Sneakerheads united: A crash course on kicks culture

The term “rubber shoes” is a misnomer that seems exclusively used and understood in the Philippines. 

 

Any sneakerhead, or the more politically correct term “sneaker connoisseur,” will tell you that the only part of most sneakers that is made of rubber is the sole. For many, like myself, this has caused some confusion as to how sneakers and rubber shoes differ at all (meaning, they don’t).   

I also suspect that years of being told to “wear maong and rubber shoes” has caused me to subconsciously associate said shoes with the uncoolness of field trip attire and have thus put sneakers in a bad light for me. 

 

A crash course on sneaker culture

 

Personally, I’ve always been very confused about sneakers. I could never quite figure out how “dunks” (those fat, high-topped sneakers) and Chucks could both qualify as basketball shoes, or what spikes were for—perhaps because I have no athletic skills whatsoever and so never needed athletic shoes? 

 

Seeing how much time and money people spend shopping, browsing, or hunting for their favorite sneakers or how these shoes could merit the existence of entire magazines has also been very perplexing. I mean, why not the same craze for loafers or boots? 

 

Going to Sole Slam Manila last April meant entering very unfamiliar territory. You can imagine the kind of research I had to do just to keep up. The week before the event, I found myself “liking” all the sneaker-related Facebook pages I could find in hopes that I would develop a taste for their content. I frantically browsed websites, shops and blogs (even trying to sign up for some sneaker communities), watched videos and documentaries and constantly troubled my moderately sneaker-enthusiastic boyfriend with such questions as “what are those shoes and why are they called 95’s?” 

 

Although I can now recognize a pair of Jordan 4’s (and know that they are named such because they were the fourth of many pairs worn by Michael Jordan), I never truly understood the sneaker fandom until I encountered its surprisingly diverse population at Sole Slam.

 

Connoisseurs, kicks enthusiasts, and “sneakerheads”

As an outsider, I used to think that sneakers are sneakers are sneakers, period. While anyone who knows anything about them and goes out of their way to get a pair was called a “sneakerhead”, what I discovered when I got to take a peek inside the scene was that there are subtle distinctions between kicks enthusiasts, sneaker connoisseurs and the slightly derogatory “sneakerhead.”

 

"The newbies are happy to be called sneakerheads,” said Ambo, a college student currently working as one of the resellers at Sneaker Basics. He explains that although the term is the easiest way to describe people who love sneakers, it can be a bit offensive. 

 

“Yun yung mga hardcore. Maraming alam, maraming collections. . .” said another college student at the convention. Clad in a pair of black GMP 6s (Air Jordan 6 – “Gold Medal” Pack), he explained that he is not a sneakerhead and he just loves his shoes. 

 

This particular sneaker enthusiast has six carefully selected pairs in his collection, each chosen for their history, how they were created and, of course, their design. He buys most of his shoes locally, most of the time having to line up from 8AM to 7PM just to get inside the store. 

 

“Madami kang pwedeng gawin sa kanya. . .pwede mo siyang i-sell, ibenta ng twice the price or ipatong, so para siyang business,” he said when I asked what makes it so worth the effort. And although he hasn’t sold any of his shoes yet, for the meantime, he is happy. 

 

Many others at the convention said the same about their collections, explaining that they did not consider themselves sneakerheads, although they were willing to spend quite a sum (the sneakers they had on ranged from P8,000 to over P20,000) for a single pair of shoes. 

 

In response to the question “are you a sneakerhead?” one man replied, "No. . .I just love shoes. I also have loafers."

 

The Pinoy sneaker community

 

Outside the venue, all sorts of people were lined up for tickets—from big groups of basketball fans in rare, outrageous kicks, to couples in matching dunks, to whole families sporting what might’ve been a sampler of the Jordan collection, and even a toddler in Kobe 5’s. 

 

I asked them why they liked sneakers, and they all said something about the colors, being unique, the comfort factor, the hype, or all of the above.

 

One high school student admitted to an addiction to rare items, saying "madaming kapareho eh. . .so parang naghahanap ka talaga ng walang kapareho." 

 

When he buys shoes, he looks for “trademarks” like glow-in-the-dark pairs, or unusual materials. Other collectors I met were instead loyal to a certain series or brand, like Kobes (sneakers worn by Kobe Bryant) or Jordans. 

 

One man collected variations (in colors and materials) of the Jordan 1 design because he liked it so much. 

 

Consider kicks a very exclusive lifestyle 

 

According to Ambo of Sneaker Basics, it’s all about the hype. "When a lot of people learn that a certain pair of shoes is limited to, like, a thousand pairs for the whole world. . .a lot of people tend to like it more, even if it's ugly," he said, describing the consumer behavior of sneaker lovers.  

 

His business, Sneaker Basics is a reseller of rare sneakers that are not available in the Philippines. Like Sole Slam, they opened in 2011, and have since been regulars at the local convention. Ambo opened the online business together with two of his neighbors out of a desire to buy more shoes without using their allowance.   

"We earn so we can buy more sneakers,” he confessed. “It's like hunger... If you're hungry for something, but you can't afford it, once you get the money, you spend and spend, you can't stop," said Ambo. 

 

With the money he has earned from re-selling, he has so far been able to buy twenty pairs for his collection, each worth thousands of pesos. Naturally, he has gotten a lot of negative reactions from outsiders who don’t understand the craze. 

 

Ambo explained that "If you're in the community, parang sasabihin mo, 'I bet you love that sneaker,' You don't say 'oh damn, why did you buy that?'"

 

Similarly, Antonio Aguirre Jr., the man behind Sole Slam Manila, explained that collecting sneakers is his hobby, his passion and simply something he loves to do. "I can't understand why women have 25 bags, but they only use just one… To each his own," he says.

 

Antonio attributes his love of sneakers to his mother, who had “a ton of sneakers” lining the corridor in their house. Growing up, he would get 1-2 pairs a year, “and now I have like 1, 2 pairs of shoes a day," he said. 

 

For him, it’s about the comfort, the history, and the design of the shoes. He noted that he particularly likes the elephant print on one of his favorite pairs, the Jordan 3s, and goes on to explain that these were the first shoes Michael Jordan wore when he made a slam dunk. Antonio himself is a basketball player. He plays three to four times a week and wears a new pair every time, whether it’s for practice or an actual game.

 

"Sometimes they buy basketball shoes, but they've never touched an actual basketball. They just like the fashion of it,” said Antonio, as he described the nature of sneaker consumers. Some do look into the history and the colors, while others are really just caught up in the hype. “Social media is big. People post something online, like a celebrity, and boom! Everyone wants a piece of it. It's crazy."

 

Sole Slam Manila is indeed a testament to just how crazy it can get, with over 5,000 people dropping by daily to buy, sell, trade or simply look at sneakers. 

 

"It's big, it's growing. . .not just males, but also female collectors. . .gay and lesbians collect sneakers too. . .the fun part about it is you get to meet new friends. . ." says Antonio.

 

In my attempts to really understand why a single pair of sneakers should become so coveted, I asked all these people I met what their favorite pair was and why they loved it.

 

Most of the time I’d get a nervous shrug, a silly smile or a parade of acronyms and basketball references, but I think what one guy said sums it up pretty well—"because they're beautiful shoes." – KDM, GMA News