{"id":213840,"date":"2012-05-13T13:04:57","date_gmt":"2012-05-13T18:04:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nicekicks.com\/?p=213840"},"modified":"2022-09-16T05:47:21","modified_gmt":"2022-09-16T10:47:21","slug":"kickstarter-shoes-hooked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.snkrsday.com\/kickstarter-shoes-hooked\/","title":{"rendered":"Kickstarter: The Shoes That Got Us Hooked"},"content":{"rendered":"
As sneakerheads, the sizes of our individual collections may vary, but each of us can remember that one shoe that started our obsession with kicks. In order to highlight these symbolic shoes, we asked Snkrs Day readers on our Facebook page and members of our staff to tell us what sneaker kicked off their obsession. Be sure to share which pair got you hooked and why in the comments below.<\/p>\n
The Reebok Shaqnosis made me a sneakerhead. Back in the summer of ?96, I was visiting family in Indiana and I was only one year removed from falling in love with basketball. I?d been rocking Olajuwon<\/a> kicks before, but I really wanted to catch up be like my big cousin who was a Shaq fan. During that Crawfordsville stay, my mom and sister returned from a shopping trip with a blue sneaker box. My sister played it off like they were for her, but I knew they were all mine. I rocked them the first day of third grade and have been hooked ever since.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I grew up watching Jordan just like everyone, but what really got me into kicks was when I saw the first episode of The<\/em> Fresh Prince of Bel Air<\/em>. Will Smith was wearing the Black\/Metallic Silver 5s. Seeing him wearing those with the crazy mix of outfits really got it started for me. Unfortunate circumstances didn’t allow me to get much at that time, but those Black\/Metallic Silver 5s started it all for me.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n <\/p>\n My friends and I used to study the Eastbay catalogs in grade school, and the first shoe I bought on my own was the Nike Air Max CB4 II. I did some work for my father’s audio business at the time. He paid me enough to afford them on my own, and I rocked them until they were destroyed just like every other pair of shoes I managed to get.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n The first sneaker that caught my attention and got me started collecting shoes is one that many forget and ignore – the Nike Vandal Low “Glow In the Dark.” Devoid of any major accomplishments or history, this silhouette caught my attention strictly because of the materials and colors used. First spotted on one of my good friend’s feet, I immediately took to the Internet, searching on various sites, including eBay, Nike Talk and even Craigslist. The sneaker, which is now tattered and torn, continues to sit in my closet as the pair that started it all.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1994 saw the retro release of the original White\/Red Air Jordan 1. I received a pair of Jordans for my birthday during the previous 3-4 years, but as a huge Bulls and Jordan fan, who was 10 years old, there had never been an opportunity to get the models from the early days. The idea of the retro really was the beginning of the sneakerhead movement for me and, in many ways, everyone.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n After the Pokemon card craze ended when I was in middle school, I needed something new to collect. Sneakers were the long-term choice, with the catalyst of my addiction being the adidas Kobe 1. The all-silver makeup caught my eye immediately and ultimately got me hooked on sneakers. Then, it was the Black\/Royal Air Jordan 1 Retro, the Nike Shox BB4, and so on.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I blame my grandma for turning me into a sneakerhead. In 1992, she bought me my first pair of Nike shoes for 8th grade basketball. They were all black mid-tops that were half leather and half suede. I wore those out completely, but I envied the kids that rocked Jordan 6s, Bordeaux 7s, Aqua 8s, and the Nike Barkleys with the strap. Those were huge because the Phoenix Suns were in the Finals against the Chicago Bulls. I wanted all those shoes and more, but my first pair of Jordans were the 1997 ?Flu Game? 12s, and I still have them. As for the Barkleys, I got those as a Christmas gift from my parents when they re-released a few years back. For now, I’m slowly working on what I can afford.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I played basketball all throughout my childhood, so my dad bought me one shoe for school and one shoe for the basketball season every year. My junior high school’s colors were white and orange, so when we went basketball shoe shopping for the eighth grade season, I wanted to get a pair of shoes that featured some sort of orange color scheme. The Nike Air Zoom T-Bug Flight<\/a>, Tim Hardaway’s signature shoe, was one of the only shoes that met my requirements. I loved playing in that shoe because of how light it was, but my favorite part of the shoe was the midfoot zipper, which, when unzipped all the way, featured a bright orange tongue and shoelaces (I remember playing some games with the midfoot unzipped). The Nike Air Zoom T-Bug Flight was definitely the shoe that made me begin to pay attention to what people wore, especially on the court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What shoe got you hooked on sneakers?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":149,"featured_media":213841,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[618,1],"tags":[111,1209026],"cultivate_rss":[],"class_list":{"2":"type-post"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWilliam Santiago – Snkrs Day Reader<\/h3>\n
Sid Ashford<\/h3>\n
Joel Oliver – Snkrs Day Reader<\/h3>\n
Albert Lin<\/h3>\n
Matt Simpson – Snkrs Day Reader<\/h3>\n
Brett Pickert<\/h3>\n
Regina Manuel – Snkrs Day Reader<\/h3>\n
George Kiel III<\/h3>\n