The sneaker bug can bite at any time and for me it began EARLY. As a kid my mother had to drag me out of sneaker stores as I stared in awe at all the heat on the wall. Any time we hit up the malls or local flea markets my first destination was the sneaker spot and everywhere I went my eyes were fixated on peoples feet to see what kicks they had on. When I turned 16 in 1997 and landed my first job, trips to all the sneaker spots followed. It was also during this time that my family first signed up for an AOL account. When I wasn’t being kicked off line by an incoming phone call (no call waiting) I was searching the net for any sneaker photo’s I could find. One of the first spots I can recall for hard to find Nike sneakers and early peaks at shoes that were scheduled to drop was a site named Shoetrends.com (today known as deadstockshoes.com). They had a bunch of OG Jordan’s for sale from the columbia blue XI’s to the grape teal V’s and everything was fresh.
It was also the first site that I spotted what would be the 99 Nike Air Jordan IV retro and the 2000 Jordan V retro
as well as a ton of non Jordan heat. Keep in mind folks, this was before Niketalk and Sole Collector. Prices were reasonable and they had a dope selection of kicks.
While visits to sneaker sites were not as often as they are now, shoe trends was always a choice of destination back in the late 90’s. Looking at the stills below gives me warm fuzzies of when I would print the pages off the computer and bring them in to school to talk kicks with the fellas (and a few ladies). No cell phones, no stressed out worry about not being able to snag the pair I wanted, no long lines, no insane hype, nope non of that. Take a trip back to the late 90’s below and try not to get teary eye’d 😉 P.S. Take a trip over to GaryWarnett’s blog for even more old stills.
