Hello friends, I hope 2024 was treating you well. I’ve been bitten by the writing bug, and have a few new things coming up on Fridays. I hope the 1UP classics on Mon., and Wed. weren’t too boring. The sorting, cleaning, organizing of my apartment, and garage had really been helping my mental health, and even a bit of my physical health.
I stated in my first blog of 2024 that I had a health scare in the late summer of 2023. It gave me perspective on my family, friends, loved ones, and even you, the visitors on the blog. Finishing the Street Fighter 6 series, organizing my old game magazines, and books helped get me through the worst of it. I did a little more organizing through the fall, and winter as well. Just a couple of weeks ago I talked about
bringing my Arcadia Mags out of the rain. What I discovered on my most recent trip to the garage was that the back quarter of the garage was sitting in a thin layer of water. Unfortunately we didn’t have flood insurance.
There was a good chance that anything that my family had in the back of the garage not in a plastic bin was going to be lost when we got a chance to move. The good thing is that the majority of everything we had was in plastic, and my comics, and such were elevated as well. Of course for peace of mind I’ve been steadily throwing things away, and sorting the garage. Trying to move things closer to the front, and replacing the cracked bins in the process. In doing so I’ve actually stumbled upon a literal treasure box. I hadn’t opened it, or written about it in almost 20 years. I decided that it would be a good time to talk about another of my many interests for this blog. This was something that my brothers, and friends already knew. I wrote about it ages ago on 1UP as well. In case you had no idea what I’m talking about; I am a sneakerhead. I love, love, love sneakers, however I don’t actually own too many pairs. I confessed to my friend that God remembered to keep me humble by making me love sneakers, but gave me feet too big to collect my favorites.
One of the bins in my garage was filled with books, and magazines on sneakers. As with my game magazines the majority of these sneaker books were from Japan. A few of these issues came with goodies. Whether they were CDs, laces, socks, or the actual “Air” capsule from the Nike Air sneakers, these were some of my prized items. I could spend hours, and hours pouring through these pages. As an illustrator I had many different influences. Early video game fliers, and marquee art greatly influenced my style, but it didn’t end there. Comic books, cartoons, anime, manga, and manhua were also influential. One of my unsung influences was the sneaker. The ability for designers to put together different materials, colors, patterns, and technology into these shoes year after year was nothing short of genius. That eye for design rubbed off a little bit on me.
I loved the hundreds of car books, and magazines that I also used for reference. Those were almost as valuable to me as my game books, and sneaker mags. For example if I was having problems figuring out a drawing, a color combination, or just lacked inspiration then I knew I could always go to my sneaker books first. If I spent a few minutes looking through the archives then I’d figure out what’s stumping me. I’d get ideas for new projects, even when they had nothing to do with athletics. A lot of my science fiction ideas actually started off as a spark based on some cool looking shoes. Sneakers meant a lot to me as an artist. My biggest influences, probably like yours, went all the way back to childhood. If you had read this blog for a while you could guess that motorsports, and arcade games were my passion when I was a kid. I did a massive series
dedicated to Ridge Racer, that was as long as my
Street Fighter 6 posts. I’d written tons on
monster trucks, and
NASCAR as well. I don’t think I’ve ever talked about sneakers on this blog. If I had kept, and sold the sneakers that I wore through my childhood in the 1980’s in mint condition I bet that I could have bought a new car. Possibly enough to put a down payment on a small house.
As a kid I literally wore every major basketball sneaker that you could imagine. This was not because my family was rich, or because I wanted to show off. My parents both worked hard for what my brothers, and I had. Before the start of each semester we would get new clothes, and shoes for the first day of school. Plenty of families did the same thing, maybe yours as well. What was different for me was that I was growing much faster than my brothers. I couldn't fit in hand-me-downs from my older brother. I am very tall now, 6’ 7 1/4”, or 2.01 meters for my overseas friends. From the time I was 7, until the age of 17 my mens shoe size kept pace with my age. This meant that I would get a new pair every year, sometimes two pairs a year. I remember when I realized this was unsustainable. I was in elementary school, and one of my teachers said that my shoe size was the same as hers. I thought that was normal, until my friends said that I was growing a little faster than they were. I had always been the tallest kid in my class, but sometimes by just an inch. The difference really took off in my senior year of jr. high school (middle school for some). I had hit 200 lbs. as a 13-year-old. My biggest growth spurt happened while I was in high school. I hit my maximum size by my senior year, just over 320 lbs. by the time I was 17. Thankfully my feet stopped growing then as well.
