220198380670 One of the stranger shifts in perspective in the sneaker game has been Nike’s complete shift to helping out sneakerheads, throwing them bones where they didn’t used to. In 2003 pining for rare airs and developing taste on Niketalk would mean something, but not yield much in the way of results. Like a wildwood? Too bad; only two will drop this year, and in colors you wouldn’t predict (what’s up, rhino). Now though it seems Nike is meeting her minions halfway, throwing out orange and paisley Joy Division Trainer IIs for all the college kids out there.. and it’s been five years since I was fucking with it for a year. The mask at Nike seems to be down, at least for the casual, sneakerhead division. You bark loud enough, ask for bright shoes, she’ll give them to you. I sort of miss the days when the old girl was an opaque monolith, giant, incalculable. What got pimped and why was never apparent, though sometimes she’d throw you a bone. Why did she drop those Mowabbs (scroll way down for AJ’s take)? Why did she make Mids, and then dead ‘em?  

These tech challenges fall with the latter. The originals were great shoes, with a great ad campaign, to be sure, and could hold their own on the quality of concept scale with any Jordan, Force, Flight, or Trainer, depending who you ask. But, forgotten to the sands of time, their image languished on the shelf. Rightly so: Andre Agassi, their face, cut his hair, copped a long term girl, and eventually fell off. As for the clothes.. weren’t no doggs wearing these like they did Jordan wear. So leave it to a handful of bums to bid up mislisted auctions, right around the New Hampshire primaries. Leave it to doggs making threads, nerds buying cred, bored men filling their nights with the rest of their paychecks.. So Nike hollered, and hooked some doggs up with a great shoe, one some have been bumping in the corner for a minute. But by this point it was too late… 

A bit of a short post, although I don’t mean to be neglectful. I’m just in the middle of moving and doing a few other things. I assure you this lapse has nothing to do with my work ethic, the seasons, or frequency of heatful auctions, but the return might have a little to do with the fact that there’s a Heat game on. Sweet…

1. The chlorophyll trainer is cleaner than most air maxes. It’s hard sometimes to believe John McEnroe wore them because they’re so much boxier and stronger than he is. Though some of my faves wear the SBs, only these colors are doable in my opinion, however, to be honest, these and the energies (good luck finding those) might be a little too unhumorous for regular wear in the 2008.

2. Year of the Mouse Court Forces? Is it Year of the Mouse? And if it is, do we really want to bring it in with Court Forces? That’s like having a muffin on your birthday. I really love all the Year Of Forces, they’re some of the best looking all white forces, and the term is one of my favorite eBay qualifiers. I guess if you don’t really like your girl, you can buy her these.

3. Not really a sneaker, but if you won this auction, laminated this, put it on a string and wore it, you’d get more stares than that footaction manager who’s been rocking the XXIIIs since March.

I really, really wish I wasn’t watching a Heat game now. Luckily CC has been sending me Seinfeld quotes throughout this update.

Best..

the pastels in this are

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o’er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

The stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Outdid the sparkling waves in glee;

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company;

I gazed — and gazed — but little thought

What wealth to me the show had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.