New Sneakers

You know the scene. A little boy straps on a pair of new sneakers and is utterly convinced he can run faster, jump higher, basically the closest thing in this natural world to super powers. It's the stuff of daydreams. I can vividly remember the feeling.

I've been under the assumption that this belief was completely due to successful marketing ploys. Maybe that's because I seem to have grown up in the height of sneaker wars and their ridiculous gimmicks and subsequent commercial series, all of which worked quite well on my peers and me. (At the time, there were two ways to size up the caliber of the opposing basketball team: the height of their tallest player and the shoes each one was wearing. But back to the point at hand...)

Exhibit A: Reebok Pumps.

Exhibit B: Converse React Gel.

Exhibit C: Nike Air

Exhibit D: Oddly enough, even L.A. Gears had some appeal.


But I am here today to tell you this assumption has been debunked. The belief in the super powers of new sneakers is not due to marketing campaigns, but rather seems to be innately written in the DNA of young boys everywhere.

I know this because we gave the kid (who has never heard of Pumps nor Jordans) a new pair of sneakers (that only cost 5 euros, mind you) and he has been skipping and galloping and stomping and running and jumping and kicking (in ways we have never seen before) ever since they were strapped on.