Trickle Down Nigganomics

I'm setting up my classroom. That means one thing: Summer's over. Not officially, we have 20-something days till it's officially Fall. But Labor Day is this Monday, and like I said, I'm setting up my classroom. That basically means fun in the sun is done. So, since I'm bored and waiting for my couch and coffee table (upgrades abound, son), I'ma put some of y'all onto some ish.

Dunks are dead. This is very old news to the true sneakerhead, (as is the fact that--like hip hop--a good Dunk never dies), but to the masses, Nike Dunks are still the ish. People come to me a lot and ask me about Dunks as though they're discovering something. I try my best to help them without shattering their dreams, but Nike pretty much exhausted the creative possibilities of the Dunk model a few years ago. [stunting] I've only bought one pair of Dunks in the last 2 years and I've worn em less than 5 times [/stunting]. I say this not for the stuntastic arrogance of it, but more so to let you know that the golden days are long gone. Even more so for the Dunk SB game. So stop buying dunks to stunt. You're failing. You look like everybody else.

For the newbie sneakerhead, some words of wisdom: buy what you like. That may mean you buy those composition notebook dunks cuz you like them. Whatever, to each their own. An arrogant old head such as myself will look down on u, but hey, who listens to Al Sharpton these days anyway? Secondly, do your research. Don't get had by fakes. College provided me with hour upon hour of unstructured time with which I was fortunate enough to procrastinate with a purpose. The result: I know too much about sneakers and not enough about English Lit. I can spot a fake in the dark from across the street, but can't remember most books I've read. (Think about how many books I actually read.) Lastly, know that the sneaker game is not what it used to be. There is no reason to let capitalism force you to pay 2 times the retail price of a pair of kicks unless they were only released in some random place like Turkmenistan in a limited run of 274 pairs. Otherwise, chill. If ebayreseller24 wants $200 for a shoe he paid $65 for, come up with a creative expletive and tell it to him. It's not that serious.

There are exceptions though. I mean, you can't put a pricetag on love and if the shoe is one of ur grails, then honestly, it's fair game. That's how I got my OG Flightposites. But that's when u gotta make sure u do ur research. You may really crave some strawberry jam (hmm), but that doesn't mean you're gonna pay $12 for a 8-oz jar. Just means u might get it at Whole Foods (pause) and not at Wal-mart. Ya dig?

So yeah, Dunks are Dead, but if you still like what they're making, by all means, cop till you drop. But if u wanna be stuntastic, stop. Especially if ur only buying SB Dunks cuz of the "SB". Those ppl are losers. Don't be a loser.

Really, I say give up on the sneaker game altogether, unless ur buying OG (original) joints from back in the day. Buy yourself some jeans. Nice ones. And by "nice" I mean "These ain't Diesel, nigga, these is Evisu" type nice. And don't be a jerk and get a whole bunch of ridiculousness on the backpocket to announce what you're wearing. Do you really want everyone staring at ur butt cheeks?

Here. I'll name drop; you google:

LVC
Sugar Cane
APC
PRPS
Samurai

This is by no means exhaustive and it's actually not as ballerific of a list as I guess I could make, but they make good stuff. And while ur at it, look up "selvage" so you can be a snob. (I'm being more genuine than sarcastic here). To conclude the ostentation (sidebar: pretensions of any sort annoy me, including this post), I just picked up a pair of APC's today. I have a pair of Canes and the LVC's were my first pair of raw selvage denim. They're fading nicely. If I win the lotto, I'll buy myself a pair of PRPS, but I since I don't play the lottery, I guess I'll have to steal them when I need street cred to get my rap career off the ground.

Oh look, the couch is here.