{"id":594042,"date":"2018-04-25T14:18:57","date_gmt":"2018-04-25T18:18:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.snkrsday.com\/?p=594042"},"modified":"2018-04-25T15:18:48","modified_gmt":"2018-04-25T19:18:48","slug":"my-5-amin-elhassan-talks-sneaker-rotation-growing-up-in-sudan-and-best-nba-sneakerheads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.snkrsday.com\/my-5-amin-elhassan-talks-sneaker-rotation-growing-up-in-sudan-and-best-nba-sneakerheads\/","title":{"rendered":"My 5 \/\/ Amin Elhassan Talks Sneaker Rotation, Growing up in Sudan and Best NBA Sneakerheads"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amin Elhassan<\/strong> experienced an upbringing like few others with a similar love for basketball and sneakers.<\/p>\n

Born in Sudan, as an infant Amin moved to New York City with his parents. He then ventured back to Sudan at the age of eight, staying there until he was 14 before moving back to New York.<\/p>\n

His family wasn’t one of means. So, whether he was entrenched in the cultural density of New York City, or the vastly rural, elemental economy that makes Sudan one of the most impoverished countries in the world, Elhassan’s access to sneakers, or lack thereof, often times made no difference.<\/p>\n

“I remember the first time I saw the Jordan 8s [in Sudan] and it blew my mind,” Elhassan fondly recalls. “I was like wait — there’s a strap? And then there’s another strap?!? But that was something that you only saw from grainy videotapes of NBA Superstars Vol. II<\/em> or something like that.”<\/p>\n

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Elhassan would have friends of greater financial means travel from Sudan to more developed countries and come back with Jordans and other popular sneakers. That’s how he’d often see things firsthand. As for the sneakers on his own feet, well, that was a greater challenge.<\/p>\n

“I can remember asking my dad for some Converse. Just standard black and white Converse All Stars. My dad was like, Not a chance<\/em>. So there was a lot of seeing but not actually having. Then, when we moved back [to New York City], it was the same thing. It was like if you want some sneakers you better hit up that clearance rack. It was the clearance rack life.” Elhassan can certainly laugh about those moments now, but at the time, his sneaker struggle was very real. “I’d have one pair. That would be the shoe that you’re going to play basketball in, to go school in, run track in — it was the all-purpose shoe. I actually ran track in my basketball sneakers.”<\/p>\n