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Jay Jones wrote:

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I'm going to chime in on the sneaker “competition" issue and hopefully we can put it to bed and focus on more PE photos and discussion. The first two Sole Collector shows were held in San Francisco & Los Angeles. Before the first show, there was no talk of prizes/awards/custom shoes etc. for winners of different categories. There was plenty of positive buzz on the forums and everyone was excited to participate and attend! The Shoe Game was the overall "winner" in S.F. and he was given a pair of Vince Carter BB4 PE's. No big deal, nobody even knew he was given those PE's afterwards. From my understanding, the vibe was awesome up in San Francisco for that first show, just a bunch of sneaker lovers gathering to showcase their shoes. For the NikeTown L.A. show, that same positive energy was present. I participated in that show because I thought it would be fun and a great opportunity to meet other collectors and talk about kicks. I met some amazing people that night in L.A! Bkals flew out with his wife from Chicago, The Shoe Game drove down from Northern California, Dill flew out from Texas. Sneakerheads from all over Southern California gathered at in one location, which was incredible! Although I love my 1/1 custom laser Dunks from Beaverton, those shoes contributed to the SC competitions going downhill FAST!

From that point, it became a mad scramble to see how much money could be spend to put together the winning display from city to city. Guys who didn’t even care about PE’s were suddenly taking out 2^nd mortgages to buy rare PE’s in an attempt to win a custom 1/1 pair of sneakers. Feelings were getting hurt, things became very cutthroat and contentious. Basically, the train came off the tracks and these “competitions” became quite ugly. For that reason, I chose to skip the trip to Vegas to participate in the Final competition.

I still have some really special memories from that night at NikeTown L.A. in 2004. I met some incredible people, talked kicks all night, a die-hard sneakerhead couldn’t ask for more!

Just my 2 cents on the issue, now back to the PE thread!!

“Dependable Jay”