Sneaker Attack

Just a normal day at NUHS with the usual hustle and bustle of students passing in between classes. All of this erie normality is somewhat disrupted when a student by the name of Noah Hauge walks by. There’s just something about his style that catches the eyes of fellow students – his shoes.

Noah Hauge is what some would call a shoe fashionista. When interviewed he explained that he now owns twenty plus pairs of shoes. His most popular shoes he sports are his yeezy zebras. This very pair of shoes can sell for about $550. The price derives from the rarity of these shoes since they are very hard to get. Secondly, almost all of his shoes are worth more than he bought them for. Noah says his passion for shoes started at age thirteen. He then waited a few years before actually starting to building up his collection. Lastly, the sneaker game is on the move. The popularity of sneakers is rising and the price directly shows that.

These days shoe companies are changing the game. They are diving into making shoes a little less comfortable and more towards making their shoes stylish. That’s a big change from the last few years, which has been mainly comfort based. Hauge says that “people are using their shoes as the staple of their outfit.” People are also starting to base their outfits more on their shoes. With all of these new styles in shoes, there really has been an uprise in the shoe industry. People are jumping right into the uprising fashionable shoes such as: Vans, Converse, and Adidas. There is also a huge rise in retro shoes. Shoe companies are bringing back the old styles from the late 90’s and early two-thousands era. These shoes are also rising in popularity because when shoe companies release their new shoe they often times only sell a limited number of that signature shoe. The shoes are so hard to buy, according to Hauge, that you need an online “BOT” in order to have a chance at purchasing a pair. A BOT is a computer program that can purchase a pair of sneakers faster than any human can click a mouse to purchase that same pair of sneakers. Even with this “BOT” your still are not guaranteed the pair of sneakers you desire. There are tons of sneaker enthusiast that use the same program in order to buy rare shoes, making your chances slim. Women’s styles are changing too, according to Abbey Frauenholtz. Converse and Vans are extremely popular these days. There are also so many different colors in these shoes that people are able to build their outfits off the same shoe just in a different a color. A couple other shoes that are wildly popular are: Uggs, Birkenstocks, Nike, and Adidas. “Each kind of shoe has a kind of general outfit that fits in with that brand of shoe,” Frauenholtz added.

According to Hauge, “The type of shoe you wear hints at the kind of person you are.” Shoe companies are changing the game, turning comfort to style, and changing the role of picking your shoes based on your outfit. Whether or not you started collecting sneakers at age 13 like Hauge, or you are just the average sneaker enthusiast, there are so many new styles, like retro sneakers, that it takes a good fashion sense to stay in style. Are you staying on top of your shoe game?