The Best Sneaker Trends of our Childhood

Image via Complex Original

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

Fuck it, you're a kid. You may as well act like one, right?