing that seems to be about money first, which will probably make it more sustainable in the long term although it may be judged as having less integrity for the same reasons.

10 Sep 2004 | Grant said...

Fair points, Ryan. I think I was more focusing on how much better Ko was than most micro-publishing type sites--i.e., if the very best isn't an automatic demand and dollar magnet, then is there hope? You're exactly right though, it's unlikely or at least difficult to do something as well as Ernest was doing (on a small scale) without someone's ridiculous passion behind it.

At the end of the day, I guess I wish the market had just absurdly rewarded the guy so there would be more people investing themselves in micro niches like this. The world would be that much more interesting. That said, your point reminds me, you can't really just make that happen by rewarding someone financially.

Your other point about motivation fueling long hours and then nearly completely reversing when the joy is gone rings so true.

10 Sep 2004 | Show me the money said...

I know you almost certainly were not doing this for money but I would of thought with 750,000 visitors each month, some serious income could be made by linking to shoe retailers that stock the product? The kind of money that would pay for 1 or more people working full time on it I would have thought.

I think it's a shame that the content will be disappearing from the net, in fact you seem to have taken it all down already :( would have been nice to take a final look at the site.

Anyway as many have mentioned the site was an inspiration due to it's great design and photography.

13 Sep 2004 | steven spellman said...

lol mahooooooooooones love ya man

yup kicksology was the best

14 Sep 2004 | woj said...

seriously,
i don't know if prof. K is aware of the fact that his "baby" was one of the most important sites ever on the net.
Sure, it had great design, nice pics, etc.
But what should I (and my friends) do without its content?
Should we now buy kicks without knowing prof. K's rating on them?
come on!

Leave at least the archive online! We need it! Just let us download it!

Beside my frustration, you did great job man, thanks for every bit of it.

14 Sep 2004 | Matte Elsbernd said...

I am always amazed by what one person can do in their sparetime. I had pretty much no contact with Ernest or his site until just this summer when I had lunch with him at Webvisions in Portland.

I think that it's a bit of a shame that more press and attention hasn't been given over the years to the "independent web publisher" like Ernest, and dare I say, myself.

Passion is definitely the key, I believe. Floods of money do lead people to build something and maintain it for a while, but if you don't have the passion for it, you'll tire and if nothing else, the product will suffer.

I know there are countless people like Ernest out there, doing amazing work. We've either not found their work or we were not aware it was just one person. I can't tell you how many times people think The Firm List is a team or a corporation. That can be good and bad.

I would love to see more people lauded as Ernest has been here. I think he deserves every word but so do the countless others. Support your indie web publisher... should be a bumper sticker or something.

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