What's New ?

Follow Us

Nov 19, 2009

MEMOIRS OF "3M WALLACE" PART 1

Our good friend Jon Wallace aka "3M WALLACE" is not just your regular traffic officer, hes a huge comic book collector who also loves shoes, and he has a passion for writing..

So he'll be taking his free time, writing up short articles surrounding the shoe game, so stay tune every 2 weeks!

When I was asked to start a blog about sneakers, I really didn’t know what to say. If you’re reading this then you probably have a definite interest in sneakers and sneaker culture. Of course I’m a sneaker head as well with a collection of over 100 kicks. I’m a fan of Air Force 1s and Air Jordans, but I also have several Air Max 1s and 90s with a definite affinity for 3M reflective material. I’m also a size 13 so I understand what it’s like not to be able to find that sick kick in my size and have to squeeze my foot into a 12 (even though my ½ Cents are pretty comfortable in a 12 after wearing them a few times). A lot of cats like to hate on sneaker re-sellers or people who buy kicks just to sale them at a profit. I’m not one of those people. Everyone has a hustle and some people re-sale kicks. I’m not a big re-seller myself as a matter of fact I usually only buy kicks I think are hot. Now I’ve been collecting off and on for over 15 years (which is kind of telling my age). My 2nd job in life was at a now defunct sneaker chain where I would sale the hottest kicks. Before then I would wear kicks but they weren’t exactly “that heat”. I was a senior in High School and I had a 40% discount at my store as well as Foot Locker and Champs (I was actually supposed to only get 20% off but I would always say that I was the Asst. Manager [which wasn’t a complete lie because at one point there was only 2 people working there]). I wasn’t the most popular kid in school but I noticed how kids would look if I had on some crispy Jordans or Air Maxes. People were always coming up to me saying “where did you get those” or “could you hook me up will those new Nikes”. I started to appreciate certain kicks over others. I love certain Jordans particularly the 3s, 4s, and 5s. I have at least 1 pair of each Jordan from 1 to 13 (hey Jordan brand, put the Nike Air back on the kicks). Other things about me that you might find interesting, I’m a comic book fiend with probably over 4000 comic books (I love X-Men and Batman) as well as a Hip Hop head and I may talk about those things or politics every now and then.

Anyway enough about me lets talk about sneakers. We are all waiting for the Space Jam Jordan 11 to be released the day before Christmas, but before that cats are looking forward to the Flu Game 12s (due in November) and the Rising Sun 12s (which are out now so run to your local sneaker spot).




If you noticed, besides the Air Yeezys earlier this year and the upcoming Space Jams, there hasn’t been too many camp outs this year. Of course the economy is part of it (if you don’t have the money then you can’t buy the kicks) but I also think that a lot of people were just in it for a fad. 2 years ago everyone wanted to have the new Air Force 1s (and Nike putting out so many pairs didn’t help either) like the Huf-quakes or the ill SB Dunks like the Dooms. Turtle on Entourage (great show by the way) was standing in line for exclusive Forces and every other celebrity (or wannabe) was trying to have that exclusive heat. Which also made it harder on real sneaker heads. Now that the fad-chasers have moved on to the next thing (skinny jeans maybe?) it seems a little easier to get the kicks we want. Unfortunately it also seemed that there was just less heat coming out. Example I’m a big Air Force 1 cat but I think I only copped 1 pair of AF1s this year (the new black all 3M joints ) when last year and the year before I copped about 13 pairs.

After the last countdown pack, I only copped 1 pair of Jordans so far (the Black & Blue 12s) and I don’t see myself getting any more Jordans besides the Space Jams and the Black/Infra-red 6s which come out early 2010. I think over all I may have copped maybe 8 or 9 pairs this year when in years before I would have easily copped double or triple that. Why? I don’t know but I think it could just simply be less heat. Less shoes that have cats drooling and more kicks that have cats yawning (like the ba-zillion Air Jordan 1s that came out this year). My solution, I once again don’t know but I will welcome your comments. Anyway I’m out but before I leave (and I think I will do this for each article) I will give my humble opinion on a shoe I would like to see retro-ed/re-released. This one is the Adidas Streetball 2. A sleek basketball shoe made for outdoor balling that was really comfortable and looked sick.

Next article will be the only 2 things I need in life, SHOES AND HUNNIES.

0 comments:

Post a Comment