Shoe Nostalgia

It has been said that I’ve got a bit of a shoe fetish or addiction or “worse than a girl.” I like footwear. I’m no sneakerhead — that term is reserved for those who are far more devoted to shoes and the culture around it than I am. I just like shoes in different varieties and types.

Lately, I’ve been having shoe flashbacks and subsequently they trigger shoe memories and nostalgia for some of the finer sneakers and shoes I’ve worn over the years. I was fortunate enough as a teenager to have some friends who were undoubtedly well-off — they had fancy kicks galore¹. I’ve worn Jordans 3 through 9, Barkleys, Air Forces, Huaraches but never on my dime. Friends were always gracious enough to lend pairs of shoes out — after all, they could never wear them all. I owned five pairs of Nikes only over a decade — an old pair my dad owned in the 80s, a pair of Agassis, some Air Forces which were tennis shoes too I think, a pair of Air Raids (distinctive for its x-strap) and my favourite of the ones I ever owned, a pair of black basketball hi-tops whose name I forget but which Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament² wore.

Nike Agassi. I don’t think that’s the original name for this shoe — this was merely a colourway and style and the particular colourway I owned. The photo is from this extensive thread on some of the memorable collectibles from Agassi’s flashy-neon era.

Nike Air Raid. Distinctive for it’s x-strap. Later, I grew to dislike the look and cut my straps off.

Nike, while possibly my favourite shoe brand of my teenage youth, no longer held sway for me in the last decade. While I owned only a few pairs of Nikes, I owned far more Adidas and a mix of skate shoes³. I was susceptible to the whole Nike-sweatshop bandwagon and abandoned Nikes altogether for a while. New Balances filled in the gaps here and there.

However, I’ve come to conclude for myself that while Nike was an effective scapegoat for the shoe industry and sweatshop labour practices as well as subsequent reform⁴, I don’t believe many other shoe manufacturer’s are innocent either. Having seen these shoes in the countries where they are made and the no-way-you’d-know imitations in Thailand and Malaysia, most other shoe manufacturer’s are as guilty, if it must be said. Shoes made in Asia and other countries will forever be clouded by uncertainty in this regard.

I own two pairs of Nikes now. Both are trail runners, ACG sub-branded. I use them to run in. I wear mostly Adidas with a Puma thrown in occasionally.

If you ask me which has been my favourite shoe ever, I answer two ways. One is with my favourite shoe that I’ve actually worn while the other is a shoe I still lust after but have never worn. The answer to the first is the Air Jordan 5, while the answer to the latter would be the Air Max 95 in the original grey-neon green colourway. I own neither of those shoes.

Nike Air Jordan V. The colourway I wore. I also like the black version.

Nike Air Max 95. I’ve always wanted these but have never felt that a sneaker was worth anything over $80USD.

¹ The simple fact of the matter was that I (or rather my parents) could never afford them. ↩

² Jeff Ament sported various pairs of black basketball Nikes throughout the 90s, as exemplified here (though those are not the shoes I owned). ↩

³ Because, well, I skated. ↩

⁴ I’m skeptical regardless. ↩