By Israel Bonilla
To some, shoes are just something people wear on their feet, but to people with copious amounts of kicks who label themselves “Sneakerheads,’ it’s more than just a shoe. It’s the satisfaction of having a pair of shoes not to many other people own. It’s the thrill of opening that new box and the brand new smell of some shoes that were worth waiting all night outside the store for the first day of sales.
With so many big name shoes coming out to close out the 2012 season, it’s time for sneakerheads to spend long hours waiting for shoes. People who don’t understand the culture find it crazy and stupid that anyone would sit outside a store for hours upon hours just for a simple pair of shoes that may have already been released a few years earlier.
The hype and the limited amounts of shoes that are made are the main reason the excitement. Sometimes it erupts into chaos such as riots or even people losing their lives. Last year teenager Tyreek Amir Johnson was killed over a pair of one of the most anticipated Jordan shoes from two years ago, the Concord 11’s.
This year the Bred 11s, which are the same shoe, with a different colorway, are being released. Just at the beginning of the year on February 24th the release of Nike’s famous Foamposites; a style of the Nike branded shoe, released a sneaker crowned the Galaxy Foamposite.
A riot broke out over these during a campout for the shoe. Why though, their just shoes that happen to glow and the dark and are made out of special NASA material & have a resale price for a couple thousands when the retail price is only 250 dollars.
Seattle rapper Macklemore came out with a single off of his album entitled “Wings” talking about the craze for sneakers and all the madness that people have around them, are 160 dollar shoes really worth someone’s life, are these shoes even important at all? Just a few years ago Jordan would release a retro and no one would have to really camp out for them, shoes that don’t cost that much to make still come in limited quantities and are priced way over what some people could pay for them and the quality of the shoe has gone down over time.
Whether Jordan feels that his shoes won’t be as hyped or people would lose interest in them is beyond many people, but when people in the inner city are getting killed over something you wear on your feet…something needs to be done or said.