Sunday, May 10, 2009

A Gift of Fresh Kicks

For me, the month of May is always a contradiction. Once the month of May comes around, it means I have to start looking for a present for one of my good friends. His birthday is at the end of the month and I usually spend the whole month of May trying to find something special. I say it’s a contradiction because I am always excited to present my gift but at the same time, I dread trying to find that perfect gift!

For the last week or so, I’ve been starting to collect ideas of what to get him. This weekend, I was in San Francisco for training so I took some time to shop there. It’s been quite hard for me to control myself and not shop for things for myself. But I haven’t failed at the compact challenge just yet. I still have a bunch of gift cards I haven’t used but I guess I can save those for after I finish this challenge.

One of the ideas I came up with (after strolling around Niketown), was actually customizing a pair of shoes for him at Nike. He’s really into sneakers and the whole “Jordan Collection” craze. Nike has a pretty good customization program in which you can pick certain colors and material you want on your pair of shoes. Then I had another decision to make. Should I just customize a pair of shoes for him or should I get him one that was popular among collectors?

As I read through the “Sneaker Freaker” article, I started to question if customizing a pair of shoes would be a good idea after all. Would he even wear the pair of shoes I get him? Or would it just be a part of his collection. I expect him to actually wear the pair of shoes I’m getting him. But with the “shoe collectors” culture today, people hardly even wear the shoes they spend days in line to buy. They are way too expensive and precious to wear.

Here is a video I saw a few years back in which people line up for the shoes but aren’t really collectors. They are just lining up to sell the shoes out to make a profit. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0J0vpeO_gEg



Is that the real deal behind the shoe culture? Do people just do it so that they can trade back and forth? True shoe collectors look to expand their collections by trying to find where they can get rare shoes. Resellers cater to these people and try to earn a profit out of them. In an article by Matt Halfhill, he describes how resellers go as far as making a four year old get in line to get a pair of when the Nike Hyper-dunks came out. Further more, the article goes on to describe how the shoes went on sale on Ebay afterwards, for about two hundred dollars over the original retail price. People don’t even have to go to school anymore with the profits that these resellers are making.

Now that I’ve been through some research about the whole shoe culture, maybe it’s not such a good idea after all to get my friend shoes. I’ll just have to keep looking for a present.

Sources:

"Sneaker Freaker" by Hans D.C. Class Reader.

"Reseller Report: 'Marty McFly' Nike Hyperdunk" by Matt Halfhill
http://www.nicekicks.com/2008/07/marty-mcfly-hyperdunks-resellers/

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0J0vpeO_gEg

By: Carmen Yee Blog Entry #2

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