Reformed Sneaker Heads.

In my early to mid 20’s I was a bit of a sneaker collector. I had amassed about 70 pairs, more than half of them unworn. My friend Von was also a collector and so it was not uncommon to find us talking for hours about shoes. What our favorites were, what shoes we remembered from out past, what new pairs were coming out and which ones we would actually line up for. Now Von and I have lined up countless times for various early morning releases. He was my kicks partner in crime, my Nike war buddy. If a new pair of retro Jordans were coming out, we were there. No matter how early we had to wake up, no matter what the weather was like, no matter how far we had to drive. All of it, simply for a chance to get a pair of sneakers. Nearly 1/3 of the time, we would end up empty handed, but that’s the nature of the beast.

About a week ago, a pair of reformed sneaker collectors(now in our 30’s) had gotten together for dinner and reminisced about our days of sneaker hunting. We looked back and laughed, shaking our heads at our former selves and remorseful on how much money we spent in those days. In retrospect, it’s the memories from that era that I look at fondly instead of the actual shoes I bought.

He shot me a text message a few days ago about the then upcoming release of the Cool Gray Air Jordan XI’s which came out earlier today to much fanfare and I thought I’d share it.

Kiks Tyo x Yuko Ishida Carmine Tee

You know, I never really liked the Carmines. I remember them fetching big bucks on ebay and it always boggled my mind as to why anyone would pay an extreme amount of cash for a Jordan VII with that ugly maroon color in it. The only VII I ever really liked were the Olympics. I liked them so much I bought two pairs but in hindsight now that I think about it, they weren’t all that great either. I guess it was the hype and peoples excitement for them that made me like them so much.

I don’t even keep up with Jordan releases anymore but from what I’ve seen it seems all they release are Jordans that have 5 pairs of Jordans sewn together in some inhumane Frankenstein manner. That or they release those two packs were they make you buy two shoes and they always have one Jordan that everyone wants and then pack in a horrible pair of J’s no one wants. It’s like they have this list of all of the Air Jordan’s and Retro Air Jordans in every colorway on this list of top sellers and worst sellers and they pick one from the top and one from the bottom of that list and charge $300 for the whole thing. Yeah you’re getting two shoes but still. I don’t want to pay $300 for two pairs of shoes, only one of which I’m going to wear.

Wow, I actually remember when I use to be a Air Jordan fanatic but now, the only Jordan I ever plan on owning is the Black/Cement IV. They just released that in a double pack with the black XIX’s or “the basket weave Jordan” as I like to call it. Horrible. Just give me the fucking Retro IV without the XIX please, thanks.

Anyways, Yuko Ishida is hot. Kiks Tyo is dope. The tee is fresh(despite the Carmines). You know the deal, pre-order them here. Peace.

Air Jordan XXIII

I’ve lined up in the wee hours of the morning for about every Air Jordan for one colorway or another. Some I got, some I didn’t. Now, I think I’m at a point in my life where I’ve gone past the point of caring when new Jordans come out anymore. Ever since VIII(with the exception of XI), it’s been a slow, long decline of freshness as far as I’m concerned. There were some great ones between VII and the present. X were nice, XII and XIII were cool. XV and XVII were pretty dope, but nothing ever came close to the once in a lifetime run of III, IV, V and VI.

Now the latest and rumored last shoe, the 23rd in the Air Jordan line is coming out tomorrow to much fanfare. Now I love the fact that this shoe is “considered” and the most eco friendly Jordan shoe in history but to be frank, I just don’t like the design of it. It just doesn’t look appealing to me at all, it looks like an And 1 shoe. I guess my expectations were set too high. I mean it’s gonna be Tinker doing what he does best, gonna take it back to the essence he will! But alas, the pictures made my jaw drop in disappointment. They kinda remind me of the XVI that had that horrible flap. No flap this time around but they have this awful woven looking thing going on. Like an all over print stitching on the upper or something, I don’t know. No good. One colorway even makes it look like DNA code. Is that MJ’s signature on the very front of the toe piece? Ugh, horrible. I don’t know what’s worse, these or the frankenstein Spiz’ikes which take every Jordan and cram em all into one shoe. The second I saw these, I just shook my head thinking these guys have exhausted all the ideas they had and this is what it’s come to.

Unless it’s a IV or V, don’t wake me up.

Head over to SC Forums for more specifics.