In the previous Fridays I had mentioned that I was a huge sneaker nerd. Collecting sneaker magazines from Japan, and ordering some overstock from the Eastbay catalog to feel like I was a part of the culture. I also talked about my favorite designs at Oakley, and how they started creating some amazing footwear. It was around this time that I seemed to manifest some amazing things while working at college. For example my friends, and I had managed to get into the E3 trade shows in the late ‘90s, and early ‘00s by creating a fake company. We would wear suits, and walk the halls as if we were exhibitors. We got a lot of access, and met some great industry people.
Around that time the demo for Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater game had come out. I was a big fan of skateboarding. I figured that there was a chance that Tony might be at the E3, so I took some skateboards with me, and scored an autograph. Mind you that he still wasn’t at the peak of his popularity, so you could absolutely surprise him if you recognized him at a non-skate event. This started a trend where I would bring him a present, and birthday card at each E3. He'd be happy to sign some decks if I asked. He, and the team at Neversoft started to recognize me at the shows, and welcomed some short interviews because I started writing as the west coast correspondent to Planet Tony Hawk. Tony was always happy to mug for the camera if I asked.
After the THPS game became a hit I figured that there would be more pro skaters showing up at the following E3. This was almost guaranteed as a sequel had been announced by Activision, and many other studios said that they were making skating games as well. The next year I walked the hall with a stack of decks, and even a poster just in case I ran into the other pros. Sure enough I stumbled across a bunch of them as they were getting ready to put on a demo at the Infogrames booth. Nobody else at the show knew who they were. I recognized Colin McKay, Bob Burnquist, Bucky Lasek, and Rune Glifberg. Sadly I did not recognize Jason Ellis, well actually I thought he was Fred Durst from Limp Bizkit fame. I didn’t know why Fred was there, but I thought he was just a celeb hanging out. I apologized to Jason a couple years later about the accidental disrespect, and he laughed. He said that it was all good, his friends actually called him Fred Durst because they dressed so much alike.
Anyhow Bob Burnquist was one of my skateboard heroes along with Tony. The Brazilian had made a name for himself, first at Anti-Hero, then Flip, and the Firm. Since he could skate regular, and switch (opposite foot forward) with ease he ended up progressing vert skateboarding faster than any other person at the time. He was also one of the pros that was sponsored by Oakley. He had appeared on a massive billboard on the 405 freeway in Carson. Not too far from where I lived. Long before the E3 I got my hands on a huge poster of that same billboard. My gamble of taking it to the expo that day paid off. I went away with a collection of autographed decks, and a personalized poster. Bob asked for my name, and signed it to Noáh instead of Noe. I was too nervous to give him the spelling of my name when I showed him the poster. My brother asked why he wrote it that way later on, and I said “oh he did the Portuguese spelling of Noe, instead of the Spanish spelling.” He bought the answer. I got the poster framed not long after, and it had been sitting in the garage for decades. I finally had cleared enough room to bring it indoors.
It turned out that meeting Tony, Bob, and the other pros was not the only amazing thing that I would manifest in the early 2000’s. Managing to meet the AND1 basketball players, and even getting to design a couple of tour posters was a story for a future Friday. I enjoyed my Nike basketball sneakers, but I longed for anything that was different. I heard that Oakley had gotten into basketball sneakers, and even sponsored a few pro players. Michael Jordan, and Dennis Rodman were often seen sporting their shades. I assumed that their basketball line also stopped as size 14, like their other shoes. Sadly I found out too little too late that they had actually made that line of shoes up to size 18. The problem for me was that the sneakers were not available in retail stores. You could only find them in the dedicated Oakley shops. The nearest one to me was in Irvine, about 30 miles from Long Beach. It wasn’t like I could just check whenever I wanted. Worse yet, they only made them for a season or two before discontinuing the line. I was heartbroken. I had heard that Oakley had a few outlet stores, and perhaps I might be able to track down any remaining stock.
I wrote a heartfelt letter to Oakley headquarters, and told them about how hard it was finding shoes in my size. One of their designers nicknamed “Joker” wrote back, and said he understood how hard it was. He asked for my address. I assumed that he might send a tee shirt, or give me a list of shops to check. Instead a couple weeks later while I was working in the college computer lab when I got a call from the mailroom. They said two massive boxes had come in for me, and asked if I could pick them up. Normally the mailroom had computers delivered directly to us, so I thought this was odd. It turned out that the giant boxes weren’t addressed to my computer lab, they were addressed to me personally. More than that, they had come from Oakley HQ. I got them in my lab, and my boss, and brother were there as I unwrapped them. Seven brand new shoes, and sandals were sent to me, along with a nice note from Joker. I remained humbled by this generosity almost 20 years later.
