John Legend on His New Sperry Footwear Collection, Voting Rights and More

I know we’re here to talk about shoes, but your activism is, for lack of a better phrase, all of you. We’re guessing that it’s why Sperry also wanted to work with you.

Yeah, any brand that works with me, they know who I am, they know I’m going to tweet about closing Rikers as much as I’m going to tweet about shoes and music and all of the other things that I do. I think brands these days, I think there was a time when brands were a little bit more afraid to work with artists that had a voice about politics, about things that might be considered controversial.

But I think our audience and our fans want artists to be authentic, they want artists to tell the truth. Even within the shoes, the quote that we have inside the tongue of the shoe is about authenticity and being yourself. I think Sperry respects that about me and they know that I tell my truth, and I convey that to my fans. And I think it makes it more authentic when you connect with a brand because people understand that you are doing it from an authentic place.

One of the things you recently spoke about is voting rights, which is so top of mind right now given the efforts being made to pass the Freedom to Vote Act. What are your thoughts on why it’s important to support that? 

I think it’s so fundamental to who we are as a nation. I feel like we’ll be stronger, we’ll be more free, we’ll be more just and more equitable as a nation if everybody has a voice in what’s going on. The more we can include people and the more we can give them a voice, give them the opportunity to vote and not put all of these artificial barriers in the way. We’ll be stronger. We’re better off when everybody is better off. That means a democracy that’s more inclusive and an economy that’s more inclusive. Voting won’t solve all of that, but voting is definitely a key part of that, having everyone’s voices heard. And making sure that the voter’s voice dominates over people with big money and all of these other things.

Speaking of which, what are some upcoming initiatives that you’re excited about?

We’re doing so much with FreeAmerica, we’re advocating for people’s rights to votes all over the country, whether it’s people with felony convictions or other issues that get in the way of trying to help fight against all of the efforts to suppress the vote. And fight against all of the efforts that make it harder for people to vote.

We’re working in conjunction with a lot of organizations around the country. And then we announced yesterday the beginnings of a new organization, a new initiative called Human Level, which isn’t about voting, but it’s about making sure our local governments are more inclusive and more focused on equity so that all of the systems within the city are thinking about how we can include people, be more equitable, and make sure resources are divided in a way that’s really fair. And that we reverse some of the systemic racism that we’ve seen over the years.

So Human Level is working with this organization called Fuse Corps to put fellows in city governments all over the country focused on equity and so we announced that on MSNBC, and we’re going to roll out more content informing people about what we’re doing.

Back to fashion. How do you hope that others feel when they step into your shoes?

Well, the shoes are really comfortable, first of all! You feel like you’re wearing almost nothing. I think they make every outfit look a little better. And that’s what you want shoes to do, is to be that icing on the cake for your outfit and bring it all together and look good. That’s what I wanted these shoes to do, and I think they do it.