Monday, 15th May 2023:
The other day, I’m in line to pick up my kid from school. I notice another dad, close by, who is wearing (what I, in my meager mind, consider to be) a sneakerheads sneaker. As I look up, we briefly make eye contact and I say ‘hey, love the shoes.’ And the dude just kinda nods. End of interaction.
A few days later, I go to meet a fellow parent at the playground (with her kids), and that other dad with his kids are there, too. She introduces us, but we’re both kind of distracted and are chasing our own kids in different directions. Eventually, we end up in the same area of the park, and I notice his shoes again. ‘Hey man, I like the shoes. You don’t see those too much around here.’ Dude just kinda nods, mumbles ‘yeah’, and starts walking off towards his kids. So I start walking back towards mine. This time, I’m thinking, ‘this dude is just a d*ck’. No mind.
A few minutes later, dude and I find ourselves in the same area again, both watching our kids (who are now playing together), when I ask him what he does for a living…he tells me and that’s what finally gets the conversation going…what he does is extremely interesting (to me), so I start asking a million questions and the conversation really starts to take off.
Finally, I ask him - ‘you heard me mention your shoes a couple of times, right? Why didn’t you say anything?’
And he answers - ‘yeah, I just hate talking to sneakerheads, though, they’re so presumptuous.’
And I gotta say, that was the first time I had ever heard that in my life.
But.
I suppose I know the feeling.
Before the pandemic, there was this running joke amongst people my age that ‘vegans’ and ‘crossfitters’ were the worst types of people to meet while out and as they’d talk about themselves FOREVER and they’d try to convince you of joining their club ALL THE TIME.
So it made me a bit self-conscious. And I’m still asking myself - Is that how people are starting to look at sneakerheads?
(Btw I talk with that dude all the time now, he’s gonna get a kick out of this post).
Top Comment: pappy_power_hour My mom is overly social and will talk with anyone about anything. I always hated when I was a kid when she’d be talking to another parent and the children would have the same interests as me. It would turn into, “So and so likes baseball too. You should talk.” I hated that. I choose my friends. It still sticks with me.
I don’t HAVE TO associate with people who share interests with me. I have a Jeep and a Harley and I don’t do the wave. I bought them because I liked the way they looked and not to be a member of a not so secret society. It’s the same way with sneakers for me.
I’m all for saying, “Nice kicks.” to people but I usually leave it at that. I understand you wanting to talk more since you see this dad all the time but I also understand his hesitancy. Some of my best friendships started off with a feeling out period. It doesn’t always have to start out like a new romance.
Tuesday, 13th May 2023
So...thanks to my MIL, I got a chance to peep 'Air' through Amazon Prime and I thought I might bless you with my unsolicited movie review:
The good:
It was good.
It was entertaining.
It told a story in a way that it hasn't been told before (to an audience that might benefit from knowing about it).
It can bring those tangentially interested in sneakers 'into the fold'.
The bad:
It can bring those tangentially interested in sneakers 'into the fold.'
The over-the-top 80's references.
The over-the-top 80's soundtrack.
The fact that @complexsneakers did an episode of sneaker shopping with Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and Chris Tucker (AND I WATCHED IT 🤮)
Really...I don't know how to feel about this movie. I think I want to like it. Or...I dunno. Maybe I want to dislike it?
I certainly feel a sense of vindication...and I like the fact that people who once thought I was crazy might suddenly get a glimpse into what it is that I find so compelling...but that understanding also makes me feel a bit like a gatekeeper.
Put another way - I like the fact that there is finally some pop-culture validation to this little sickness I have going on inside my brain, but also...I don't want people (like Ben Affleck) suddenly walking around wearing hypebeast shoes...or...fake hypebeast shoes... And I certainly don't want people asking me what my favorite 'sneaks' are... 🤣
I saw this movie review the other day that was trying to make sense of the deification of Michael Jordan and I'm still trying to wrap my head around it...the title: "Ben Affleck’s Air Is a Deranged Corporate Folktale About a Sneaker" LOL
Top Comment: pappy_power_hour Get up, come on get down with the sickness. I haven’t watched it. I will watch it. I just haven’t felt the NEED to watch it. It feels slimy and un-authentic because of the people behind it that you mentioned.
I think a lot of it has to do with how sneakers have become so un-authentic now. We’ve always been sold sneakers but the ones from our past have generated that stature on their own. They weren’t manufactured with a story spun up from loose ends or with a famous collaborator. They became classics because we made them classics.