I wore one pair of sandals every day for years until they fell apart. I promised that I would work even harder to preserve the remaining gifts. I still wear the second set of sandals every day. They are worn, and dirty, but still good. I also only wore one pair of black sneakers. I would only wear them to special occasions like weddings, or four times a year when I performed for my orchestra concerts. I often wore black sneakers instead of dress shoes whenever I played because formal shoes were so uncomfortable to me. Sadly the heels on them were starting to break, so I had to retire them. But rather than throw them away like I did with my old sandals, I glued the soles back on, and kept them in my lineup because they meant so much to me.
I never wore any of the other shoes because they were so rare. Instead I kept them boxed up in the garage for decades. Even to this day I had yet to find a special occasion to wear any of them to. So they remained in boxes. I wouldn’t guess how much they were worth on the market. I'm sure a basketball player might make me an offer but they were priceless to me. I had friends, and coworkers with collections much greater than mine, but even they had never been gifted shoes by a manufacturer. I was blessed in this regard, and remember that blessing every time I looked at my shoe rack.
I wrote a massive thank you note to Joker, and the team at Oakley for their generosity. I felt like one of those Make-a-wish kids with the outpouring of love. I was praying that I didn’t have cancer, and my mom had reached out to them on my behalf. When I originally got the box I felt like it was some sort of prank, or worse, a huge mistake. I expected that they would be sending me the bill for all those sneakers separately. I even started saving my paychecks in case the bill came in, but that never happened. There wasn’t much I could say or do for the team at Oakley. They were sitting on top of the world, there was nothing that I could have gifted them in return. As a budding illustrator I printed a poster for Joker, and sent it along with my thank you letter.
A few months later I managed to get over to Oakley for a factory tour not unlike
the one from the Global Cycling Network. I don’t think they offer tours these days. Sadly Joker wasn’t working that day, so I never got a chance to meet him, and thank him in person. The company was everything I could have imagined. It was like getting a tour of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. We got to see everything except the designers at work. They were locked behind some massive industrial doors. The tour guide said that very few people in the company were allowed to go into that room, even after working there for a few years she had never even been allowed in. We saw the full size NBA court for the employees. We saw some of the machines that created their new frames, and patented technology. Of course we weren’t allowed to take pictures of any of that stuff.
I told my family how amazing the factory was. I did my best to recall everything that I saw. How they had different machines to test the strength, and resiliency of their lenses, and frames during quality control. How they had insanely high tolerances when creating their patented lenses. How their rejects would get shredded, and the plastics could be melted, and reused. For the integrity of the product they wouldn’t accept the microscopic defects on future lenses, but they would sell the shredded plastics of their defects to their competition. I saw equipment that allowed them to bond materials in zero atmosphere. It was tech that none of their competitors had access to. It was part design house, and part science lab. They were working on the coolest products on the planet. Lastly I told my family that it would be a dream job to work there. That wasn’t in the cards for me, but I was glad to have taken that trip. It gave me tremendous perspective on the future, and what could be.
With some changes to my healthcare providers last year my wife, and I were able to see an optometrist for the first time in years. I got her some cute pink Coach frames last fall, and a couple months ago I completed a dream of mine. I was able to purchase some Oakley frames for my prescription glasses. I didn’t think it would take so long to get that off of my checklist, but here we were. Now to see if I could track down a watch so I could complete the look… I never thought that the freak storms of late 2023, and early 2024 would end up doing wonders for my mental health. It would cause me to clean up, and organize the hallway, and hallway closet in the apartment so I could have more room for myself. I fixed cabinets, and helped my kid, and wife organize, but neglected making space for my stuff for years. Now I could bring in the rare Japanese game books, comics, and magazines that I had collected through my time in high school, and college. The little things that I kept that made me happy.
A few weeks into 2024 another major storm rolled through. With that more worries about the leaky garage caused me to clean up more space in the apartment, and dig through the garage once more. This time I would bring in the sneakers that I’d been holding onto for a generation. As well as a few other gems. Doing this helped me reconnect with the things I loved. They brought back a flood of memories, and reminded me that I should do things for myself more frequently. It was not healthy to sacrifice for my family, and friends, but never take time for myself. I would get a chance to appreciate the things that I enjoyed, and recharge my mental, and emotional batteries.
These changes in my priorities rekindled my imagination. They allowed me to share stories with you, and my family that I hadn’t told before. I’ll be sharing more stories in the near future. I hope that everyone reading this has something they are passionate about. I hope you are making time for your interests, and taking care of yourself. Let me know in the comments section if you were a fan of Oakley, or any other company. Tell me what your favorite products from them were. As always if you would like to sponsor me
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