Back at my parents’ house in Long Island, there’s a book sitting on the desk in what used to be my bedroom. It’s called “The Habit Change Workbook,” and while it’s a bit battered and rumpled from kicking around for nearly a decade, I’ve yet to actually do any of the exercises proscribed in it. This is because breaking habits—even the habit of not breaking habits—is hard. The really sneaky thing about some habits is you’re not even aware they ARE habits. They’re just things you do, never questioning why.
sneaker buying is nothing more than a one-man pyramid scheme.
Take buying new sneakers. What used to be a once-a-year thing (maybe twice) for most people back in the ‘80s and ‘90s has become a weekly occurrence, as one release leads directly to the next. Copping that new pair has gone from being a means to an end (looking fresher than the next kid) to being the end in and of itself. In a sense, buying sneakers is the new owning sneakers. Get whatever the new pair is, Instagram them to date stamp it, then move on to the next one.
Maybe sell last week’s pair to fund next week’s. For some, sneaker buying is nothing more than a one-man pyramid scheme, an Instagram feed full of pairs that were, for all intents and purposes, rented instead of bought.
1.
What I’m proposing is an end to all of this. Maybe not a permanent one, but a sneaker holiday of sorts. This used to be a built-in thing, as releases slowed down at certain times of the year, either right after the holidays or in the dog days of summer in between the end of the NBA Finals and the start of back to school shopping in August.
But now it seems like even those dead periods have been filled in. There is likely a fear that, if someone stops buying this weekend, they might not buy next weekend either. Miss one pair and it becomes less imperative to get the next one, and the next one, and the next one.
If these words seem somewhat familiar it’s because I’ve proposed this exact same thing before. This time, though, I’d like to solidify it a bit with an actual date. What I’m proposing is that this next weekend—not the one starting today, but the weekend of April 5th, Easter weekend—be a vacation from sneaker buying. And by that I mean take the ENTIRE weekend off. No looking at eBay, no looking at sneaker release date posts to see what’s dropping, no calendar alerts, no wandering past the local shop just to see what’s out. Clear your mind. Take one weekend out of 52 to do—whatever. Something else. Maybe go through pairs you’ve already bought but never wore, maybe even give a pair of those away. See how it feels.
Don’t worry, you won’t break the habit in a single weekend. It takes longer (in some cases a lot longer) than that. Chances are you’ll be right back at it by the weekend of the 12th. But maybe you won’t. And honestly, would that be so bad?
