The story of the Mickey Mouse sneakers...

I found out a little bit of trivia the other day that blew my mind. I’m a fan of sneakers as you probably know. I also like all things Disney, and specifically the classic cartoon characters. I picked up a Converse sneaker magazine from the Japanese bookstore the other day. It was a history of the company, and most of their iconic sneakers. In the early days they actually had the first licensed cartoon shoes. They were called Skoots, and they featured Mickey Mouse.

I had to look up these sneakers online, and I found they were released in the ‘30s, following the runaway success of Mickey, and his friends. They would have come out around the time of the famous Ingersoll watches. Which was one of the genius business moves of Walt to license his character on all sorts of products. The Skoots were canvas, and rubber like traditional Converse shoes. Instead of the star, or Chuck Taylor logo on the ankle there was a Mickey graphic. His name also appeared on the toe cap.

It might be hard to imagine that some of the rarest, and most expensive sneakers of all time had nothing to do with Michael Jordan. Finding out about these shoes reminded me of one of the gems I got for the missus in our early days. I’ve been collecting Disney Fan magazine from Japan for years. I saw what looked like Mickey sneakers in one issue and had to check them out online. Belle Maison’s Fantasy Shop offers a number of household, and fashion items featuring the Disney characters. I’ve no doubt that if we lived in Japan then most of our apartment would be Belle Maison products.

Anyhow as I was looking up the sneakers I found out that they were actually rain boots. They were designed to look like canvas sneakers. They even went to the trouble of adding functional laces to complete the illusion. The hard part for me was figuring out how I would be able to order these, and get them to the US. There weren’t a lot of companies that offered international shipping. Thankfully I was able to find a third-party vendor that offered purchase, and shipping for overseas customers.

The other thing I had to figure out were the international sizes. I knew that the Japanese sizes were going to be smaller than US sizes, but I didn’t realize by how much. My wife doesn’t have big feet so I thought that it would be easy to get these rain boots. The opposite was the case. Our relatively small size turned out to be the XXL size in Japan. Also the majority of the boots had already sold out. The only ones that were available were the olive green, or leopard print ones. Thankfully the missus loved leopard print designs so that would be her choice. A few weeks later we got a shipment from Japan.

The funny thing was that we went almost a decade without heavy rain in Southern California. Suddenly in the past couple of years we’d gotten more rain than we had in a decade. Of course her Mickey rain boots were buried somewhere in the garage. I would eventually clear out enough space, and find them. Hopefully before we get more rain. Anyhow that’s the story of the Mickey Mouse sneakers. Did you ever own any cartoon character shoes? I’d like to hear about it on the comments section. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Meeting my heroes, and sneaker dreams do come true!

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 please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

The wildest designers in the west worked at Oakley

The previous Friday I talked about how much I loved sneakers, even though I didn’t really own too many pairs. This was mostly because they were difficult to find in my size. To me sneakers represented more than culture, or fashion. They were literally a part of my identity. They greatly influenced my art, sense of color, and design. Having the money, and ability to order pairs for myself while in college was liberating. A lifetime ago it wasn’t the only thing that really set my imagination on fire. In the ‘90s there was one company that I was obsessed with even though I never owned any of their products. Oakley was the only California business that I thought could outdo Apple in the design department. Apple was, and remains one of the best ever, but back in the day Oakley was designing products for aliens, not humans. For example take a look at the Medusa, and the Over the Top sunglasses.

Oakley had no problem challenging the status quo in the late ‘90s. They were not counter-culture, they were inventing their own culture. There was a reason to their madness. They were one of the few companies that supported action sports athletes before the X-Games made them household names. They were making products for racers, BMX, skiers, skaters, motocross, and other action pioneers before the major brands jumped on the bandwagon. This was because the company was founded by making grips for dirt bikes in the mid ‘70s. They understood that not every athlete practiced traditional sports. They needed functional products that matched their sometimes outrageous personalities. With the case of the Medusa, and Over the Top they wanted the industry to know that nobody had the creative freedom that they did. This wild headgear actually had a story.

A number of the most radical inventions from Oakley in the late ‘90s / early ‘00s was more than form over function. For example the Medusa started off as the head gear for a pro drag racer named Scotty Cannon. It was designed in part to look like the old leather skull caps there were worn by pilots during World War I. The added tentacles made it far more menacing, not unlike the braids worn by the alien Predators from the Schwarzenegger movie. The retail version was, and remains one of the most expensive products in their catalog. A complete set, skullcap plus goggles could run you over $2,000 today. This was not however the original look of the Medusa. In fact the material that the studio used wasn’t leather the first time around. The skullcap, and goggles were made of flame resistant fabric, and the lenses were integrated. They could not be removed. You might ask yourself what type of person would wear something that outlandish?

