Back In The Days: Sneakers Take Us Down Memory Lane…

There are few things in our lives that can instantly transport us back in time.

Perhaps the greatest time machine for us is music. No matter what genre of music you listen to, country to hip hop, metal to pop, you can hear a song from your past and in your head be sent back to a time in your life. You know what year it was, where you were, what you were doing and how those songs made you feel. It might be the closest thing to taking us back outside of visibly looking at photos or video.

For me, sneakers also fall into that same category.

When you’re passionate about something, anything, and have been for the better part of your lifetime, the bits and pieces of that passion resonate in your memory for any number of reasons.

I was fortunate enough to have had my first part time job at Foot Locker which meant I had access to it all. I had access to any shoe that I wanted. I had access to all the information about the industry I wanted. So my history is ingrained with these memories.

I know what sneaker I wore for every single season of youth and high school basketball I played and when I see a white/natural Converse Star Tech that takes me to Cadet basketball. When I see a pair of cement Air Jordan 4s, I get sent back to my Jr year of high school hoops, more specifically, draining a baseline buzzer beater in them. When I see a pair of infrared Air Jordan 6s, I go back to my last home game, winning the Most Outstanding Senior Basketball Player award, and then the following week, my last ever game.

Whenever I see a pair of gray Air Trainer Max 91s, I go back to walk on try-outs at college. But then I immediately go back to November 1, 1991 at 4:07 PM in Brooks Gym at Millersville University. It was at that moment I dunked for the first time. I also go back to wearing my Air Jordan 8s when did my first “lean” dunk, and the 10s when I first dunked in game.

My Air Tech Challenge 1s take me out to California which were my vacation shoes that summer. Air Jordan 2s were on my feet when I asked Michael Jordan for an autograph in the bowels of The Spectrum, as he tapped me on the shoulder of my satin Air Jordan winged basketball jacket and said, “No time now, but go in and enjoy the game.”

I see a pair of purple and orange Air Tech Challenge 3s and remember spraining my ankle at college orientation playing on the asphalt courts at night. I remember the sweater I bought at Structure to match the pair of evergreen Air Trainer Huaraches I had in 1992.

I have so many other memories I can go back to. The shoes I was wearing at this concert or that concert. Or even what I was wearing when my family drove 2 hours out of their way returning from Myrtle Beach so we could stop at the “Flight 23 by Jordan” store in Matthews NC.

I grew up in an era where sneakers really became important, not just to the athletes but to the people who wore them. So much so, that they become a part of our memories just as much as the memories themselves.

That’s the relationship I’ll always have with this crazy hobby of mine. Not that I have a lot of pairs of sneakers, but that when I see them on the shelves as a retro, on the street or when I happen to check out storage and look around, I go back. The memories I have of my life are just as much in those sneakers as they are in the events.

We’d like to know what shoes you own and when they take you back to. What memories do they evoke?

Let us know in the comments and on social.

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