The thing about growing up quickly was that my choices in footwear were getting smaller with each passing season. In jr. high I had outgrown most canvas sneakers. Vans, Converse, Vision, and Airwalk were some of my favorite brands, but they often maxed out at size 12, maybe 13. I was, and always will be a fan of the skateboard hi-tops of the ‘80s. The ones that my big brother, and our friends wore made me jealous. I never owned a pair of skate sneakers. The problem for my parents was that the only shoes that were consistently available in my size were basketball sneakers. They looked great, but the leather, and hard rubber felt twice as heavy as canvas sneakers. When they got wet they felt like I was wearing ankle weights. When I would get home I would take off my shoes just so my feet could breathe. That feeling of never being able to wear the shoes I wanted, and having to settle with what was available made me feel like a freak at worse, or a burden to my parents. I remember driving between several cities with my mom, searching for sneakers when I hit 15, 16, and 17-years-old. The Foot Locker employees would call around to see what stock was available, and then send us to a different mall. I couldn’t pick the colors, or styles I wanted. In many cases my aunts would always make it a point to check the discount stores to see if any big shoes had come in, and bring them to us. This way my mom could set a few extra big sizes aside for my birthday, or Christmas.
Through jr. high, and high school, my sneakers were really cutting into the family budget. Looking back I realized how much my parents gave up just so I could have shoes that fit. When I started college I promised them that I would try to make my shoes last a little longer. That I would use my part-time job money working at the school computer lab to pay for my clothing. It was then that I found out about Eastbay (R.I.P), the distributor for Foot Locker, and Champs Sporting Goods. One of the Foot Locker employees was helping me track down some sneakers. He clued me in to their distributor, and said that I could request a free catalog, and check their web page for sales. If I ordered shoes from them they could deliver them to the Foot Locker to pick up for free. I would wait until the end of the year, and pounce on their overstock. Although I was still limited to basketball sneakers I suddenly had more choices, and could even order a few extra pair for the price of one new set. I remember sitting on three, maybe four pairs of shoes. For the first time in my life I felt like an actual sneakerhead. Of course the actual sneaker freaks had entire closets, and rooms dedicated to their collections. I was low key jealous of those people, but do you realize how much space a size 17 US shoe box took up? Six boxes were almost the same size as a twin mattress.
Every now, and then I would see a canvas sneaker, or something other than a basketball hi-top that was available in my size. I’d order it right away. Not long after I started using Eastbay online, another web store popped up. eBay started generating buzz as having shoes, and clothes for much less than retail. I added that to my rotation in the late ‘90s / early ‘00s. Once I got a pair of Puma driving shoes. It felt like I was wearing clouds. They made my feet so happy. I would literally be glowing from the sensation. My family was delighted, they knew that comfortable, and light shoes was one of the rare treats that I allowed myself. It also made me feel less like an aberration for being so big. It’s hard to describe the sensation if you’d never been in a similar situation. Big, and tall kids these days had infinitely more options than I did while growing up. I’m happy for them, and grateful that a lot of manufacturers made bigger shoe sizes for styles other than basketball. I’m also happy to see that several skate sneaker manufacturers were also offering bigger sizes, and even bringing back some classic designs. Airwalk still didn’t have anything in 17, but I’m hoping it might happen in my lifetime.
As I said at the start of this blog, I found a treasure chest recently that hadn’t been opened in almost 20 years. I had completely forgotten about a pair of extremely rare Nike laceless sneakers. I gave them a good cleaning even though they weren’t even dusty. I’ve been walking around in them for a few days, absolutely glowing once more. But they weren’t nearly the most important find in the box. I’ll save that story for another Friday. Until then I hope you rediscover the things you love too. Are you a fan of sneakers? Do you have a favorite pair? Were there any that you wish you had gotten? If so I’d like to hear about it in the comments. As always if you would like to sponsor me
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