Sneaker Obsession

As defined by urban dictionary a sneakerhead is

“One who is in love with but not limited to Jordans, Forces, Dunks, Maxes, etc.
Willing to camp out and face lines that wind around blocks for a pair of once in a lifetime exclusives!
On the verge of bankruptcy because the addiction is THAT serious.
Misunderstood by non sneaker heads as wasting money and are constantly told that they will get over it or that “it’s just a phase.
Likely to kill you if you step on their kicks.
Running out of closet space because the boxes can only stack up so high…
Marks calendar for release dates and hates seeing fakes.
Lives for the first time they open the box and that new sneaker smell just fills up the air. HATES CREASES.”

You may not understand most of the references above but I will be discussing all of them in this week’s topic of sneaker obsession.

Did I used to be a shoe head and obsessed with sneakers? That answer is yes. I am now past that stage but will forever contain the knowledge that I do about all things sneaker related. I got into the “Shoe Game” as people call it, through friends. Going into high school the kids who wore nice shoes around school were known for it. People would stare at their feet every day to see what new kicks they were wearing. There was constantly an unwritten competition going on for who had the best collection. I saw how much recognition and street cred these kids got for merely wearing a pair of shoes and decided to dive into the culture.

Most of my knowledge about sneakers came from Facebook Groups devoted solely to the purpose of buying, selling, and trading shoes. I started to spend a lot of time on these groups, too much time. I would get home after school and head straight for the computer. Staying on Facebook for 2-3 hours at a time I would read through post after post, looking at picture after picture, learning new shoes and random facts about collecting. I was mostly into Nike SB’s (Skateboarding) as well as Air Jordan’s and Nike Air Max’s. I began saving up all my money. Allowance, birthday money, christmas money, all put towards shoes. I started my collection with a few pair that cost around $100 each. As I learned more about the game I learned about how people supported their addiction.

The shoe market like any other market is based on supply and demand. The older shoes, the more rare they are, and therefore cost more money because they are more sought after. With any type of market one is trying to make money in the goal is to buy low and sell high, in the shoe game this is known as flipping shoes. I began this process in order to support my addiction. With the money I currently had I would scour the internet for good deals, looking on sneaker forums, Facebook groups, and Craigslist for shoes being sold for less than they were actually worth. I would then purchase these shoes, clean them up, and put them back up for sale hoping someone would buy them for more than I paid. I have to say this was pretty easy money, a simple process that would only take about a week to complete. I made about $50-$100 on every shoe I flipped. Another way to flip shoes is to buy a limited sneaker at their in-store or online release. This process is even more profitable because right after a shoe goes on sale and sells out is when it is most desirable and most expensive. For example Kanye West’s Air Yeezy II went on sale this past weekend and sold at $250. Immediately after the shoe sold out 11 minutes later, there were listings on eBay where the sneaker was being sold at $1500 and up. The unfortunate aspect of flipping shoes right after the release is that it is tedious work. One must camp out of their local Foot Locker for hours to even days on end, waiting in line for a certain sneaker to go on sale.

As I started making more money flipping shoes I started spending more money on the sneakers I wanted in my collection. I wanted the coolest, most rare, shoes in my collection. Unfortunately this came at a price. I have spent $500 on a used pair of sneakers before. Most will find this ridiculous, maybe even crazy, my parents sure did. Even though I did end up selling that pair for $600 two years later and making money on the purchase. Consumerism at its finest 🙂

As I grew older I grew out of this obsession, I started to focus on clothes and actual fashion more than the shoes on my feet. I sold most of my collection before leaving for college, only keeping about 10 pairs of my personal favorites. The experiences that I gained from collecting sneakers was priceless. My favorite thing about the culture was that it did not matter what someone’s race or ethnicity was, if they were young or old, male or female. I’ve met all types of people making shoe deals in my local Staples’ parking lot. Everyone was in the game together, supporting each other, teaching each other, all because of a common hobby, something so simple as sneakers.

^^Hulk Hogan and some of his Jordan collection