Your sneakers or your life

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STORY

25 years after that historic cover, sneaker culture and the country as a whole have seen dramatic change and upheaval. And yet, as is abundantly clear from today’s. headlines, much that we thought would change has not; much that we want to change will not for a long time yet.

The true story, then and now, is not one of statistics, but of optics: class, race, capitalism, and media constituencies—the facets we see in the lives of others, and the multitudes that says about ourselves.

What is clear, for starters, is that robbing people for sneakers was, and still is, not a media fabrication. In addition to the numerous accounts in Rick Telander’s story, from the outskirts of D.C. to downtown Chicago, many who participated in sneaker culture at the time remember similar incidents. But far from the nationwide psychosis diagnosed by Sports Illustrated, others saw it as something altogether more quotidian, a fact of life.

“On every corner in the ’80s, there’d be what we called the wolves, the local yokels,” says Udi Avshalom, who owned the chain of Training Camp shoe stores at the time.

“Hanging out, looking at girls’ asses, enjoying the new [hot rap song]. And if a kid walks out the store with a pair of [Adidas] shell toes, or suede Pumas, all six next turn and look, and they’re like, “oh, shit, green suedes?” And the next thing that happens: boop. Lights out. Kid wakes up, lump on his head, no shoes, no shopping bag, no chain.” But there was some solace:

“A KID WHO’S GONNA JACK YOU FOR YOUR SHIT,” HE SAYS, “HE’S NOT A PHILOSOPHER OR DOCTOR IN JACKING SHIT. IF HE CAN TAKE THAT MONEY FROM YOU WITHOUT KILLING YOU, HE’LL DO IT.”