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Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Fashion Please Explain Why One Would Waste A Week of Their Life For This Sneaker

Posted by Marjorie Skinner on Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 4:14 PM

I love—I mean love—shoes, and I have all my life. It is with embarrassing frequency that I remember the shoes someone was wearing when we met, and not their name. And yet, sneaker collecting as a worthwhile hobby totally escapes me. It is a world in which the ugliest objects are the most prized, and in which "foamposite" isn't something that needs to be lanced:

image-620x401.jpg

Horrible, right? And yet, 80 people are currently camping outside a New York Foot Locker in anticipation of the privilege of forking over $220 for them. "I’m losing a whole paycheck to come here," declared one Henry Albarez. "We have peanut butter, beef jerky and like, five liters of water.” They tried to put up tents, but the police nixed 'em. Note: it is currently 42Ëš in NYC.
Apparently, the motley crew of sneaker freaks arrived on Saturday, and have been waiting outside ever since, in order to snap up one of Nike‘s new Foamposite Galaxy shoe. To be clear, the shoe does not arrive stores until Friday. Yep, as in almost a week away from when they began camping out.

Wow, that's really gonna suck, especially without any semblance of shelter. So there must be something pretty great about it.
In all fairness, these aren’t your regular sneaks: The Foamposite Galaxy costs $220, is made out of high tech ultra-durable foamposite material and has a sole that glows in the dark. According to the paper, “the waxed canvas upper allegedly simulates an astronaut’s training suit.”

Nope. Still don't get it. Explain.

 

Comments (11) RSS

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1
http://bit.ly/A9ybLF Explanation in full...
Posted by Jake on February 21, 2012 at 4:42 PM · Report
2
Ugh. Can we please keep Blogtown free of this kind of post? So what if some people really like sneakers? Who cares if Marjorie "doesn't get it?" This is stupid, I don't even care about sneakers but I can understand why people do. BLECH.
Posted by bookfiend on February 21, 2012 at 4:51 PM · Report
3
I'll explain this if you can explain why you post all the other ridiculous shit you post about "fashion."
Posted by Narcissism Is As Narcissism Does on February 21, 2012 at 5:00 PM · Report
4
It's really a combination of things.... while you remember what shoes someone was wearing, or probably have multiple pairs of shoes that to a layperson would look incredibly similar, each of them serves a stylistic purpose to you, and you've made some connection with them.

Sneaker collecting takes that exact thing, and combines it with a more traditional collecting attitude, or fanaticism. (see comics, records, coins, books, whatever) in that the more rare something is, the more desirable it is. As the first commenter mentioned, a large number of people waiting in lines such as this to get sneakers (and as a sneaker collector I agree with you, I don't get it. they're ugly and I hate them.) are doing so on speculation that the time they put into waiting on line will produce a large amount of cash for them on ebay from someone who didn't spend the time to get them firsthand.
Posted by reece on February 21, 2012 at 5:03 PM · Report
5
Pretty blind blogging. "OMG, those shoes are, like, so ugly. Why would ANYBODY camp for them? I mean, so ICKY!" C'mon, Marjorie. It's not even in Portland.
Posted by toeachisown on February 21, 2012 at 6:06 PM · Report
6
When I was 16 years old I slept in front of the Paramount (now the Schnitz) for *two* nights to get front row seats for Devo. And I'm still embarrassed about it. Two nights? Stupid kid! (To top it off, my girlfriend got arrested an hour before the doors opened for drinking beer. Kinda ruined the show for me.)

The upshot is, they're idiots. Now, if the shoes were made out of BEEF JERKY...
Posted by Todd Mecklem on February 21, 2012 at 7:04 PM · Report
7
P. T. Barnum had it right.
Posted by ujfoyt on February 21, 2012 at 10:16 PM · Report
8
Maybe several people in town, though, would sleep in front of the Schnitzer for a couple of nights if it meant they could go back to 1981 to catch a Devo show. "Midnight in Portland"? 1981 tip: don't buy the red microdot, it's just a bit of plastic.
Posted by Todd Mecklem on February 22, 2012 at 10:08 AM · Report
9
Blame W+K.
Posted by The Guilty Carnivore on February 22, 2012 at 12:41 PM · Report
10
sorry, ugly is ugly. If you like it then you like an ugly sneaker. I applaud your liking it (if you do). It takes all kinds and if we all agreed then the world would be a duller place. So go ahead and like this ugly sneaker (if you do).
Posted by Eric in SE on February 22, 2012 at 4:02 PM · Report
11
It looks like a unicorn turd. Would anyone wait in line for a week to buy a unicorn turd?

Yes they would.
Posted by penthesilea on February 22, 2012 at 5:22 PM · Report

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