The Paradox of Nike *sigh*

What Price Glory?
As the clock strikes past another hour, I realize that I am still sitting in front of the computer wondering what I can write about. Then I finally understand what I could do. After looking through a fellow classmate's blog entry, it occurred to me that within the compact challenge there lies a paradox. The so-called paradox stems from me being a sneakhead of the worst kind. This lifestyle wreaks of being overly excessive but an essential part is also buying used. Rare shoes in this culture are a status symbol. According to "Just Doing It: A Visual Ethnographic Study of Spectacular Consumption Behavior at Nike Town", "a manager, stated, "'I've never really understood it, but it fascinates the kids!'"(364). The possession of great rarity is a representation of the extraordinary means the buyer took to get it. So there in lies the paradox. The only way to buy the older more respected shoes is to buy them used at a good condition. And on the other hand, the purchase of these shoes are so overpriced that the only green part about them is the money being exchanged. So when it comes to the shoe game, where does one find a happy median?

First off, it's important to note that the most desired pairs of shoes are the ones you can't get anymore. This runs counter to Kawamura's ideas in Fashion-ology. The author states that fashion has to be up to date (21). But what is seen here is the opposite. Because the older the shoe means the longer you have been in the game. That's the status symbol. A pair of rare shoes from a couple years ago versus a pair of shoes that just released is like True Religions to Levi's. Yeah, like that.

So as for the compact challenge, I'll keep you updated. It seems to me there is no median but perhaps I haven't looked hard enough.

Cyril Torado #1

Here's a video of DJ AM and when you watch it, try to see what I'm talking about when it comes to older things being what's in and how much this culture wreaks of being over excessive.