Making Ryan Davis Tribute New Balances

I, like most of the people here, are shocked by Ryan's passing. I didn't know Ryan, never met him, but he did make me laugh and entertained me every Bombcast, Quick Look, TNT, Unprofessional Friday, and Whiskey Media Happy Hour he was a part of. When I heard the news last night, I wanted to do something to honor him, and came up with customizing a pair of his favorite sneakers (maybe it's lame, but it's all I got guys.).

Here they are, I tried to do them in Giant Bomb colors:

I hope others will do the same, I want to see what everyone else can come up with, so post them here.

R.I.P. Ryan

That is cool duder, I think he would approve.

Those are sweet. Nice idea.

Ryan would've retweeted the SHIT out of that!

I would buy those, do they have size 15? .. I can't seem to navigate the site at work.

You have to drink a 40 out of one shoe and pour one out of the other, I hope you know.

574s, just like he would have liked them. Nice.

Looks like they top out at 15-2E. Dammit why cant they support 17s.

I was actually considering doing something similar.

Right now I'm wearing a pair that were for last year's Olympics that I had tweeted him about. Unfortunately, most of the special releases only come in D width, so he couldn't get them even though he would have liked to.

I wore them at California Extreme last year, but my friend didn't want to go up to Ryan and Jeff when we saw them there. I sat in the front row of my first PAX Prime, but again, didn't go up to him. I had hoped to see him again this year, but now I'll never get the chance.

He sure had taste.

Maybe put the birth year under Ryan and the death year under Davis if it is possible.

I don't know how about buying premium memberships for people in the community. I get Ryan wore new balance shoes, but in my opinion this doesn't really seem appropriate for people who do not know him on a personal level. It also screams to me as a bit narcissistic. Like somebody going up to a Kurt Cobain's tribute and dropping flowers and yelling hey look at me I loved the shit out of some Nirvana the most. It could be just me, but that's how I feel about the matter.

@jazzycola: This is a different situation though. We have been listening to this guy daily for years. It feels like a good friend has died. Yeah, I understand the concern about us not actually knowing him but the pain is real. So many people have been affected by him. Why is it so bad to feel terrible?

In addition, his friends and family have said they really appreciate this outpouring of love his fans have given him.

There is nothing wrong with this.

If it was narcissistic, wouldn't I make them with my name on them, and not care enough to make them with someone else's name?

At any rate, way to shit on an idea.

This isn't the same thing. Fans of Nirvana or the Beatles or John Belushi or David Farley, none of them listened to a 3-hour podcast every week, watched a 3-hour liveshow every week in which they chatted directly and asked questions, had back-and-forths (and got blocked) on twitter, which Ryan was on all the time, listened to their playlists on spotify, watched years' worth of video content. It's not even the same as an actor dying, like the lead guy on Spartacus, because that was acting. Ryan wasn't an actor, he was a personality, and we all knew him and his personality extremely well because of how often we saw it.

This is a new age with all the social media tools we have, and there's a new level of involvement and connection for people like Ryan and the GB guys, who have thousands of people who regularly absorb the content, and also all of this stuff has a hugely personal twist, making it even more meaningful. I never met Ryan Davis, I never got a question asked on the TNT stream, I never called the big red phone, or got retweeted, or even sent in a question to the Bombcast. But I've listened to and followed these guys for 4 years, and Giant Bomb has been the most regular thing in my life over that period of time. I've probably spent more time watching livestreams and quick looks than I have chilling with my friends, because they live far away and I don't see them as much as I'd like to. And now one of the main parts of that is gone, and it's a massive hole in my daily and weekly life, and I miss it and I'm sad it's gone.

I don't feel weird at all crying over the death of someone I never knew, because he was such an integral part of my experiences over the last 3 years that we may as well have been friends. And wanting to do something to honor the memory of someone who's offered that much time and entertainment in my life is the furthest thing from inappropriate. It may not affect me on the same personal level as someone who knew Ryan in person, and I'm not going to take anything away from how much worse this is from all of them, but that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt bad for me, and everyone else on this site, too.

I don't really think that's comparable when it comes to the Giant Bomb community. The crew interacts very closely with us and have shared very personal moments over the years. Many people here (including myself) have met him in person. There's a reason this has hit all of us so hard. I think the average person doesn't cry our feel personal loss over the loss of a celebrity. Ryan was much more than that.

@example1013: Really well said, and so damn true.

@perkunas: @mahonay: @example1013: I'm not saying feeling sad over Ryan's death is weird. I'm saying that maybe there's a better, more appropriate way of remembering him as a person from the outside looking in.

Seems like the obvious answer to remember Ryan Davis would be to support the website and community he helped create (aka gifting memberships or just continue doing as you were), rather than shoes. As I said, that's how I feel about it. I'll continue to do as I have always done on this site and watch, listen, and read stuff on this website.

