sneaker "culture" in the 2000s has consisted of massively expanding the market for super limited edition sneakers and making none of them any easier to acquire

it's reached the point where the most super-hyped sneakers are as much of a scam as the lottery is. a vast majority of people have zero chance of buying what they are being made to want most.

It's a bunch of people who never "win" being convinced again and again that next time they'll have a chance when the reality is they absolutely won't.

And in the meantime the same lame "influencers" get seeded the product no one can buy to make the same lame social media posts. Over and over and over again.

So sneaker "culture" amounts to people lusting after a shoe they can't even buy driven in part by "influencers" who they don't even like.

Basically you have two choices. You can stay on the merry-go-round and accept the fact that the golden ring will stay forever tantalizingly out of reach, or you can get off the fucking ride.

And yes, I'm spoiled since I was one of those "influencers" (media division) for a long time and have enough sneakers that I don't have to care. But anyone with more than 10 pairs to their name is already set.

(It's also amazing how fast I got dropped off seeding lists the second I was no longer full-time at Complex, but I don't even want to get into that.)

And this isn't a sour grapes thing—I intentionally did not give a new address when I e-mailed people to say I was leaving, but it's funny that no one really asked for one either.

oh, and a late ending to this thread—I got into sneakers as a kid on some aspirational shit, and I didn't wind up getting a pair of Jordans until I could afford them myself.

the reason I wound up getting so into them was because I DID eventually get a pair—IIs in '88 when the IIIs dropped. then I got IVs when the Vs dropped, Vs when the VIs dropped, and so on.

they weren't always the exact shit I wanted, but they were shit that got me hyped. and it was just a matter of having the cash—which meant like $80 a pair maybe.

now? I can't imagine being a kid now who's interested in sneakers and everything that's hyped up is completely inaccessible at retail and like a G or more on the secondary market.

and make no mistake, Jordans back then were HYPED. those Spike and Mike commercials? I wanted to go to the mall RIGHT after I saw those commercials.

but the thing was, you COULD buy them. you could mow lawns for a couple months or whatever and eventually have the cash—and by then maybe they'd be on sale so you could cop a Best on Mars tee to go with.

now? you either buy ON release day, which likely isn't gonna happen, or pay 1000 percent over ticket, which also probably ain't gonna happen. how many kids who want to get into sneakers just get discouraged by the whole shit right off the bat?

yes, there are a lot of options now. in a way it's never been a better time to be into sneakers. but imagine trying to get into something where the shit that EVERYONE is talking about is the shit you can't buy.

imagine if music worked that way. imagine if the new J. Cole (I'm just saying, I don't even like J. Cole haha) sold out the first day and your only option was spending a grand on it from someone else. and it's what EVERYBODY'S talking about.

the whole shit is so broken. and I don't think it's getting fixed. it's just wild to think back in the early 2000s on NikeTalk people would help you out if they could buy something that you couldn't

when the denim Forbes SBs dropped, someone i knew off there offered to grab me a pair for what the shop was selling them at—$250. I passed because I thought $250 was crazy for some Dunks. lol.

and that's the wildest shit to me. resale prices aren't from real sneakerheads. we were willing to help each other out when we could. i got you if you got me and whatnot.

but sneakers started to get commodified, and then the people who trade in commodities got involved. resale became a way to make a living, and people who were willing to speculate didn't care what the box price was.

you know how sneaker resale prices are set? it's the most money the dumbest fucking person on earth is willing to pay for a pair of shoes. shit is insane.

I don't begrudge anyone making a living and I have definitely sold off some shit that I wasn't going to wear. But paying resale for anything is just insane to me. Honestly wish the whole shit would just go under.

oh, I wanted to drop one last thing on here, with another shoutout to @koolboblove: when the first question about your sneakers switched from "where'd you get those?" to "how'd you get those?" that was really the end of it.