Thursday. The Kanye West/Wiz Khalifa/Amber Rose (lol) Twitter spat from yesterday is still fresh in everyone’s memory, but we’re not going to talk about that today, as much as I want to.
I’m feeling nostalgic on this Thursday, so I’m going to take it back to the good old days. The good old days where I was still fresh in the sneaker game, and a new pair of shoes was the be-all end-all. I’m talking about the most memorable sneakers I’ve ever owned, and why they meant so much to me.
The sneakers were the Reebok Answer VII’s, in the red, white and blue colorway AI rocked in the 2004 All-Star Game. I mowed a ton of lawns (which I always hated doing) to save enough money to get those, and was it ever lit when I did.
I was in 7th grade, and I really loved Allen Iverson. I loved the fearlessness, heart, and passion he played the game with. He would go at anyone, and you’d better believe he’d get the better of them too. AI made me love basketball, and I wanted nothing more than to play just like him because I’d never seen anything quite like him before. I had the Answers, the shooting sleeve and the headband. All I was missing was the cornrows (and the nasty crossover, ridiculous body control, and speed of a gazelle).
That was the shoe that sparked my love for sneakers as a whole. Combine a clean, high-quality shoe like that with a player like AI and it’s game over. Once you put a sneaker of that caliber on, you just can’t go back to anything else. And when they mean something to you, they’re more than just a simple pair of shoes. Matter of fact, I’ve still got those Answers. They’re far too small now, but I might have to throw them on for nostalgia’s sake anyway.
That’s what’s great about shoes. Certain sneakers can bring you back to various times in your life, both good and bad. The memories you make in those shoes are ones you’ll never forget, and you can re-live them over and over again when you pull those shoes out. Thank god for re-releases, right?
What shoes hold special meaning to you? Is there a specific pair that comes to mind over others? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter, and, as always, be sure to follow us on Instagram for all the fire sneaker pictures you can handle.
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