I have family and friends who are educators, and I can tell you that everything is significantly different now compared to before. Bullying has become more intense and extends beyond the school grounds with the influence of social media and online gaming. Instead of empowering teachers, parents often devalue them and even resort to threats of physical harm if their child is disciplined. Teachers find themselves constrained, whether due to political reasons or other factors. When people reminisce about "back in my days," they often overlook the vast amount of information and confusion that exists today. They didn't have access to the same sexually explicit materials, discussions, or classes. When schools reached out to parents back then, not only were teachers empowered to discipline students, but parents would often reinforce that discipline at home.
Regarding sneakers, my primary reason for buying my son what I like is nostalgia, I won't deny it. Many of the shoes he wears are ones I wished I had when I was younger but couldn't afford. Second, I want to shield him from bullying, and I see this as one way to do it. Third, it teaches him responsibility—taking care of his shoes, keeping them clean, and so forth. Lastly, it instills humility; while I encourage him to stand up for himself and not allow his shoes to be labeled as replicas, I also remind him to be considerate of others' financial situations.
He hasn't cared much about the kicks until recently, and even now, he'd be content with whatever I choose for him to wear. That being said, let's return to the culture... He often tells me about how people call each other out for wearing replicas, but they justify it by saying, "Who wants to pay all that money?" or "This influencer said it's okay," or "I couldn't get the authentic ones at launch." Or they claim their authentic pairs are for resale... The unfortunate reality is that the sneaker culture exploded, and social media normalized behaviors that would have once been considered taboo.
. The youth might be the driving force behind what the market is now but we built the foundation that allowed them to do what they are doing. We did this. We decided that exclusivity and rarity was good. We established that sneakers are cool and can make you cool (they can't, a cornball is still a cornball even if he/she has on Reimagined 4s). We keep buying the shoes. We started the gate keeping. And of course "we" isn't all of us. The Internet and resell platforms like StockX made it to so that you didn't need connections or knowledge to have access to the latest sneaker. All you need is the internet and a willingness to spend whatever it takes to get the latest hype shoe (or parents that will do that for you). There are almost zero barriers to entry these days. So we built this market/culture up and now anybody can come in and take advantage of it (see Trumps kicks). So if we tell the kids Crocs aren't it and they need to wear Js or Nikes then we are adding to the fire even if unintentionally.
These kids wouldn’t know anything about that. We definitely hold the hobby dear to our heart because it was organic not hype.
. Shoe on the right is LN3 factory, I been wearing them almost everyday since release and shoe on the left is LNM factory. Noticed the difference soon as I took them out the box but It is what it is. Most def would have liked my 2nd pair to have that slimmer toe box but I’m happy and blessed to even have a 2nd pair to keep on ice….
