Adande “sWoozie” Thorne,
who attended West Orange High in Winter Garden, has secured YouTube stardom by sharing his art. He is the host of “Lace Up: The Ultimate Sneaker Challenge.”
The host of “Lace Up: The Ultimate Sneaker Challenge” on YouTube may look familiar. Adande “sWoozie” Thorne attended West Orange High School in Winter Garden and lived in the area for 20 years.
Now based in Los Angeles, he has more than 5 million subscribers — with more than 700 million views — on his “sWoozie” YouTube channel, where he shares his art.
“Lace Up” offers a fourteam contest that takes inspiration from the episode’s guest judge. The prize: The winning team will work on product creation at Adidas.
Those celebrity judges have included actors Anthony Anderson and Jamie Chung, model Ashley Graham and rappers Fetty Wap and Macklemore. And “sWoozie” is working with producer Ken Mok, a creator of “America’s Next Top Model,” and sneaker designer D’Wayne Edwards, founder of Pensole Footwear Design Academy.
On “Lace Up,” sWoozie shares his love for sneakers with humor. He shared his thoughts with me in an email interview:
Question: How do you describe the experience of hosting “Lace Up”?
Answer: The experience was very rigorous — not a lot of time off — yet definitely fun and rewarding. There was so much new information coming at me every single day. Working as a host and managing my YouTube channel was challenging.
Q: What did you learn from doing the show?
A: I learned about the amount of detail that goes into creating a shoe. It’s just nuts on a design level. By the time it ends up on the shelf, most people are just quick to say “those are hot” or “those are wack,” but they don’t fully understand what
it took to get that point.
Q: What was it like working with Ken Mok?
A: Ken is a total pro who knows what he wants. He would show up daily and say “here’s what we’re going to do” and “here’s the message we need to convey.”
When it was time to film, I would get up there, share the challenge, and explain. Ken would call cut, then I would let him know “I can do it better.” He would say “nope, we are moving on.” I appreciated that he didn’t want to waste anyone’s time or resources.
Q: Which celebrity guest judges stood out?
A: All the judges were really cool, but Fetty Wap was very personable and kind to everyone on set.
Also, Jamie Chung. I’ve had a crush on her since her days on “The Real World,” all those years ago. In person she was so nice to everyone, and even hung out with some of the crew after she finished shooting.
Q: What do you hope viewers take away from “Lace Up”?
A: I hope viewers realize
how many decisions upon decisions and stress go into creating a shoe from scratch. It gave me a new appreciation for sneakers.
Q: What’s it like being a YouTube star and content creator?
A: I’m an artist, so I draw a lot of my stories when I’m presenting them. It’s a lot of fun in the sense that it’s rewarding because every day I get the support. I love to receive feedback from fans. Being a content creator has also brought additional opportunities. I was able to meet President Barack Obama. I create alone in my room, which allowed me to meet the president because of YouTube. The amount of opportunities that have come along with TV and digital film — it’s great.
Q: What project are you working on next?
A: I have to be a bit mysterious on this one. I am doing a lot of writing for television and film. Directing is in the near future, so just stay tuned.