{"id":210062,"date":"2012-04-14T12:21:27","date_gmt":"2012-04-14T17:21:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nicekicks.com\/?p=210062"},"modified":"2018-05-12T19:18:39","modified_gmt":"2018-05-12T23:18:39","slug":"what-i-wanted-what-i-got-team-asnkrsdaya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.snkrsday.com\/what-i-wanted-what-i-got-team-asnkrsdaya\/","title":{"rendered":"What I Wanted & What I Got: Team Snkrs Day"},"content":{"rendered":"
When many of us reflect on our childhood, kicks instantly come to mind. Our memories (some good, and some not so good) might travel back in time to highly-anticipated birthdays or Christmas Eves when we impatiently waited to get the shoes of our dreams. And after telling mom, dad, uncles and aunts exactly what pair we just had<\/em> to have, sometimes our wishes didn?t come true. So, the Snkrs Day staff reminisced about their past to reveal what shoes they wanted VERSUS the shoes they were given in our new column titled What I Wanted & What I Got<\/em><\/strong>. Tell us your story!<\/p>\n I was a typical, easy-to-please, five-year-old boy; soccer practice, Ninja Turtles, Tail Spin, and Looney Tunes. One thing that I did NEED though was a pair of the checkerboard slip-on Vans for my first day of school. My friend had a pair of these crazy shoes that required no shoelaces and had no ugly velcro. I had<\/em> to have them for my first day of Kindergarten. My mom came home from her first round ever of back-to-school shopping, and lo and behold, she let me know that she got me my slip-ons! I wasn’t able to read yet, but when I saw the box, I knew those weren’t Vans. And guess what, they weren’t. Mom, of course, wanted her son to look sharp as she always stated and wanted me to wear a pair of shoes she found at Payless that matched the clothes she grabbed from K-Mart. I got over it, I guess, but the memory will always be with me!<\/p>\n I was always the kid that didn’t go with the trend. I wasn’t a big Michael Jordan fan because he always defeated my favorite players in the finals, so in 2001, I begged my mother for the Nike Air Zoom GP III because I talked as much trash as Gary Payton and wanted to be as gifted as him on the basketball court. Instead, I got the orange Nike Hyperflights. In retrospect, it wasn’t a bad-looking shoe but being clowned for wearing “creamsicle” kicks took its toll.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n ?There is no way I?m buying you Jordans. They cost way too much, and I?m not spending my money on those shoes.?<\/p>\n Those were the words of both my parents every time we went school shopping, so I didn?t waste my time begging them for Jordans. Instead, I looked at the shoe of MJ?s sidekick, Scottie Pippen, as a more attainable school sneaker for me. I remember falling in love with the Nike Air More Uptempo because of the enlarged ‘AIR’ on the side, but my parents pointed me into the direction of the Spalding Hakeem shoes, which also featured eye-popping branding on the side. Their words: ?They?re pretty much the same shoes. It?s just one has letters on the side, and one has numbers on the side.? Really?<\/p>\n Obviously, the price difference is the real reason why I wound up with Spalding Hakeems instead of Nike Air More Uptempos (Spalding Hakeems were $35 due to the fact that Hakeem wanted everybody to be able to afford his shoes). I?m a Houston native, so Hakeem Olajuwon was, and still is my favorite player of all time, so I wasn?t too upset. Still, I probably had the worst shoes at school that year.<\/p>\n During elementary school in the late 80s, I wanted nothing more than to be like the cool, high school girls with their painted-on jeans, leg warmers and Reebok High Tops (Reebok Freestyle). They first released in white and black, but soon came out in red, teal and other brightly-colored versions. I wasn’t picky because an all-white pair would have suited me just fine. Relentless begging did no good, and the closest thing I got to my prized Freestyles was the Reebok Princess in all white and two sizes too big (they didn’t come in grade school sizes where I lived). Luckily wearing thick, double socks was in style, and we were able to find some insoles to place inside so that I didn’t trip TOO badly. Looking back, I still agree with my pre-teen self that these shoes really weren’t very cool, and I haven’t been able to rock a Reebok ever since.