I’m not a gatekeeper but I probably should be. They weren’t part of any the growth of sneakers. They didn’t lust after them, read about them and scheme to make money to buy pairs. They saw an opportunity to capitalize on an interest a lot of other people created.
Wednesday, 17th May 2023:
By my expert calculation below based on the prices above…that’s basically $250 per bottle of Jarritos - also known as the MOST EXPENSIVE BOTTLES OF JARRITOS IN THE HISTORY OF FOREVER. PS I know a guy that can get you nearly 333 bottles of Jarritos for the price of those 4 above. And you can actually DRINK the ones my guy can provide for you.
I don’t think this is even close to the worst example of people paying seriously upgraded prices for a ‘special box’, but it’s the newest on my radar.
I bring this up every few months and have yet to get a satisfactory answer that’ll shut me up…why are people so willing to pay so much for these ‘special boxes’? And…furthermore…what do people actually *do* with these special boxes? You can’t wear the boxes, so what do you do with them? Do you wear the shoes? Or just buy the package in hopes to flip? But…why? What draws people to these boxes and these knickknacks?
To me - the special box is truly a conundrum. They’re always a pain in the a$$ to store and…I’m a grown man with kids running around…what the hell am I going to do with an oversized ice cream carton with a Nike logo on it? Or a box half the size of my TV that includes some nerf hoop in it? Or the super soaker thing? I don’t need none of that sh**. NONE OF IT.
I have more shoes than I do storage space, so every purchase is like a 3D version of Tetris - trying to figure out what I can fit where. And even then, I still end up putting most of my ‘special’ boxes in some deep dark corner of my garage. I actually prefer to get shoes *without the box*…
Regardless of the reasoning…SOMEONE is stacking loot off of these cardboard crafts.
Top Comment: susjuice I own the carpet dunk special box but only because i won it for retail. special boxes are sick but there’s no way i can justify paying over 500-1k+ just to have it with my dunks
Friday, 19th May 2023
Once upon a time, I saw sneakers. Leather and rubber and textiles and glue. But now...it seems a lot of what I'm seeing are the tricky marketing tactics behind these drops.
For a quarter of a century now (holy sh*t) I've waged a losing battle against my own psyche and its role in my personal sneaker consumption. No matter how many times I tell myself 'just one more pair', it's never really just one more pair. And I think that's because I can find something interesting or compelling about nearly every pair in existence. Recently, though, I've been trying to pay more attention to my internal dialogue...and not the external messaging that we've all been exposed to.
Take this Jarritos release, for instance. At first, like all y'all, I was drawn in: childhood memories of Tacos Jalisco in Truckee in 1996...and a refreshing sip to help wash down those 3/$1 tacos in Tijuana at 'Taco Bell' in 2005 or so... But the more I thought it about...the more I just started wondering...I mean...really...do I actually care?
As soon as I realized I didn't actually care, I felt a momentary bit of liberation. But...of course...that didn't shield me from the barrage of IG and Twitter posts talking about every single thread on 'em...(for the love of god, give it a rest).
If you snagged a W and got your order cancelled, I feel for you. That SUCKS and the companies that willingly take advantage of our time and our psychology are seriously some of the worst entities on the planet...But I have faith that we're gonna be alright.
I think the cheat code to this whole thing...is being honest with yourself. And I know the question can easily get muddled...especially in the heat of the moment. If you feel yourself pining for some pic you just saw on the 'gram, remember to ask yourself... 'if these were a GR, would I even care?'
Top Comment: suicidecapital People didn’t know what Jarritos was till now
Have a great week ahead!
With the first story, the guy was a fucking dick straight up, you complimented him TWICE and he couldn’t even say “Thank you”. Then instead of saying “I’m not really a social person and I don’t know how to talk to people”, he blames others and says we’re “pretentious”. So you know his kid is definitely gonna lack social skills.
With the ‘Air’ movie, I do wanna check it out, I too am not in a hurry, since I grew up in the era as well. I know the stories and how he almost went to Converse first. Lol! I’ll get to it eventually.
With the way the shoe game is, unfortunately it is all about the “exclusivity” and all that added nonsense to it. It can never be about just the shoe, but hey, it makes it easier for me to get the shoes I really want. I just copped both colorways of the Kobe Crazy 1’s that came out.