@bombcastgoldthwait said:

@jazzycola said:

I don't know how about buying premium memberships for people in the community. I get Ryan wore new balance shoes, but in my opinion this doesn't really seem appropriate for people who do not know him on a personal level. It also screams to me as a bit narcissistic. Like somebody going up to a Kurt Cobain's tribute and dropping flowers and yelling hey look at me I loved the shit out of some Nirvana the most. It could be just me, but that's how I feel about the matter.

If it was narcissistic, wouldn't I make them with my name on them, and not care enough to make them with someone else's name?

At any rate, way to shit on an idea.

Come on guys, let's not get bitter with each other over this. It's hard on all of us in different ways, and people react differently. No conflict. One love.

@jazzycola: What I'll say on this is that I personally think it's inappropriate to tell someone else how to grieve, as long as it's not self-destructive. There are some things, and some times, that it's better to keep these ideas to yourself. If you personally don't like the shoes idea that's fine, no one's asking you to participate, but that doesn't mean you should tear down someone else's idea. This isn't a time to get into arguments and disputes over petty things, and hurt other people's feelings.

@example1013: Good answer.

@bombcastgoldthwait: Hey man just wanted to publicly apologize for attacking the idea. It was a asshole thing to do. That was my bad.

Here's an idea. May not be a good one but here goes.......

Why doesn't the community contact New Balance and ask if they could make a 'special' custom pair that could be auctioned off to raise money for charity or Ryan's family. I am sure we could all come up with some ideas for the right color scheme and wording ect.

man this fucking perfect, fuck ryan would think this to be coolest thing , he would so approve. one of the things i used to think off when i think about him is his new balance shoes, how it was the only type he wore and he wore some slick ones, oh fuck need to go shit getting real again,FUCK IT...

@dibdab: Quite a few of us have already fired tweets off at the NB accounts but I haven't seen a single response reported. I think it would be an amazing idea to be honest.

@jazzycola If this were anyone else, I'd completely agree with you on with supporting the site and nothing else. But Ryan was a guy you felt you knew online. I only got to meet him once and we didn't really talk, but I can tell you that alot of what you see in those QL's and on Stream were who Ryan Davis was and still is. He was a man who loved to make people laugh, he loved to pick on people and he cared like no one else could. If you followed him on Twitter, one of the biggest things he was passionate about, besides video games, were these shoes. His wife has pictures, showing just how many he'd collected over time, it even turned into a bit of a joke that Ryan would live inside a giant 574 if he could. So to those of us who knew this, this idea makes perfect sense. Your idea is great too, a Ryan Davis 'Premium Member Scholarship' type deal where people help those duders out who can't quite make ends meet but still want to watch the Unprofessional goodness. Sounds awesome, you should totally look at doing that.

I bought a pair of NB at Dick's over the weekend, and had planned to send Ryan a pic of them over Twitter. Super bummed that I'll never get the chance.

We all deal with grief in different ways. There is no rule book for this kind of stuff. While I can't begin to imagine what Ryan's close friends and family are going through right now, I think as an online community we can relate in the feelings we have right now. No judgement should be given towards anyone concerning how they grieve. The only thing we should be giving eachother right now is love and support, because damnit we need it right now.

I feel as though you have realized your mistake and been the bigger man and apologized for it, which most people these days couldn't have done.

Nobody here should be ashamed to call Ryan Davis a "friend" even if you never got the chance to meet him.

@jazzycola: It's cool. I do see your point of honoring Ryan's memory by supporting and furthering the site.

It is so stupid and dumb in the best Ryan way possible!!!

Perfect Duder!

I was in the process of writing that "the so-stupid-and-dumb-in-the-best-Ryan-way-possible award goes to Hollywood Life for their surprisingly respectful obit piece on the front page of their website, literally between a story about Kim and Kanye and an exposé on Miley Cyrus' favorite lip balm," but then I saw this (see below) and nearly vomited. Hollywood Life IS a sleazy tabloid after all, I guess.

Edit: On topic, however, those are some dope-ass kicks, @bombcastgoldthwait. And to give credit where credit is due, I couldn't have imagined myself ever non-ironically using a phrase like "dope-ass kicks" had it not been for Ryan's influence.

I thought about getting a pair of New Balance for some time, and now I feel it's time. Since I have never owned a pair I need to ask, how comfortable are they?

NB's are great shoes. They feel like sex for your feet

I ordered a custom black and purple pair that say "Baller Time" today. I can't post them right now because I'm on mobile but there's a picture in my profile. I can't wait to get them.

I was also thinking of buying some new balance shoes. but i get a 38% discount on Ecco shoes.
and then I got lazy so bought NB's anyway.

we don't get any custom shoes over here so I settled for these:

Gone walk the post like a boss!
and in a weird way honour Ryan somehow?