Today we’d like to introduce you to Daniel Huggett
Hi Daniel, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Texas Sneakers was born because of my own personal difficulty with finding a good pair of burnt orange shoes. University of Texas-themed kicks were hard to acquire in the early 2010s, as for the most part Nike only made them for UT student-athletes and coaches. In my quest to find a pair to match my Longhorn gear, I stumbled upon a variety of social media posts and forum threads full of people on the hunt for the same thing. Seeing that there was clearly some interest around these kicks is what led me to create Texas Sneakers, starting with the original @UTexasSneakers account on Twitter.
The original intent behind the account was to serve as a resource for fans to learn about Longhorn kicks, and to give them a space to share information about them with others. While these types of sneakers used to be tough to find, shortly after I started the page Nike began to increase the number of UT shoes they released to the public. I began to cover, and in many cases be the first one to break the news on these releases to keep Texas fans informed. As time went on, I began to expand the types of UT-related content that I outputted, and I now regularly post about custom Longhorn kicks, uniforms, gear, as well as the Texas shoe collections of both myself and others. I think expanding into these areas really helped to fuel the growth that Texas Sneakers has seen, and I’m not sure that it would have experienced this had I stuck solely to its original purpose.
One of the other reasons I started Texas Sneakers was to get some experience with social media marketing. As a then marketing student, I felt it would be good to have some knowledge in this space given where the world was heading at the time. I think its initial role as a marketing testing ground of sorts has really helped fuel many of the additions I’ve made to Texas Sneakers, such as the creation of the website as well as the Instagram and Facebook pages. This has also spilled over into my professional life, as the experience I gained running Texas Sneakers has helped me land a few jobs over the years.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
No road is completely smooth, but I’ve been lucky in that mine has been relatively bump-free. I think the biggest overall challenge has been the amount of content I output. “University of Texas Tennis Shoes” is a very niche subject, and so sometimes it can be tough to find things to post about. I also don’t like to repeat posts or pictures if I can help it, even though this personal standard can make things more difficult. I’ve gotten around this by expanding my scope to cover Longhorn gear and uniforms, rather than just shoes. Expanding the types of UT shoes (customs and non-branded pairs) has also helped, and I think my audience has responded very favorably towards these additions. Texas Sneakers has always never been my livelihood and has always been a passion project, so while there’s never any “survival stress” I still want to do the best job I can.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am the creator of Texas Sneakers, which exists to share information on University of Texas athletic footwear, apparel, and uniforms. People come to my website and social media accounts for the latest news on these topics, or just to see cool pictures of Longhorn gear. Additionally, I’m always willing to help people if they have questions on these subjects or need help with finding something. Locating a specific pair of UT shoes or a piece of gear can be difficult, but I enjoy the process of finding them as well as helping others out.
My X-factors are my passion as well as my knowledge of these topics. There really isn’t anyone else doing this (at least that I’m aware of), so if you want information on Longhorn sneakers, gear, or uniforms I’m probably the best person to ask.
How do you define success?
To me, success is having a goal and achieving it, whatever that goal may be. I think it’s important to set these goals yourself, rather than compare yourself to others and what they’ve accomplished. Everyone has their own journey, and only you can determine whether or not what you’ve done can be considered a success.
As it relates to Texas Sneakers, my goal has been to create a medium where UT fans could come together to discuss the footwear, apparel, and uniforms of their favorite team. I tell people all the time if I didn’t run this page that it would still be one of my favorite ones on the internet; the kind of page/creator that I get excited about when they upload a new post or video. It’s very cool to actually be one of your favorite creators, which sounds self-absorbed but I swear it isn’t. Based on these reasons, I would consider Texas Sneakers a big success.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://texassneakers.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/utexassneakers/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/utexassneakers/
- Twitter: https://x.com/UTexasSneakers
