I am by no accounts a “sneaker-head”; I purchased a ticket to Sneaker-Con on a whim. Gym shoe culture, which has been relevant for the last 40 years, has always surrounded and interested me. I didn’t understand the hype, as I’ve never been the biggest fan of watching sports, however, the older I got the more I learned to appreciate the culture. In recent years the resale aspect of sneaker culture has proven profitable and I thought that this would be a good place to start outside of just grabbing a pair of gym-shoes.
I entered Cobo Hall overwhelmed by colors and people; almost everyone was holding a box with one shoe on it and there was an array of gym-shoes on cloth covered tables, summoning varying emotions from the hundreds of people present. My initial plan was to grab a pair of shoes that I could re-sale for profit.
While I did learn a lot about various gym-shoes, colorways, and proper bartering etiquette, I learned that this was not the place to start a collection of sneakers. This was the place for the sneaker aficionado. This was the place for individuals who understood the cultural relevance behind each shoe. This was the place for people who knew that the Jordan 4 was popular because of its appearance in Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing. This was a place for people who knew who Peter Moore was and for those who knew that the Jumpman logo only appears after the Jordan II. This was for people who sleep in the cold for Jordan releases. If this was Mecca then I was but an initiate into the religion.
