README file 
About the data set 
Title of data set: Sole-Zine: 110 Voices. The city lives in Air Max.  
Names of the dataset creators: Dr. Kayla Owen (ORCID: 0000-0003-2517-4739) + Paul Owen (ORCID: 0000-0002-9657-568X) -0
Affiliations: LJMU 
The rights holder(s) for the dataset: LJMU Publications Repository. ID: 29096  
Year of publication: 2026  

Description 
Abstract or description of the dataset: Sole-Zine: 110 Voices. The city lives in Air Max is a qualitative research dataset generated through the long-term, community-led research project Sole-Zine, a poster-zine dedicated to documenting and archiving British trainer culture. Co-founded in 2020 by fashion researchers Dr Kayla Owen and Paul Owen, Sole-Zine documents and disseminates previously under-represented narratives from within the British trainer community through interviews, photography, object-based research, exhibitions, publications and participant collaboration.
The dataset specifically relates to 110 Voices, a Sole-Zine research project documenting the stories, memories, experiences and cultural knowledge of the Nike Air Max 95 community in Liverpool. It includes qualitative material generated through participant interviews and conversations, with this dataset specifically incorporating research material from an interview with Sam Byrne, founder of The Block P, Liverpool. The interview contributes to the wider REF case study examining Sole-Zine’s preservation and dissemination of British trainer culture through community-led fashion research.
Positioned at the intersection of material culture studies, visual anthropology and participatory arts practice, the research adopts a dialogic, participant-led methodology that foregrounds lived experience, personal memory, community storytelling and tacit knowledge. Rather than treating participants solely as research subjects, Sole-Zine positions community members as contributors to the construction, interpretation and dissemination of cultural knowledge. The resulting qualitative data provides insight into the ways trainer culture intersects with place, identity, belonging, memory, collecting and personal experience.
The dataset also supported the Data as a Story exhibition theme and the 2026 retail installation 110 Voices: Part 2, presented in the window of The Block P, Liverpool. Two exhibition posters transformed selected qualitative research material, including participant experiences, memories, conversations and community narratives, into accessible visual narratives. These outputs demonstrate how qualitative research data can be curated and re-presented as culturally situated stories, making visible the voices, identities and tacit knowledge embedded within British trainer culture.
The dataset therefore provides an important record of community-generated knowledge relating to Nike Air Max 95 culture in Liverpool, while demonstrating Sole-Zine’s wider commitment to collaborative knowledge-making, accessible research dissemination and the preservation of contemporary British trainer culture.

* Specify how the dataset should be cited, including the format and any DOI if available. Include a citation for any publication related to the dataset or provide details if a publication is in progress: Owen, K. and Owen, P. (2026) Sole-Zine: 110 Voices. The city lives in Air Max. [Sam Byrne/ The Block P]. Liverpool John Moores University. DOI: [not assigned]. 
* Related publication: Owen, K. and Owen, P. (2026) ‘Sole-Zine x The Block P: Nike Air Max 95 and the Liverpool Style Protagonists’, Critical Studies in Men’s Fashion, 12(1–2), pp. 181-193. https://doi.org/10.1386/csmf_00106_3.
* The dataset forms part of the wider Sole-Zine research project and relates to the research, documentation and dissemination of British trainer culture undertaken through the project. Further publications and research outputs relating to Sole-Zine: 110 Voices are in development.
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Contact details 
* Provide email for the PI: k.j.owen@ljmu.ac.uk + p.b.owen@ljmu.ac.uk	
* Optional: Provide contact information for any queries or forwarding contact should you leave LJMU 

Terms of Use 
Include a standard copyright notice and license statement, specifying the terms of use for the dataset (Will you use a creative commons licence or other? Please state): © 2026 Kayla Owen and Paul Owen. All rights reserved except where otherwise stated.
This dataset, Sole-Zine: 110 Voices. The city lives in Air Max, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence.

Project and funding information    
* Title: Specify the title of the project: Sole-Zine: 110 Voices. The city lives in Air Max.  
* The project start and end dates: Sole-Zine 01/04/2020-present (ongoing)  
* Funding organisation name, include the grant number, if applicable:   LJMU QR PRF  

Contents  
List all files included in the dataset, along with their extensions and brief descriptions of their contents. If there are numerous files, provide a dataset structure key or file naming convention: Dataset files
The dataset comprises qualitative interview material and visual outputs generated through the Sole-Zine: 110 Voices. The city lives in Air Max research project.
01_Sam_Byrne_The_Block_P_Interview.pdf - Transcribed interview with Sam Byrne, co-founder of The Block P, Liverpool. The interview documents personal experiences, knowledge and perspectives relating to Nike Air Max 95 culture, and the impact of Sole-Zine on him and his sneaker business.
02_110_Voices_Data_as_a_Story_01.pdf - First exhibition presenting Sole-Zine 09 and 3D printed Air Max 95, graffitied with soundbites relating to Nike Air Max 95 culture and sneaker community. Produced for Data as a Story exhibition.
03_110_Voices_Data_as_a_Story_Poster_02.pdf - Second exhibition poster presenting selected participant soundbites and qualitative research data relating to Nike Air Max 95 culture and sneaker community. Produced for the current Data as a Story event.
README.txt - Dataset documentation, including description, citation information, copyright and licensing, methodology, file structure and conditions of use.

