Soak in with Oaks.

Early last month, sportswear brand K1X launched its first retail spot in NYC. It followed up the occasion with an official stateside rollout of the Charles Oakley x K1X Collection two weeks later, featuring the formidable former NBA pro in attendance.

CounterKicks contributor Sandy Dover pitched Oakley a few shoe questions ranging from his involvement with K1X to a potential namesake-branded footwear line in the works…

How did you get the partnership with K1X?

K1X just kept callin’ me about the car wash, and they wanted to know what the deal was…they watched me growin’ up, you know, I guess they watched me playin’ for the Knicks…we got together, and we did a couple photo shoots and we talked about different things, and they came to Dallas for the All-Star Game…and things just kept going forward, and then we launched [The Charles Oakley Collection by K1X) this summer.

What makes this line anything different from what’s out there right now?

We’re not tryin’ to be like Nike, you know…it’s based around a whole collection…we can add 2 or 3 pieces a year. We’re not tryin’ to…get out of hand out of something we can’t control for what we got out. Some people don’t like to have the same thing on. We’re not gonna have a thousand “this” or a thousand “that”; we’re gonna have a hundred “this” or a hundred “that”, you know, make it special.

I know they make shoes; have they talked to you about making your own– …

They make shoes, but not my shoes…they’re workin on that, maybe next summer, they’ll come out with… “Oak-Walkers” or somethin’. Next year, they’re gonna see what happens and how things go, link up in New York for the next six months, if everything goes well, they’re gonna get a bigger store…and hopefully they can add more stuff, you know?

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Sandy Dover is a published author and writer, footwear journalist, and fitness & media professional whose work has been featured and published by Robert Atwan’s “America Now”, U.S. News, Yahoo!, ESPN, and CounterKicks partner SLAM magazine. You can find Sandy’s frequent footwear coverage at SLAM’s San Dova Speak-Easy and also other works via about.me/SandyDover.