It was the summer of 1991 and Air Jordans were not as expensive as they are today but they were still pretty pricey for a pair of sneakers for a kid going to 3rd grade at the time. I needed a pair of Air Jordans next year and I was not taking no for an answer, so when the summer came and it was time for back to school shopping I was on it. At the time the Air Jordan VI in the Black/Infared colorway was out and I remember going to Modell's with my mother and BEGGING her for a pair. She eventually gave in and got them for me. I thought that I could jump higher and all of the other things that little kids would believe when they saw an Air Jordan commercial back then. Unfortunately for me I think I got two solid months of having those shoes because by the end of the summer i jumped from the top of my steps into some wet paint that my uncle had left out after painting my patio steps. Washing them helped but the kicks just werent the same. I needed a new pair of sneakers and my moms was NOT buying another pair of Jordans. It didnt help that I had already had my 1st taste of that Air Jordan "crack" and I was hooked.
But I think the very moment I actually FELL IN LOVE with my footwear was in 1992, right after the Bulls had won their 2nd Chip and we being referred to as the "Untouchabulls." Michael Jackson came out with a video for his song "Jam" off of his 1991 Dangerous album and Micheal Jordan had on the Bordeaux colorway in the Air Jordan VII. I think I wanted those more than anything else in the world at that point but at the time my mother had already bought my school shoes and it was NOT happening. I think I fell in love with Air Jordans right there, probably because I couldnt get them and I just REALLY liked that colorway. I blame my Mom and Michael Jackson for my sneaker addiction, and it didnt help that every time I turned on the TV Dwayne Wayne (A Different World) Jerry Seinfeld (Seinfeld) and Will Smith (The Fresh Prince) had on a pair of Air Jordans.
Needless to say, I couldnt get a pair every year, I got a few Air Jordans when my Mother could afford it when it came time to shop for school clothes. I think we drove all over new your city looking for the lowtop Air Jordan 11 in white/light grey in the summer of 1996 as a gift after I received my Holy Confirmation from Sacred Heard School in Queens. Yeah...I'm a Catholic School boy, so what.
But when I got to high school and got my 1st Job at Waldbaums Supermarket in Bayside, it was ALL OVER. I would cut last period and go buy Air Jordans on a monthly basis. Air maxes were getting equal shine too because if it was new I had em and it didnt stop. My entire check would go to Nikes and clothes because you cant be fly with just fly sneakers, the outfit has to match, but thats a story for another blog.
My boys at Cardozo HS down the block could wear sneakers every day but I had to lie to the nurses and tell them I sprained my ankle to get a sneaker pass to wear my kicks or it was detention for breaking uniform. Again, I'm a catholic school boy so there had to be ways around everything. To this day I have sneakers that I probably only wore a hand-full of times since high school but I'll break em out if I feel like it on a nice day.
College was worse, 2 of my best friends and I would promote the biggest parties on campus so I really didn't know what It felt like to be a stereotypical "broke" college student and mommy and daddy weren't giving me a DIME for my habit. I grew up with these guys so needless to say they were "sneaker-heads" too so It always seemed like we were in competition for the newest kicks out.
Before A Bathing Ape was even in in the United States, my boys and I were shipping them in from Japan. Back then patent leather bapes were lame...it was all about the colored snake skin Bapesta. I remember people asking me "What I had done to my Nike Air Force 1s?" and "Why was I wearing fake Nike's." Fakes weren't my style...being up on that new new was.
Then the Nike SB Dunk hit and it was all over. I would have people stop me in the street and offer to buy them off of my feet. "Where'd you get those" was a question my boys and I would hear ALL THE TIME on campus. It was like having a foreign car on your feet, people liked them but had no idea how to get them or how much they were. I will tell you right now that there are a lot of sneakers that I will wear today that if you bought them today might run you close to $1,000 and I paid $90 for them and bought them with no problem because I just knew about them from way back then.
The was an attention factor that you get from having on a fresh pair that nobody could get and I fell in love with the exclusivity.
Then in 2005 right before I graduated, the Nike SB Dunk low "Pigeon" came out only at 1 store in NY while I was still up in college. And right then and there the game officially changed. There was a riot for these shoes, kids were getting robbed, people were getting escorted out by police and it made the FRONT PAGE of the New York Post newspaper. People started to realize how crazy this "sneaker game" was and it got over saturated, everyone was on it and I began falling out of love.
Now dont get me wrong, I still love sneakers but I don't buy nearly as much as I used to, they aren't the same. The shoes are being made cheaper and when they "Retro" the classics they don't look or feel the same anymore but there is just something about a nice sneaker that always brings me back in. I guess I'll never really change, I just slowed down a little. I look for sneakers that have a stand out quality, or are some type of collaboration between Nike and another artist, store, or brand like the pair I have on in my profile picture. Done by Nike and a Japanese brand named Swagger, these actually came as 1 pair of sneakers in 2 different colors. (People ask me about that ALL THE TIME)
I think I'm going to wear sneakers until the day I die, I just may slow down on the buying sprees for now. Afterall, sneakers cant pay your rent or a car note....right?
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