About
A lifetime obsession
The Vault exists because some things are worth keeping. Not the mass-produced and the disposable, but the rare, the original, and the culturally significant. The pieces with a story. Curating those pieces is not a job that started a few years ago. It has been a lifetime obsession.
The Vault
The Vault is the online home of Pursuit, a curated shop for vintage sneakers, automotive ephemera, streetwear, and collectibles. Every item is chosen by hand, one at a time, and vetted before it earns a place here. This is not a marketplace of everything. It is a small, considered collection for people who care about what they buy and where it came from.
Cars. Kicks. Culture.
Pursuit sits where two lifelong obsessions meet: the cars we chase and the sneakers we grew up on. The connective tissue is culture, and the people who build it. Magazines and diecast, deadstock and vinyl, race posters and graphic tees. Different objects, one thread.
Who curates it
The Vault is curated by Nick Engvall: author, curator, and lifelong enthusiast. His career in sneaker and automotive culture started at the ground floor, testing product for Nike, and grew into two of the industries he now writes about and collects within.
He helped shape modern sneaker media at Complex, leading one of the first dedicated sneaker teams and writing for Sole Collector and Complex Sneakers. He built early user-generated and seeding programs at Finish Line, cut his teeth at Eastbay, joined StockX as employee number nine, and served as Senior Director at Stadium Goods.
Today he tells these stories across The Sneaker Newsletter, the Sneaker History podcast with more than 600,000 downloads, and the Pursuit of Something YouTube channel, where car culture gets the same obsessive attention. His first book, Small Luxuries: Sneakers, arrives in 2026 from Motorbooks.
Why the curation matters
A lifetime inside sneaker and automotive culture means knowing the difference between rare and merely old, between a grail and a reissue, between a piece worth keeping and one worth passing on. That knowledge is what fills The Vault. When something lands here, it is because it earned its place.
What guides us
PURSUIT is a decision-making filter, not a slogan:
- People before product
- Unconventional by design
- Real community, not an audience
- Slow down the scroll
- Useful to the neighborhood
- Intentional about everything
- Time well spent
Coming 2026
A physical Pursuit space is coming to Monterey in 2026. Until then, The Vault is open online. Shop the Vault.
Everything here is chosen the way I would choose it for myself. Slowly, and with intent. Keep building. -Nick