Air Jordan IV 6 - It's only right that I start off the first
real post on this blog with the shoe that started it all for me. For every young kid theres a time and point where he realized fashion is important. Doesn't mean every kid loves fashion, or wants to be in on the latest trends, it just means all kids realize it is important. Either you do a good job convincing your parents to get you
Michael Jordan's latest pair of shoes, or you end up getting teased for an entire year that you're still wearing K-Mart shoes. For me, I first fell in love with these shoes when I was in grade two.
I was still wearing sweat pants with the double layer on the knees, so needless to say I wasn't exactly a Nigo at this point. I was being forced to take piano lessons by my parents and my piano teacher had a son who was in grade 6 six and went to the same school as me. Obviously, I looked up to him. He was a cool kid, had lots of friends, and lots of cool stuff. After a couple of my weekly visits while my sister was doing her lessons, the piano teacher allowed me to go in her sons room with him and hang out a bit. He had micro machines, basketball cards, hockey cards, baseball cards, a TV in his room, a guitar, all kinds of cool stuff. But none of it compared to the sight of his shoes, sitting by the door of his room. This guy had the coolest shoes in the world, the
Air Jordan VI. That was it for me, he had turned me out into a sneaker fan for life. I told my parents I needed a new pair of shoes so badly. Being that it was mid year, they werent about to go out and head to the local K-Mart to buy me some new shoes. Afterall, back then I only got a new pair of shoes at the begining of each school year, so I was a bit crushed but I didnt have my hopes up too high cause I knew the chances were extremely thin to begin with. I started day dreaming about owning a pair of air jordan shoes. By the time the next school year rolled around, I had my plan layed out. I was going to convince my parents I, an 8 year old, needed a pair of $100+ shoes because I was under performing in gym class and couldnt keep up with my peers. The reason I chose this line of attack was simple, if my desire for high performance shoes was simply a matter of fashion and peer envy, I wouldnt stand a chance. In fact, I'd be told the storey about how my father had to walk to school with no shoes, up hill
both ways.
As we were walking through the mall that summer, I convinced my parents not to hit the end of the tunnel (k-mart), instead, I convinced them it was best to atleast check out the boutique stores like Foot Locker and Champs and atleast see if the prices were reasonable. They reluctantly obliged. From here on in it was a tag team effort between me and the comission hungry salesmen to convince my parents that in todays world, an 8 year old child deprived of adequate athletic footwear, was in the least being denied an equal chance.. I even remember trying to equate it to child abuse since the soles on the K-Mart shoes would ware down by the end of the year.
Well, I'd love to end this storey by saying I ended up getting the fresh new Jordan VII's, but unfortunately my parents were not about to spend that much no matter how much me o the salesmen stressed the importance of it. This wasn't a complete loss though, I never did end up getting a pair of K-Mart shoes again. Instead, my parents agreed to get me the $60 Nike Air Flights in all black with a strap that said Nike in white. That year I was the meanest bully in school. I laughed at the poor (figuretively, although in heinsight they may have been poor) kids who had K-Mart shoes or, even worse, the same shoes from last year.
My parents continued to buy my shoes for me untill about grade 10. Between the ages of 8 and 15, I worked my parents all the way up to $130 for a pair of shoes. Yes, I am proud of this feat.
