The Best Sneaker Trends of our Childhood

Kid stuff.

July 15, 2013

Image via Complex Original

Maybe there's something inherent with being a kid that means you can only appreciate it in hindsight. When you're young, you're too busy actually BEING young to consider that the good times won't last forever — you're as in the moment as any Buddhist monk. Maybe it's not as true today, as kids are treated more like miniature adults than actual kids, and are forced to make grown-up decisions long before they're grown.

But what does this have to do with sneakers? Well, for kids, sneakers are a lot different than just having to buy GS sizes. Or at least they used to be. Now your average 15-year-old may be sitting on 100 pairs and always looking to trade up, but it wasn't always that way. Check out The Best Sneaker Trends of our Childhood, and get ready to get nostalgic.

You made your own choices.

Sure, you had peers - and your classmates would happily make fun of you for wearing knockoff kicks - but there were no blogs to cloud your initial judgement and no social media to sway you. You bought what you (or your parents) liked and could afford, which honestly is the way it should be.

Drawing on your sneakers was cool.

It wasn't called "customizing," but the easiest way to refresh those old beaters was to draw all over them. Not that it made them look better, necessarily, but at least they looked different. Plus, it was better than paying attention in class.

Your parents imposed budgets.

Just think, you never had to worry about your sneaker spending causing you to miss your rent payment. Sure it may have been only $20 or $30 per school year but that may have been for the best.

People that made knock-offs actually had balls.

Fake shoes are everywhere nowadays, just look at all the fake Toro Bravo IVs that were sold early. It's hard to tell the difference for a lot of imitations but back in the day, brands had the balls to make a sneaker that was a straight rip off of a Jordan and still label it as their own. In fact some, like L.A. Gear, actualy did a damn good job at it.

Buying sneakers from sporting goods stores.

Sneaker boutiques are a relatively new phenomenon, a side effect of the retro/limited movement. Back in the day, sneakers were meant to be played in, and thus sold right alongside baseball gloves and soccer balls. Hit up a Dick's Sporting Goods and buy sneakers the same way your dad did.

Nothing sold out in a day and everything went on sale.

If you really liked a sneaker, you didn't need to camp out on release day. Heck, you didn't even know what a "release day" was. You saw it on the shelf, did the calculations in your head, and went back to your paper route or lawn mowing or whatever until you could afford them. They'd be there. And, if it took you long enough, they might even be on clearance.

"Reselling" wasn't a thing.

When you only got a new pair of sneakers once or twice a year, there was never a thought of selling them in order to buy something else. Why would you? After waiting so long and so patiently for that new pair, you probably wore them right out of the store.

Getting a new pair of sneakers was a special occasion.

As opposed to now, when it's just called "Saturday."

Role models were athletes, not rappers.

OK, so maybe not all of them were role models. But at least you were looking up to someone who was an athlete, not someone who told stories about a life they have no idea about.

Wearing your kicks.

Back i the day it didn't matter what sneakers you wore. You played basketball, skated, and chased girls in the same sneakers.

There weren't as many choices, on the shelf or in your closet.

Getting ready for school must be so difficult now. Not when we were kids. There were your old sneakers and your new sneakers, and that was pretty much it. You could decide which pair to wear by flipping a coin, not by rolling a couple 20-sided Dungeons & Dragons dice.