| Whenever you wear shoes these days people first look at your foot, and immediately for some odd reasons it’s where they judge you now with your sense of taste and style.
But if you don’t fit into their category or “standards” they just put you in the wayside because you’re not ‘in’ that culture. This generation of sneaker wearing culture has changed in the last decade or so, and if they don’t know what you’re wearing they share it on social media asking ‘What are those?’ and then you’re immediately judge for something not your fault. Back in the day wearing sneakers or ‘rubber shoes’ is not about style it’s just a part of life. |
In my youth, I never have worn anything that attract attention that the pre-internet or pre-social media can say or judge you. These days it’s about style that define who you are and not about your personality. It’s about aesthetics and branding not about what you can bring to the table. If you wear a pair of Air Jordan sneakers you’re cool, but if you wear some random pair of an unknown brand you’re lame.
Well, I haven’t worn an Air Jordan since January 2019 during my short trip to South Korea for a job errand. In that country nobody looked at your foot, and for a week being there neither are the Filipinos even bothered to ask. But when it was a good thing that I arrived in Adelaide in August 2018 it was past midnight and no crowd was around to look at my feet to even notice about wearing a pair of AJs.
So what has got to do with a pair of Jordan sneakers in my storage? Actually, I was rearranging some boxes that have been tilted and not being stacked straight that I made some minor arrangements. In one of those shoe boxes was a pair of Air Jordan sneakers that I haven’t worn since my first trip to Singapore in August 2009. During that time it was the pair I have worn in that trip that one of the sole gave up, and immediately spent my budget getting a new pair.
It was quite intense personally that I have to scramble and ask around to get an affordable pair to wear in the next 3-4 days. After that trip I put the Air Jordan XIV to rest, which was a retro reissue I acquired two years before. I haven’t worn it since getting it in 2006, and at that time not realizing living in a tropical country can really damage a pair of sneakers, which really happened.
I originally owned a pair of 14s in 1999 during the first trip to Hong Kong and acquired one, since around that time the distribution for Nike in the Philippines was in the process of exchanging hands that new products did not appear in shelves until a year and a half later. I could probably be one of the first few people to ever have one after Michael Jordan made his last shot as a Bull in June 1998.
The pair has many stories for me personally, and it was one of my favorite pair that was one of the casualties along with my other Jordan sneakers in the house fire of March 2004 save for the Jordan XVIII that I was wearing that night.
When it was reissued I had to get it, and I did acquire a retro reissue of the shoes in 2006. But I won'’ be able to wear it until my first trip to Singapore by myself. When it got broken my mum offered to bring it to Mr. Quickie, and around that time shoe restorations are not like what it is today. I kept it in storage still in its pristine condition, but over time after living in another country and not notice how tropical climate is brutal for a pair of sneakers would do could definitely damage it further. This is probably the only Jordan sneaker that I haven’t made it into a beater similar to the Jordan Relentless sneaker I have worn in August 2018/ January 2019 that’s been sitting on my shoe rack collecting dust as the box was left in Adelaide.
When I had the opportunity to check the old XIV from the storage it had slowly deteriorated with the plastic taillights crumbled, and the sole slowly becoming unrecognized. I don’t know how much a restoration for this sneaker would cost nowadays now that people started making them as a collectibles similar to toy collectors “resale value” mentality.
Personally, a pair of sneakers should be appreciate than its ‘resale value’ but also the story behind it. The essence of how it became more than its monetary value is what makes it special due to the story behind it. The same goes to how toys are being acquired and being immediately valued because of its scarcity. There’s no true appreciation for something if everything has its value.
All I wanted was re-acquiring what I have lost in that house fire that claimed not only my personal belongings, but also my childhood growing up in that place. There are stories behind the things like this can’t be put in monetary as the way you appreciate why this pair of Jordan is a worth more than its current status.
It would be great to restore it, just the cost of bringing it back to close its pristine condition has a price itself. It is crazy enough how this country (Philippines) have lost its true appreciation to things other than how much its worth than the story behind it.
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