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The position I take on the sneaker culture is that it is important and a way to teach the younger generation about the greats in sports history. One thing I haven’t mentioned in any of my posts is Sneaker Con. A Sneaker Con is the same thing as a Comic Con, but for shoes! Sneakercon.com has a statement that reads, “Sneaker Con, a gathering of shoe fanatics founded in 2009, brought 500 vendors and over 19,000 people to the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York”. Sneaker Cons have only grown in size since then and have provided a way for collectors and resellers to connect and create friendships and business partners. Vendors bring large collections of sneakers to show off and or to sell to those paying the right price or trading the right sneakers for another pair. Not only is this a way for people to connect with each other, but it is bringing in the younger crowd and is a way for those individuals to travel back in time and learn about the importance of certain sneakers and the names behind them that made them famous. I think that it is important for the younger generation to be educated on these types of things because professional sports have been around for so long and are a large part of society. There will always be a new up and coming athlete but it’s the past that makes the brand what it really is, the legends of all the years leading up to the present. With that being said, I think the sneaker culture may be overlooked by many as a waste of money, but those that are entangled in the culture are there for a good cause and because they love the history behind each piece of art that is a sneaker.

After some research myself, I found two sources that I will be using today. The first is 3 students from Iowa State University who conducted a research study on sneakerheads and their motives behind purchasing shoes and being a sneakerhead. They sampled five people who identified themselves as sneakerheads with a variety of number of shoes per each collection from 10 all the way to 100. After interviewing each of these students and gaining background info on their motives for this lifestyle, they concluded that there were 6 main reasons that came up during the study. These 6 reasons are: culture, rarity, purchase decision process, quality and price, reselling, and violent incidents. The point that I want to emphasize in that study is the reselling aspect of the sneaker culture. I have been doing this for several years and have built my own store on eBay, where I can get a decent second flow of income if I’m able to find the right shoes for the right price. This brings me to my second source, A Ted Talk by Josh Luber who has done extensive research on the secondary sneaker market and even owns a company called “Campless” which is a “sneakerhead data” company. During his Ted Talk, Luber concluded that the secondary market, just for Nike brand shoes alone, racked up a 1.2-billion-dollar secondary market, accounting for 96% of resell product. The secondary market for sneakers is the simplest form of the supply and demand aspect of the business world. One rare pair of sneakers can make you hundreds of dollars if kept unworn and with all of its original pieces (box, tag, paper, inserts, etc.). I have learned this first hand and I do my research on sneakers before I do buy them to make sure that I won’t be out a decent chunk of money. For example, two summers ago, I came across 9 pairs of Jordan retro 4 white cement and ended up buying them all. I got them at a discounted price and the whole lot ended up costing me $1,064.25. I was able to sell each pair for $285 to $300, making a great profit after selling them all. The secondary sneaker market is a great place to be if you have the right product.

Many individuals may not know about the sneaker culture and how big it truly is. It is quite massive in my experience. I have waited in lines for more than 8 hours before just to snag a pair of the latest retro Jordan shoe. Some people buy the shoes to wear, some buy them to sell, and some buy them to just admire them and out them on display in their homes. Whatever the purpose behind the reason for waiting in line for sneakers and dropping a few bucks, people just enjoy their sneakers. I have been a part of the reselling and collecting aspect of the sneaker culture and still have a few pairs stored away that have never seen concrete a day in their life. Over the past 7 years, I have run my own eBay business by buying and selling sneakers. With over $17,000 in total transactions, its easy to see the market for these pop culture items. I have shipped sneakers to many states in the U.S., but the coolest one to see was when a troop on an oversees base purchased a pair of shoes from me. To know that the sneaker culture is still thriving even when individuals are oversees fighting for our country is very interesting to me. I have also given away sneakers that I wore a couple times to 7th and 8th graders that I help coach in basketball and to see the looks on their faces when I hand them an almost brand-new pair of sneakers, its priceless and just makes me feel good inside. I enjoy giving to those who appreciate the sneaker culture, especially when if those who I give to aren’t able to spend money on things like a nice pair of basketball shoes to help them enjoy something they love doing. Another thing I find cool about all of this is the people you meet and the friends you make through something as simple as what we wear on our feet. When my friends and I camp out for a pair of sneakers overnight, there have been multiple occasions where we are hungry and instead of just going and picking up some snacks for ourselves, we order a few pizzas and share with everyone waiting in line with us. Sneakers are important to me because, throughout my life, they have helped me make connections with those that I might not have otherwise and because it is a way to express yourself and almost is a secret language for those who are aware of the sneaker culture.

I am a senior at North Dakota State University in Fargo, North Dakota. I am currently enrolled in a course called Critical Approaches to Pop Culture. In this class, we have been studying a book “Pop Culture Freaks” to broaden our knowledge of pop culture and what it entails. I consider myself to be informed about pop culture with all of the social media platforms I am currently using, as well as music I listen to, and TV shows and movies that I watch. One reason I like to think I know a good amount about pop culture is the fact that my friends and siblings, more times than not, talk to each other with quotes from movies or tv shows. This form of communication is almost like a secret language that we use because a lot of the time, others do not get what we are talking about or why something seems so funny to us but not to them.

Looking back at what and who influenced me to what I consume in the pop culture world now, I would say that my biggest influence would be my brother. I got my taste in music, video games, movies, etc. all from him. We also enjoy and are good at the same sports and love to watch the same sports teams as well. Another major influence that he got me started on my is sneaker addiction and the types of clothes I wear. Although his clothing style has changed a little bit through the years, I seem to stick to what I learned from him growing up. Along with my sneaker addiction, he got me into buying and reselling sneakers to make some money on the side of our jobs that we have. We both have our own eBay stores and have had thousands of dollars’ worth of transaction from limited sneakers and lightly worn sneakers. Although we both got in to sneakers at a younger age, he started to shy away and save more of his money while I kept my collection growing throughout the years. It helped that around my sophomore year of high school, my feet stopped growing so the days of having to get rid of shoes as I grew out of them were over!

I would say that my biggest part of pop culture would be movies and fashion. I follow multiple celebrities on my other social media platforms and always keep up to date on the latest sneaker releases. I love being able to inform my friends on shoes, what makes them special and when they were first introduced (as far as Jordan retro sneakers). Because of this, I would like to have my page focus on sneakers, and if I can, tie it in with movies and look at the sneakers that some characters wear in films that other people would not necessarily pick up on unless they had a background with the sneaker culture. Another thing in the sneaker culture is getting tours of celebrities’ collections. Some celebs have hundreds of pairs of very rare shoes that amaze many of us “sneakerheads”.