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A sneaker collection embellished by a loving, generous mom saw many kicks come from long trips to Talbots and jogs to Jacobsons in Lansing, MI. With that said, not even the longest Saturday afternoon spent in the lobby of a Hudsons dressing room deserved a pair of Foamposite Ones. The $180 price tag was unfathomable at the time to an adult, let alone on a 10-year-old kid whose feet were still growing. Seeing as though she already bought me school shoes, a pair of Black\/Blue Zoom Flight Fives, there was no way I was getting the Foams. Was rocking last year?s Flight Fives on the first day of fourth grade worth the wait on Foamposite retros? I was stunting in an AND1 Trash Talk tee, so, yes, definitely.<\/p>\n After watching the adorable Dwayne Wayne character on A Different World wear a pair of ?Fire Red? Jordan IVs, I constantly begged my mom to buy them. My 10th birthday party was approaching and I only knew that she?d present them to me then. Towards the end of a wonderful party, I was only gifted with cards and a watch. Just as I attempted to mask my heartache, she cunningly came out with a huge gift-wrapped box. With friends circling around me in shared suspense, I quickly went through the wrapping, and paused when I saw the sneaker box missing my dream shoe. Instead, I was granted the newly released ?Fire Red? Jordan Vs! The guests couldn?t leave fast enough. Thanks mom!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As a die-hard Scottie Pippen fan, there wasn’t a shoe I wanted more as a kid than the Nike Air More Uptempo. In fact, I’m still disappointed that I never had a pair to don with my #33 Champion Bulls jersey back in ’96. Instead, I hit school and the court with a pair of Nike Air Flights Mids. Still, a great sneaker from the Swoosh, but nowhere near as iconic or eye-catching as Scottie’s “Airs.”<\/p>\n Although my childhood is filled with many memories around basketball,? no particular sneaker stands out above others. The sneakerhead culture became apparent to me during my junior year at the University of Texas. Due to this late start, my memories regarding coveted silhouettes is completely different than many of my peers and coworkers. One particular pair that I tried desperately to purchase in June of 2009 was the “Net” Nike Air Yeezy.? With the ?Zen Grey? and Black\/Pink Yeezys already in my possession, this was the one pair I needed to complete my trifecta. As I waited weeks for official release information in Austin, TX, news that the colorway would not be available at my local boutique surfaced, which ended my hopes of completing my trio. At that point I was devastated, so instead, I customized a pair of Zoom Kobe IVs on Nike iD. The pair arrived less than a month later.? To this day, the void left by the Air Yeezy ?Net” remains.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The seven extra air bubbles and substantial price difference was enough to sway my mom into buying the Nike Air Much Uptempo rather than my coveted Nike Air More Uptempo. 2011 saw the return of the Nike Air More Uptempo, which gave me the chance to show off to my mom and say, ‘Look, I got the real ones this time around.’<\/p>\n Thinking back to the days of ’93, I can’t help but catch nostalgic feelings of the “golden age.” The Wolverines were hot in Michigan, Sir Charles wasn’t a role model, and shoe technologies were at the cutting edge of performance and style. I remember during that school year, I begged my mom to get me the Nike Air Force Max, which was worn and made notorious by the Michigan Fab Five and Charles Barkley. Ignoring any of my pleas, I got a pair of black and green Huarache Trainers to match my school’s colors. I guess I should be grateful that mom dukes didn’t lace me up in some XJ 900s! Thanks Mom, I love you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Did you REALLY want those K-Swiss?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":149,"featured_media":210115,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1225571,1225545],"cultivate_rss":[],"class_list":{"2":"type-post"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMatt Halfhill<\/h2>\n
Brett Pickert<\/h2>\n
George Kiel<\/h2>\n
Allison Halfhill<\/h2>\n
Ian Stonebrook<\/h2>\n
Nina French<\/h2>\n
Brittany Shelton<\/h2>\n
Albert Lin<\/h2>\n
Sid Ashford<\/h2>\n
Ardee Taganas<\/h2>\n