Just a cool sneaker story (thanks to the internet).
(and IG) (and told through screenshots) (and an AI version)
I wanted to make this post super dramatic and cliff-hangerish, but I couldn’t really figure out a great way to do it, so I wrote what I wrote and then basically just took screenshots of the whole thing so you can see it for yourself. But, that wasn’t all that interesting, so I asked ChatGPT to make it super mysterious and interesting. This is what it came back with (skip the italics if you’d rather just read my bullet points and see my screenshots):
The chill of the unknown gripped my senses as I sat in my dimly lit office, my desk cluttered with the residue of countless investigations. Among the chaos, an authorization request for a pair of Sample Jordan 1 Lows beckoned, their enigmatic allure piquing my interest. However, caution prevailed, and I chose to forfeit the claim—evidence, the elusive key, was nowhere to be found.
Weeks crawled by like shadows on a mission, until an unexpected revelation slid into my inbox like a clandestine note slipped under a detective's door. The messages on Instagram unfurled before me, a narrative spun by an unknown figure with a story to unravel. The sender, a stranger with the keys to the mystery, asserted possession of the very same elusive Jordan 1 Lows.
Our conversation unfolded like a carefully choreographed dance, revealing that this shadowy informant possessed a wealth of knowledge that eclipsed my own. The shoes, it appeared, had traversed a path more convoluted than my investigative mind could fathom.
The informant's tale meandered through the desolate corners of Connecticut, a place where poverty cast its long, unforgiving shadow. The shoes, coveted and rare, had fallen into the hands of the informant for a mere $20—a paltry sum that transformed into a fortune.
As the narrative unfolded, the informant and I danced in the delicate web of secrecy, discussing the provenance of the shoes at length. The revelation that these sneakers had found their way into the hands of someone from the forgotten realms of society added an unexpected layer of intrigue to the story.
A twist awaited me in the informant's disclosure—the sneakers, now listed on eBay, had become the epicenter of a bidding frenzy, amassing a wealth far beyond the initial $2,300 mentioned in the messages. The echoes of a larger mystery reverberated in the digital realm.
In the shadows of the tale, I pondered the implications. There was a sense that the gods of chance and fate were at play, revealing that miracles and surprises awaited those with open minds. I contemplated the unspoken truth—that extraordinary discoveries could manifest when one dared to defy the expected.
I refrained from making the story about personal triumphs but acknowledged the uncanny reality that stranger things had, indeed, happened. Hidden treasures lay in wait, tucked away in garage sales, thrift stores, and even discarded in garbage cans.
In the end, I extended my congratulations to the mysterious figure, Ryne Bravims, who emerged victorious in this enigmatic dance between fate and fortune. The tale concluded, leaving a lingering sense that, in the world of mysteries and miracles, one could never predict what lay hidden beneath the surface of the mundane.
Pretty good.
But now, in my words:
This is the background to the whole story:
An auth comes across my desk for a pair of Sample Jordan 1 Lows, a pair I’ve never seen before.
I forfeit it, as I don’t want to claim it’s real when I can’t back up my claim with actual evidence.
A month or two later, I get the following messages from some dude on IG:
If you don’t have the patience to read all of those messages, this is the scoop:
It’s the same pair, and this dude happens to know *a lot more about it* than I do. We discuss the pair at length and their provenance.
From what I understand, dude comes from a poor part of Connecticut (his words not mine), and he ended up scooping these for a mere $20.
We talk a bit about potential options, dude goes and lists them on eBay and ends up with quite a knot of cash…(WELL above the $2300 he states in the message but you can ask him if you want lol)
A few things about this that I feel should be said:
If you stick around long enough and have an open mind, all kinds of cool stuff like this happens more often than gets discussed
If you open yourself up to the gods, instead of always insisting something won’t or can’t happen, you might be surprised with what happens
I’d love to make this about me by sharing some of my miraculous pickups, but I’ll refrain this time. Just know that stranger things have happened. There are people out there who have found all kinds of priceless crap at garage sales and thrift stores and even in garbage cans and I wouldn’t anything past anyone…
Anyways, congrats to the homie Ryan Bravim. And keep those eyes opened!
From noir to cutting to the chase. Well done.