Since everyone is sharing their stories here's mine:
I got into sneaker culture through basketball. I've loved and played basketball my entire life (I had one of those Huffy hoops in my room starting when Iwas 2) and started playing organized ball when I was 8 (my parents were able to get me into my neighborhood basketball league a year early since my dadcoached). Growing up in NYC and playing ball I was always checking out what people had on their feet. Of course, I was also an MJ fan along with being a Dr. Jfan etc. I remember I had the redesigned Dr. J's in 5th grade I think. In Junior High (this was 1996-2000) I started to really get into Nike basketballkicks. I had the Garnett III's, Zoom GPs, Vis Zoom Uptempos, Air Team Max Zooms, FP1s and many others. In seventh grade I was fiending for the AJXIII's, but my parents wouldn't drop the cash. Finally, when the XIV's dropped I begged my parents to get them for me for my birthday resulting inmy first pair of Jordans. This was my eighth grade year and the time I started to "collect" (quotations due to the fact that I've always worn allof my kick and always will). I had also desperately wanted the retro IV's around that time, but didn't get them. I made up for it when in 2000 I got 3out of the 4 pairs of retro V's (the only pair I didn't get were the black/silvers).
Once I got to High School I became more conscious of the way I dressed and my tastes went from Nike basketball kicks to Jordans, Dunks and Forces (I'venever been a runner or cross trainer guy because my love for kicks developed through basketball). Around sophomore year if remember correctly I was checkingout Niketalk, but I could never figure out how to make an account. I stuck mostly with Jordans for the first couple years of High School and around Junior yearI started to customize a bunch of AF1s for myself along with buying some AF1s other than my usual white on whites (Obsidian/grey mids which I still have) andDunks (white/red highs, white/red/rapid highs, neutral grey dunk pro lows which I still have). This was 2002-2003. I remember reading about the first Supremesand also about how rude the guys at the store could be and shied away from checking it out (which is why I regrettably missed out on all of the 1st series andmost of the 2nd series). For a while I stuck to mainly Dunks, Vandals, Blazers and Delta Forces. I didn't use ebay that much and I didn't really knowwhere to get some of the nicer older AF1s (though I had alway wanted 3M Snakes, Cocoa snakes, Taiwans and some others). One of my semi-friends in High Schoolhad Taiwans which I alway drooled over.
Around the end of 2005-start of 2006 I decided to finally start picking up some of the AF1s I had always wanted. I also decided to focus more on older AF1s andDunks because those were the ones I had always wanted when I was in High School (from seeing collection pics on Niketalk, etc). I started going on a co.jp Dunkrampage (I LOVE the city attack series) along with finally getting 3M snakes and picking up Crimsons. Since then I've stuck to focusing on getting many ofthe kicks I had wanted when I was younger, but didn't have the money or know how to get (many of them being older Dunks and AF1s. Overall, I've been inlove with sneakers for at least 10 years.
EDIT Does anyone else remember seeing Big Boi from Outkast in furry pink shorts and Linens at the VMAs? That was one of the moments that made me fall in lovewith AF1s even more.
Also, is $490 shipped a very good deal for DS wheat lows and VNDS Linens?