* If applicable, describe any specialised data file formats and specify the software used to generate or render the data files, including versions and relevant links: If applicable, describe any specialised data file formats and specify the software used to generate or render the data files, including versions and relevant links.

Methods  
Describe how the dataset was generated, including experimental procedures/protocols, environmental/experimental conditions, instruments used (hardware and software), data processing methods: 
The dataset was generated through Sole-Zine’s qualitative, participant-led research methodology, using semi-structured interview and community-engagement approaches. The material included in this dataset derives specifically from an interview with Sam Byrne, founder of The Block P, Liverpool, undertaken as part of the Sole-Zine: 110 Voices. The city lives in Air Max research project.
The interview was conducted as a conversational, semi-structured exchange, allowing the participant to discuss personal experiences, memories, knowledge and perspectives relating to Nike Air Max 95 culture, The Block P, the wider Liverpool trainer community and cite the impact Sole-Zine has had on him and his sneaker business. The approach was designed to enable participant-led narratives rather than restricting responses to a predetermined set of questions. The interview forms part of Sole-Zine’s wider dialogic methodology, which foregrounds lived experience, community memory and tacit cultural knowledge.
No experimental procedures or controlled environmental conditions were used. The research was undertaken in a naturalistic community and research context, with the interview recorded and subsequently processed for research, archival and dissemination purposes. Standard digital recording and document-production equipment/software were used to capture and prepare the material.
The interview data was reviewed and curated to identify relevant narratives, themes, quotations and soundbites relating to Sole-Zine’s impact. Selected material was subsequently edited for presentation within the 110 Voices project and transformed into visual narratives for the Data as a Story exhibition posters. The processing involved transcription, selection, contextual editing and visual curation rather than quantitative or computational data analysis.
The resulting dataset therefore represents a curated qualitative research record rather than a raw experimental dataset. The relationship between the original participant-generated material and the subsequent visual outputs is retained to demonstrate how community narratives were gathered, interpreted and re-presented through the Sole-Zine research process. The interview with Sam Byrne was conducted on [11/08/26] at [The Block P] and recorded digitally with [GoPro HERO11].
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Any information about data sources or individuals involved in the dataset creation or analysis: Data sources and individuals involved
The dataset was generated as part of Sole-Zine, a community-led research project co-founded and developed by Dr Kayla Owen and Paul Owen at Liverpool John Moores University.
The primary data source for this dataset is Sole-Zine: 110 Voices. The city lives in Air Max and accompanying semi-structured interview with Sam Byrne, co-founder of The Block P, Liverpool. Byrne – participant and data contributor.
Dr Kayla Owen + Paul Owen conducted and documented the interview and undertook the subsequent research interpretation, selection and curation of material for the 110 Voices project and associated Data as a Story outputs.
The dataset draws exclusively on primary qualitative research generated through participant engagement. No external or secondary datasets were incorporated into the interview data. KO + PO – data curator, interviewer, co-founders of the wider Sole-Zine project.
Participant involvement and use of the interview material were undertaken in accordance with the relevant research ethics and consent procedures. Personal information not necessary for the research purpose has not been included in the dataset.
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If detailed methods are available in a published or forthcoming article, you can refer to it here and provide a brief citation: 
Detailed methodological information relating to the generation and interpretation of this dataset is available in the following published article:
Owen, K. and Owen, P. (2025) ‘Sole-Zine x The Block P: Nike Air Max 95 and the Liverpool style protagonists’, Critical Studies in Men’s Fashion, 12(1–2), pp. 181–193. https://doi.org/10.1386/csmf_00106_3.
The article describes the ethnographic and visual research methodology underpinning the project and provides contextualisation of the Nike Air Max 95 community, The Block P and Sole-Zine research.
A related research output is:
Owen, P. and Owen, K. (2025) 110 VOICES Exhibition: Sole-Zine x The Block P. 110 VOICES Exhibition, 28 June–28 July 2025, The Block P, Liverpool. Liverpool John Moores University Research Online.
The exhibition documented 110 voices from the Liverpool Nike Air Max 95 community and presented participant-generated narratives relating to obsession, style, place, community and cultural identity.
The dataset also relates to the subsequent 110 Voices part 02: The city lives in Air Max, recorded by LJMU Research Online as a 2026 Sole-Zine output and exhibition at The Block P, Liverpool, 29 June–27 July 2026.


2025