So, may I ask, in light of all the recent comments about having so many pairs and kinda feeling a slave to it all....What is the purpose for you guys for buying the shoes in he first place?? I only ask as I've now purchased 3 pairs of VMs (Navy, TB and Oreo). I probably see myself buying a couple more colourways and that is it. Afer that, I'll be happy to just wear and enjoy them till they fall apart. For you guys that have 30+ pairs of sneakers, is it just purely to collect, like a stamp collection that will appreciate in value or do you buy to wear? There are some CW of VMs that I don't like, so I don't buy them cos I wouldn't wear them. There's no judgment here, just kinda want to know what's the driving motivator.....
So from everything from late 2003 to late 2015 when I got into shoes, the influence/motivator was because it was ONLY the product and athlete's names on it. From late 2015 to now, I went beyond the mentality of just the product, and embedded the culture of sport, ESPECIALLY running and how the brand works for me. I'll keep everything short about how it manifested throughout the years.
It started when my friend pointed out that my second ever pair of Nikes were the "T.O's (Terrell Owens) and Mike Vicks "during middle school, which was the Air Max Specialist promoted in a Nike Gridiron [now Nike US Football] commercial. That got me glued onto signature shoes, but not Jordans at all. Everyone had Jordans, but I did not nor was I interested and believe it or not, but from that day back in late 2003 to present day, I've never owned a pair of Jordans. It went from Vicks to LeBrons (because of the dog fighting scandal), Kobes, KDs, and Hyperdunks (endorsed by several athletes). From 2008-2012, I was a freaking hypebeast. I'll admit it; I fell for a lot of hyped items, and played catch-up with everyone else collecting the same thing. In 2011, I worked at Nike for a bit and got into running shoes and sportswear, because they pushed the running culture, and that was the first time I stood in running shoes for 8 hrs and not have my feet tired. Again, didn't change anything about my mindset; I was still the same. From 2013 - late 2015, it was a lot more toned down, but again, all about the product.
When late 2015 arrived, I ended up being frustrated from my old job at that time, because the local company I was working at was crumbling and the founder that I worked closely with was an absolute pain to work with. She took a personal shot at me accusing me of lying about my hours. I hated that company for the longest time, but in order for me to cope with my anger, I started running. A few months later, I ran with Nike Run Club, and from there, my whole perspective of the brand changed. It wasn't about just what Nike has to offer in terms of products, but it was the path to understanding how Nike and running syncopates with each other, especially with Nike's history of it, and how/why they build their shoes, so this is beyond the storytelling of how a product was made. I looked at their running shoes to see how maintains their culture they've created for the future. March 2017: enter the VaporMax.
Like I've mentioned before, at the time I was running, I was running in the Pegasus 31s first before getting into the Pegasus 32s, and the Vomeros along with other running shoes such as the Zoom All Out Flyknits and LunarEpics (which didn't work out for me). This also applies to the recent testing of the Zoom Flys, and my now-growing interest of the Vaporfly 4%. I wanted to see not just how the product worked, but how much it would benefit me to keep my personal goals going. The VaporMax was the newest and most surprising edition (as mentioned in my review on page 87 or 88 of this thread, but it could be somewhere else in here now), and I fell in love with the shoe so much that I fell back into the college phase of playing catch-up. Then as mentioned before, I took a trip, got out after a 3-4 month shopping spree, and just dropped the majority of my stuff since I cleared my mind.
So in a way, there was a saving impact for me at the same time I was looking beyond the product. Imagine if your boss tries to accuse you of something on a professional level when it sounded deeply personal. I can only imagine how bad it'd be for me right now if I didn't resort to running. The moment you look at a brand differently to see how they benefit your life-long goals whether to stay active, relieve stress, and/or become better somehow some way, it becomes a completely different story, especially when they host a Nike Run Club event every week for you to participate. Well... used to, at least, but they left a long-lasting impression for me.
