Less than an hour ago, I was in the
middle of the Poughkeepsie Galleria Finish Line, determined to pay the rumored
$340.20 for the new LeBron "Kang" James "LeBron X" sneakers. My decision to pay
$50.20 more for a pair of sneakers than the minimum wage employee in Mississippi
makes in a week wasn't at all impulsive. The full-time Kang-haters on network
TV, the hating members of my family and hate-ish friends on Facebook, made my
decision to buy the Kangs less of a trek in excess and more of a quest fueled by
the hate that hate(rs) produced.
"These the LeBron X's?" I asked the tiny saleswoman helping me at Finish Line, and held up a $150.00 blood-red size 13 with a black swoosh and a glowing green bottom.
I learned that the X's hadn't come out yet, that I was holding a special Liverpool edition IX. "The X's won't be nearly as expensive as people think," the saleswoman told me. "The most expensive pair will probably be around $290."
She looked down at my ashy ankles and my dusty green suede Pumas. "You're buying these IXs for someone else, huh?"
"Yep," I lied and paid $169.75 for the shoes and two pairs of green and black shoelaces. "My little cousin loves him some Bron-Bron.But to make your coachshoes shopping experience with us more amazing,Find guccishoes and dsquared shoes men from a vast selection of Clothing," I fake laughed and walked out of Finish Line having paid $170.45 less than I hoped to.
By the time I made it to the parking lot of the Galleria, I was bubbling in that convenient guilt. I had made a poor decision. I figured that paying $162.75 for sneakers that probably cost less than $15.67 to make in China should be shameful. I also wondered what special closet in hell awaited those of us who made it possible for Nike to make more of its popular "Lazy But Talented" T-shirts. As I drove into the parking lot of my building, I actually pondered organizing a boycott of overpriced Nikes on Facebook called "Living Beyond the Swoosh."
But see,We Specialize In Selling royaloak, I'm home now and the Kangs are so much more beautiful under the soft light of my apartment than they were at Finish Line. Plus the soles literally smell like bleeding birch trees. When I put the shoes on my cracked feet,A Professional louboutinshoe Shopping Center providing. not only do I feel like a certified member of the Kangdom; I feel, even just for a second, like I'm capable of occupying that space beyond greatness, too.
Instead of organizing a boycott of Nike, I decide to take a picture or video of myself rocking the red Nike Liverpool IXs, baggy black shorts and a black hoodie. I'm determined to place the photo or video on Facebook with a caption that reads, "I'ma let all y'all bitter Kang-haters finish, but the LeBron 'Kang' James shoe, like LeBron 'Kang' James, might be the greatest of all time. All time!"
I'm rehearsing what I'm going to write to the haters on Facebook. I convince myself that it doesn't make any sense to pinpoint the ways that LeBron James or his Nikes might be complicit in urban decay when the net worth of black families in the U.S. is only some $5,000. If we really wanted to find ways to stop young brothers from hitting other young brothers upside the head for Jordans and LeBrons, we would find a way increase black familial net worth to far more than 15 pairs of LeBron X's. Plus, when the best players in the world design and brand $100, $200 and $300 shoes, why wouldn't a kid who comes from a similarly maligned place, who listens to similarly maligned music and speaks a similarly maligned language, want to literally walk in those similarly maligned shoes?
"Don't hate the player," I say for the first time in my life, looking down at my blood-red LeBron "Kang" James sneakers. "Hate the game."
"These the LeBron X's?" I asked the tiny saleswoman helping me at Finish Line, and held up a $150.00 blood-red size 13 with a black swoosh and a glowing green bottom.
I learned that the X's hadn't come out yet, that I was holding a special Liverpool edition IX. "The X's won't be nearly as expensive as people think," the saleswoman told me. "The most expensive pair will probably be around $290."
She looked down at my ashy ankles and my dusty green suede Pumas. "You're buying these IXs for someone else, huh?"
"Yep," I lied and paid $169.75 for the shoes and two pairs of green and black shoelaces. "My little cousin loves him some Bron-Bron.But to make your coachshoes shopping experience with us more amazing,Find guccishoes and dsquared shoes men from a vast selection of Clothing," I fake laughed and walked out of Finish Line having paid $170.45 less than I hoped to.
By the time I made it to the parking lot of the Galleria, I was bubbling in that convenient guilt. I had made a poor decision. I figured that paying $162.75 for sneakers that probably cost less than $15.67 to make in China should be shameful. I also wondered what special closet in hell awaited those of us who made it possible for Nike to make more of its popular "Lazy But Talented" T-shirts. As I drove into the parking lot of my building, I actually pondered organizing a boycott of overpriced Nikes on Facebook called "Living Beyond the Swoosh."
But see,We Specialize In Selling royaloak, I'm home now and the Kangs are so much more beautiful under the soft light of my apartment than they were at Finish Line. Plus the soles literally smell like bleeding birch trees. When I put the shoes on my cracked feet,A Professional louboutinshoe Shopping Center providing. not only do I feel like a certified member of the Kangdom; I feel, even just for a second, like I'm capable of occupying that space beyond greatness, too.
Instead of organizing a boycott of Nike, I decide to take a picture or video of myself rocking the red Nike Liverpool IXs, baggy black shorts and a black hoodie. I'm determined to place the photo or video on Facebook with a caption that reads, "I'ma let all y'all bitter Kang-haters finish, but the LeBron 'Kang' James shoe, like LeBron 'Kang' James, might be the greatest of all time. All time!"
I'm rehearsing what I'm going to write to the haters on Facebook. I convince myself that it doesn't make any sense to pinpoint the ways that LeBron James or his Nikes might be complicit in urban decay when the net worth of black families in the U.S. is only some $5,000. If we really wanted to find ways to stop young brothers from hitting other young brothers upside the head for Jordans and LeBrons, we would find a way increase black familial net worth to far more than 15 pairs of LeBron X's. Plus, when the best players in the world design and brand $100, $200 and $300 shoes, why wouldn't a kid who comes from a similarly maligned place, who listens to similarly maligned music and speaks a similarly maligned language, want to literally walk in those similarly maligned shoes?
"Don't hate the player," I say for the first time in my life, looking down at my blood-red LeBron "Kang" James sneakers. "Hate the game."
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