Sneaker Events

Many of you are probably unaware but in the world of sneakers there are giant conventions which are held for shoeheads to buy, trade, sell, and interact with others who are just as involved in the sneaker culture as they are. With this past weekend being SneakerCon DC and Sneaker Social at Gillette Stadium in Boston, I will be writing about these events and talking about my personal experiences attending them.

I remember my first sneaker event like it was yesterday. It was back in 2011 at the end of the school year. I took the train into DC with two of my friends who also happened to be shoeheads at the time. We got off at Union Station and walked about 15 minutes to the Atlas, a medium sized performing arts center, in NorthWest DC. As we approached the venue there was a line around the block. You could tell what the line was for by looking down at everyone’s feet. There were Air Jordan’s, Nike SB’s, Yeezy’s, running shoes, the list goes on and on. Any type of shoe you could imagine, someone was wearing it. I specifically remember it starting to drizzle while we were waiting in line. Other shoeheads were not very happy about this as who likes to get their nice clean shoes wet with dirty rain water? Although I wasn’t wearing any suede or nubuck shoes that day and didn’t mind much. It took us about 45 minutes to get to the front of the line and once we did we payed our $15 fee and were in.

Walking in felt incredible. The lobby of the Atlas led us down a wide hallway and into a large set of double doors which revealed a large flat open space that was packed with people. It was like being a kid in a candy store, there were shoes everywhere. There was a giant Adidas sneaker in the center of the room for people to autograph since Adidas was sponsoring the event. Tables were set up all around the perimeter of the room for the big vendors to sell their shoes at. You have to pay extra for a table, about $100, to have the luxury of not standing the whole event and so you can better display your shoes for sale. The floor area was very crowded with people holding their shoes in the air to try and catch the eye of someone who would want to buy them. It was like a giant open air market. People were talking all around me, discussing new releases and bargaining for better prices on the shoes they were trying to buy. I opened my backpack and took out my camera and started taking photos of everything. I walked around looking for shoes I recognized and went up to people asking price, size, condition, etc. searching for a pair I might want to purchase. Usually at these sneaker events is where you find amazing deals. There are stories of kids walking in with $200 and leaving six hours later with $1000 worth of shoes just from playing their cards right by making good buys, trades, and sales with their original $200.

My friends and I stayed for about two and a half hours before our feet started to hurt from standing for so long. By the end of the event I had bought two pairs of shoes and sold one. I had more fun being there than actually purchasing the kicks. I have attended two other sneaker events since then and will hopefully to continue to go and support the sneaker culture, community, and economy. It is quite the experience and even if you are not as into shoes as I may be, I recommend anyone to attend and maybe learn a little more about a hobby that they could possibly be apart of.