Life > Sneakers

One of the things I have a strong passion for is sneakers. This won’t actually be the typical story of “well we couldn’t afford the sneakers I wanted” this more speaks to how something I had a passion for almost destroyed me mentally because of course I allowed it to. My whole life pretty much I always was into sneakers, from 5-6 years old going with my older cousin Kevin and my aunt (his mother) to go sneakers shopping. My mom and aunt would always try to get me to choose another pair of sneakers but I always wanted the pair that my cousin was getting which was usually the latest Jordan or most popular Nike shoe at the time. So from there my love for sneakers began, even going to catholic school where I wore a uniform did not stop me from getting a fresh pair of J’s that I would sometimes wear for gym class. 

As I got older and was not around my cousin as much, I still kept the passion with me and remembered how well he would take care of his sneakers. Now junior high school was a bit different because, well I was a bad kid lol. I always got in trouble and my grades were terrible so while I may have had some fresh sneakers, I never got any of the Jordan’s I wanted. See back then it was not like how it is not where you could have a pair of Nike’ basketball or sportswear sneaker be doper than a Jordan shoe. Due to this I wouldn’t say I got teased but some folks did not hesitate to remind me that I did not have certain pairs. I’ll never forget the summer before I began high school I told my mother that I am not going through high school not having the freshest kicks so whatever I have to do let me know. I know that sounds outrageous and I sounded like a brat but it worked. 

High School came and I had almost every sneaker I wanted despite not ever working throughout high school and yes not even a summer job. So from there not to say I had the biggest rep when it came to kicks but it was established that at the very least my friends and I pretty much always had fresh kicks throughout high school. The one thing I always told myself is that once I get my own moneyI’m going to go even harder when it came to buying kicks.

The real fun began once my mom handed me over a bank account she had for me since I was a kid on my 18^th birthday. I didn’t go quite crazy yet but once I began working a decent job where I made good money the following year it got crazy you have to understand I went from getting 2-3 shoes a year to 6-7 in high school then in my adult life I started with like 15-20 pairs a year then hit 45 pairs consistently. Now I realized maybe I was too invested when I found myself kind of forcing myself to buy certain pairs of sneakers.. One thing that did not help was the people I was cool with at my local sneaker stores hitting my up when certain pairs came in even setting aside my size for me (idkwhy I didn’t resell at that time).After a while though of course there were times where I missed out on pairs and boy oh boy would that ruin my day. Literally my whole weekend would be ruined if I missed on a pair of sneakers I wanted. I remember missing Chambray Air Jordan VIIs due to a canceled order and that ruined my whole weekend. I literally would be miserable when this would happen. Then one day it hit me, I realized when I was in a relationship I didn’t trip as much because I had someone to keep my mind off of that. Once I became single and just went from fling to fling I had more time to focus on kicks and not much else aside from work and school until I graduated.. I don’t want to say sneakers filled the void of having a gf but it definitely made me forget that especially when some of the women I would deal with were also into kicks. Where I became foolish was when I would really forego other things just to buy more kicks, by other things I mean trips, outings, celebrations just because I wanted to use that $$ on copping kicks. When I would be in the moment I felt fine but looking back on it I was miserable as hell. 

One day I just sat in my apartment and looking in my room and said “why the fuck do you have so many sneakers” what are you trying to prove? I didn’t really have a suitable answer. Was I chasing a rep? Already had that so buying more kicks was not doing anything to change that. Once I realized that I did not need all these sneakers to define me, I said “fuck this I’m cutting back” and started selling pairs from my collection. With every pair sold I became more relieved that I decided to not let this define me or drive me crazy. Now I’ve sold about 150 pairs and counting and it feels good. Now I still buy here and there but nowhere near how I did before and I no longer feel obligated to cop. I feel it was time to let the world know that although I love sneakers and sharing that passion with others, there is more to me than that.