State of Sneakers: 10 Things That Need to Change in Sneakers Right Now

This is more up to the Feds whenever they get done with whatever else they're doing (what up, NSA!) but everyone can try and do their part. For starters, if a deal is too good to be true, it's probably not true. And maybe reporting individual auctions to eBay seems like a drop in the bucket, but what if everyone did one a day? If the sneaker community is truly a community, we'd all act together.

Highly sought-after, super-limited releases aren't going anywhere. And there will always be more people who want them than are able to get them. The trick is figuring out how to make sure they're distributed fairly. First-come, first-served seems to be the easiest method, but even that has glitches - especially when it comes to bots and online drops. There might not be a perfect method, but there have to be better ones than there are now.

Why ridicule someone just because they have different taste in sneakers? Some people like Air Jordan IIIs, some people like Jeremy Scott adidas, some people like Chuck Taylors. Some people like all three. Regardless, the more wide-ranging people's tastes are, the more sneakers there are to go around. Don't buy something just because everyone else did. That's not the way it should work.

Everybody loves a good joke and poking fun at people is always fun in moderation but we all know someone who takes things too far. Posting up false info, bad links, or taking shots at someone's Mom while hiding behind a computer makes you the lame, no matter how many times you justify it with "it's just Twitter."

The only person who can stop re-selling is you. If people didn't buy from re-sellers, there would be no re-sellers - there would just be people with massive credit card bills and soon-to-be-repossessed cars filled with full size runs of sneakers. Yes, it's hard to resist buying a pair of sneakers you've spent months getting hyped for, no matter what the price. But pay it now and you'll keep paying it. End the cycle.

Unfortunately the only people who can do this are the ones who are actually perpetrating the violence. And as long as demand - and the status a particular pair of sneakers convey - are what they are, there will always be a criminal element. This has been going on for decades, and it doesn't appear it's going to just stop. Although we wish it would.

No exceptions.

Face it, you weren't REALLY born into this. You had to learn, too. And rather than assuming all the new kids are just posers who don't know anything, why not help them out? Each one teach one.

For people that have dealt with or have loved ones that have gone through this horrific act of violence, this is one of the worst words to hear. It's not something to take lightly and the term is thrown around the sneaker world like a frisbee. An interesting discussion on Reddit, gives some more thoughts but in short, this sneaker thing of ours is pretty amazing but when we use words like this, the outside world will always view us as immature.

If Charles Barkley isn't going to do it, somebody has to step up. There's no reason it can't be you that makes a difference in shaping the future of sneakers.