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These Kicks Ain’t for Gym Class

Nike Trainer Dunk High Mita Edition

A swarm of kids in big Ts and rigid baseball caps squeeze together in a dark, crowded lounge concentric to a spotlight. A hand is thrust above the hats. In that hand is a sneaker. The crowd hushes with respect. An MC spits attitude: “Tell us what we got, tell us what we got,” then passes the mic to a dark-haired girl wearing two silver watches on one wrist. “Air Max 1, elephant-print toe box and heel. First shoe with a visible air sole unit. Released only in select Asian markets.” The crowd whispers and visibly surges toward the shoe. Flashbulbs pop. Once the crowd quiets the MC jumps in. “Dope, dope. Where the next shoe at?” This is a sneaker battle held monthly at the Buck 15 Lounge and Gallery. May the rarest shoe win.

Welcome to the world of collectible sneakers. Compiling inanimate objects is often the realm of detail-obsessed nerds. That said, there’s no such thing as a sneaker nerd. Sneakerheads are not only pop-culture savvy, they’re pop culture creators. Their ranks include Fat Joe, Jadakiss, Missy Elliott and Spike Lee, as well as hundreds of thousands of others worldwide. Huge in Japan, growing in China, and certainly crucial in American hip-hop and skateboard cultures, sneaker collecting is erupting.

“[I’ve] been a sneakerhead since I was 11,” says sneaker battle fan Jaime Pelaez, a 24-year-old from Kendall. “I used to call Nike for release dates and save my allowance and wait in line at Foot Locker. Air Jordan was my initiation into this game.” His most expensive pair to date cost him $350. He says there are shoes out there that go for $10,000. For Pelaez, it’s about the hunt. He prowls forums on Web sites like Niketalk.com or Hypebeast.com, where insider information on sneaker release dates and locations is leaked to those who look hard enough.

The way this game works is that manufacturers like Nike, Adidas or Reebok team with subculture icons, athletes and young designers to create limited production runs. Some shoes are re-releases with modified fabrics and color schemes, others are hyper-modern new models. These rare and therefore valuable shoes are then distributed to select retailers in select cities on specific dates. New York, Los Angeles and Miami dominate. Some shoes, like those monikered after Lebron James, are only released in stores in China and command $450 at places like Soles Inc. on South Beach. They resurface in Miami after being piped through the sneaker underground. On a release date, collectors line up or even camp in the street to get first dibs. Super-rare shoes are scooped up by V.I.P. collectors before they even reach the shop floor.

Manufacturers are picky about where they ship collectibles. For that reason, the collectibles game shuns mass chains (where it all started) and now draws crowds to mom-and-pop stores and boutiques. One of the major local players is Danny Waserstein of the Shoe Gallery in Downtown Miami. He and his father have been running the store since 1979 and picked up on the collectibles trend in the late ’90s. “They [manufacturers] know the stores that are really doin’ it,” he says. “They’re going to partner with those stores for special releases.” Waserstein saw the collectibles game blow up with the rise of Internet blogs and forums. Hype on release dates and sneaker arrivals spreads with or without official word from the manufacturers.

What’s so special about limited edition sneakers? “It gives you status in the game,” says Mike Cruz, the MC for the aforementioned sneaker battle. As a kid he couldn’t afford Nike Air Flights until his brother got an employee discount at Foot Locker. He now owns one of four existing pairs of Nike Air Jordan 4 Undefeated production samples. They’re worth more than $5,000. “That’s like the jewel of my collection,” says Cruz. “I look at them everyday.”

“People look at you on a level if you have the most dope kicks,” says Pedro Noble, 25, a sneakerhead and Shoe Gallery employee. He also ponders the effect of nostalgia. “You couldn’t have the shoe as a kid and now you can.” It’s a powerful, almost addictive elixir. Noble will buy a pair of sneakers and not wear them for years. “I’d rather astonish people in, like three years, and have them say, ‘Wow! You have those? And they’re crispy? Damn, boi-eee!’”

Noble surmises that the love and madness started with Nike Air Force 1s in the early ’80s. They were a performance shoe. If you were a city kid you needed them. They brought instant status. “People used to buy 100 pairs and resell them,” says Noble. Limited runs were a logical next step for manufacturers. Collectors’ passion just needed to be unleashed. It now manifests itself in a game where a stitch or sole of a different hue makes all the difference between a shoe worth $100 and $1,000. When asked if he’ll wear sneakers to his wedding, Noble answers without hesitation, “Absolutely! White-on-white Air Force 1 Lux in anaconda skin. My girlfriend and me, we already got it planned out.”

To find collectible sneakers in Miami check out:

• Shoe Gallery
244 NE 1st Avenue, Miami

• Culture Kings
4300 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami

• Soles Inc.
235 12th Street,
South Beach

• Arrive
100 16th Street,
South Beach

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