Bryan Adams once said that the days that lasted the longest, never seemed to end, were actually the best ones of his life. I can say, in some regards, that’s true about one of the weirdest times in the sneakers. The early 2010s, for some, are the glory days of sneaker collecting. The height of Nike Basketball, every Air Jordan retro selling out, Nike Air Yeezys, full-length Air Maxes, and Elite socks. It was also the advent of Instagram and sneakerheads using the picture-sharing platform to take some of the most absurd photos known to mankind.
If you were into sneakers back then, you’ll remember the photos of a guy smoking out of an Air Jordan 6 “Cigar,” or pouring champagne on the Air Jordan 6 “Champagne.” A man wearing loaves of bread on his feet as a joke on “Bred” Air Jordans. “Oreo” Air Jordans pictured with a glass of milk. Eating cereal out of shoes. A million jokes with the “Grape” Air Jordan 5s.
All of these photos were super deep fried with Instagram’s preset filters, and they regularly appeared on lists across the sneaker blogosphere documenting the wildest things that sneakerheads do on the internet. Or even what sneakerheads shouldn’t do with their shoes.
It was divisive at the time, but all in good fun. Some people got a good laugh at them. Others just thought they were a bit corny. And they were. But they didn’t harm anyone or send sneaker culture, as we then knew it, into a freefall.
Old heads thought it was kids being absurd. Younger collectors wanted to see how crazy their photos could get, and how many followers they could rack up in the early days of Instagram. If your photo was posted on a sneaker blog then, it was guaranteed to grow your following.
What started off as something witty and in the spirit of collectors having fun slowly turned into just utter lameness. That’s when sneaker people online discovered puddles. It was suddenly a competition to see how expensive of a shoe someone could pretend to ruin by stomping in a tiny body of water.
I remember writing a story about the plague of overdone sneaker social media photos back then. And people got so mad at me. You know what? Frick ‘em. It was lame and, I’m glad we haven’t seen it return. Wear your shoes, do what you want with them, but stop seeking attention. That was truly my issue with it—not people getting their shoes dirty. I’ve had people pour more beer on my sneakers than most people have drunk.
We had John Geiger jump into a swimming pool holding a pair of Red Octobers. Then we had sneaker cleaning bands dropping a pair of Eminem’s Air Jordans in a vat of chocolate. Anything for engagement, that’s the way it goes on the internet.
While I look back at this era and see good and bad, part of it makes me smile. It was a simpler time. Were people shameless and self-promoting? Sure. But that’s the world we live in. That’s internet culture. The most over-the-top thing is what’s going to get the most attention and make you win the day.
Sneaker photos have gotten way more refined these days. Nearly everyone with a phone can take a halfway alright photo of their shoes. And if they’re creative, there’s no humor in it. It’s more so artistic takes by the likes of Tyler Mansour, Riblets, or AD Sneaks. Oddly enough, leaked photos back then and now were all shot on a potato. That hasn’t changed at all.
But why part of me misses this time in sneakers is because you go on Twitter these days and most of the conversation around footwear is half-truths or baseless conspiracies. Complaining about not getting a shoe. Or saying there’s a deepstate plot behind everything you don’t like in the sneaker industry. Spoiler alert: there isn’t.
Do I think we should all go back to eating baklava out of Action Bronson’s sneakers or dressing up like the Loch Ness Monster wearing End Clothing’s Sauconys that are inspired by the aquatic beast? That might be fun, actually. But we don’t need to fully revert to the past. We can also look back on it, through a different lens these days, fondly. You, surely, don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.