Scotty Cannon was a champion caliber drag racer that competed in the IHRA (International Hot Rod Association), and NHRA (National Hot Rod Association). Racing at over 300mph could be dangerous. The engines capable of generating more than 10,000 horsepower could explode in the middle of a race. Drivers had to wear flame resistant material, and a helmet to stay safe. Even in the pit area most of the crew wore flame resistant masks while working on the cars. Mr. Cannon’s headgear was actually following the vein of safety. The driver himself had a big personality, and was known for being outspoken about racing politics while competing in the NHRA, which was the most popular drag racing league in the USA. Oakley seemed to be a perfect fit for the attention grabbing racer. Mr. Cannon challenged the status quo, especially the most popular drivers at the time. He backed up his words with wins. This meant he was iced out of the NHRA for speaking his mind. Oakley not only designed the radical paint jobs on Scotty’s top fuel funny car, they made sure to kit him in equally radical head gear. Mr. Cannon had been sporting a Mohawk haircut on-and-off for years. The Over the Top sunglasses were designed to fit without putting pressure on the temples, or ears like traditional frames. For Scotty they not only fit over his head, the gap in the middle seemed made just for his Mohawk. They got a lot of attention at the track, and wherever they turned up in athletic stores. I remember seeing the frames while visiting a Foot Locker. They were insanely cool, and quite pricey.

The various sunglasses that put the company on the map were one thing, but then they let their mad scientists loose on other products. Some of their boldest designs were for time pieces. I’m a big fan of industrial design. Looking at the steel, and titanium watches made me think they were created for visitors from another planet, or possibly our future robot overlords. I’m not going to lie, I was insanely jealous of everything coming out of the company. Their design team very much sung to all of my interests. They were unlike any other studio out there. When they went into a product design they went in hard. Even when it came to marketing they were super bold. They were not simply letting some ad company put together their message, they told their own story. For example when other drag racers had cars covered in hundreds of sponsor stickers Oakley stood out with one massive in-your-face paint job on their funny cars. This definitely got people talking.

There were a few downsides to all of these radical designs. The first was the price. Oakley was (at the time) a small company, they not only designed their own products, but they also did their own R&D, marketing, and manufacturing. This ensured an insanely high level of quality control. The cost of this was not cheap, and neither were the prices of their items. This was especially true for their watches, and also for their sunglasses. The other down side for me was that I was very nearsighted. I needed a strong prescription, and couldn’t just buy any sunglasses off the shelf. In later years Oakley would offer frames at the optometrist, but at the peak of their extreme designs I simply couldn’t afford any products. This didn’t stop me from lusting after them. Whenever I needed inspiration I knew that I could go through my sneaker books for ideas, or even better yet could pour over the Oakley ads in various magazines. Then as if the universe was mocking me I saw that the company started making sneakers as well. It felt like my heart had been ripped out.

For the first time in my life I started making decent money, and was buying a few sneakers on sale through the Eastbay catalog. This undid years of self-neglect, and made me feel like I was a regular person. All of a sudden I felt like an outcast again. It was a return to my formative years in middle school when I couldn’t wear the skate shoes I wanted because my feet were too big. Only instead of not being able to find Airwalks in my size, the Oakley sneakers that went even harder were perpetually out of reach. Each new release looked bolder than the last. Even when it came to sandals, and golf shoes the company simply could not miss. As if to add insult to injury my older brother bought a few Oakley watches, and ended up buying a few pair of sneakers because he had an average height, and shoe size. He did tell me that he felt sorry when he bought them because he knew how much I loved their look.

When I say I’m a sneaker head I mean that I even pay attention to the shoes that characters wear in comics. I would often point them out to my brothers. One of the reasons my big brother, and I were both drawn to the Oakley brand was because they looked like something out of a comic book. To be more specific they looked like they were ripped from the pages of a manga; Appleseed by Masamune Shirow. I considered Mr. Shirow to be one of the greatest designers of a generation. His mangas were all fantastic works of art. Appleseed, Orion, Ghost in the Shell, and Dominion: Tank Police were highly influential to me. He was not only a great storyteller, and artist, when it came to design there was nobody that could match him. He was a one man Oakley design department years before they got into fashion. The guns, knives, and armor Mr. Shirow created in the late ‘80s would eventually be copied by actual arms manufacturers a decade later. He understood both form, and function with everything he created. He was simply that damn good at his job.

One of the things I especially loved in his books were the shoes that the characters wore. Can you recall any comic artist that went out of their way to design original shoes? Nobody made footwear that were as brutal as those in Appleseed. Whether the character was an engineer, cop, politician, cyborg, or mercenary, they all had some unique footwear. Every fit matched the personality for the character, especially the ESWAT officers, and stars of the series. The boots worn by Briaeros Hecatonchires, and Deunan Knute were the hardest footwear I’d ever seen. They looked like they could chew through concrete. The footwear that Oakley put together looked like they had been pulled from the pages of Appleseed.

As if I wasn’t already a fan of the company I was absolutely smitten with their new sneakers. The downside was that their biggest sizes at the time (and to this day) were 14 US. That was fine for my younger brother, who was almost as tall as me, and wore size 14 sneakers. I was simping hard for a company that had locked me out. As I said a moment ago, it was jr. high school rejection all over again. I felt like an outsider to a culture that I was obsessed with. Things changed a couple years into the 2000’s. I’ll talk about it more in a future blog. Were you a fan of Oakley, or the designs from any other company? I’d like to read about it in the comments section. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

It ain't easy being a sneaker freak...

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 please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!