November 23
The reason why these ridiculous sneakers are important to me. Growing up, my family was never really that affluent. We always somehow scraped by, and I think, all things considered, had a pretty happy life. To get an idea for our household income, consider the meager salary that comes from a dude (my dad) being a Korean pastor in Knoxville, Tennessee (not that many Koreans). Somehow, through scholarships and what not, we managed to finagle me a pretty decent education at the Webb School of Knoxville, and then also later at Wake Forest by more of the same finagling (I’m not sure what would have happened if I had had a sibling, seeing as how we probably couldn’t have grinded out two private school and college educations— or at least that’s what my parents and me talk about sometimes). By this and that, mainly because of close family and friends, I got to live a pretty easy life in light of our lack of means, I’d get a hold of some nicer things here and there, but it was always pretty appreciated, especially if it came from my parents, I knew that they would have had to have sacrificed something to get it. Obviously when I was younger it was more of a subconscious gratitude, and as I got older is when it became a little more clear as to what the whole story was as I got a better idea of the scope of things. Between, I think, my freshman and sophomore years of college, my dad stopped being a full time minister and started somesort of biomedical thing with one of his best friends (the same friend who attributed to me getting some nicer things) and started doing work with this missionary service in India, but what that meant for me was that there was a little more disposable income around the house than normal. Since it was a new business, it wasn’t super successful or crazy money, but a little more wiggle room than what I had grown up around. My dad bought my mom a new house, the aforementioned house, and I graduated from college without any personal debt. Around that same time (maybe a year or two after I’d started college), the above sneakers came out, Ice Creams. At that point, I didn’t really own many sneakers (I literally didn’t own any Nikes at the time), and the idea of paying $100-$200 for shoes seemed pretty ridiculous, not to mention I didn’t even know how to procure them, all I knew was that Pharrell made them and they were pretty sick, especially the bottoms. Considering my then circumstances, these shoes were framed as something unattainable to me, kind of really far out of reach than what I could ever really perceive myself procuring. So now, I’ve been out of college for about two and a half years, and I’m doing alright for me being just a 24-year old kid living on my own, and I come across these sneakers, Ice Creams, at a random sneaker store, in my size. The price wasn’t crazy for re-sale, and I just kind of thought, “Wow, I need to own these.” I’m not sure if I’ve done a good job as to explaining why I had to buy these sneakers, but I just wanted to put this out there, because I’m pretty happy about the fact that I’m now at a point in my life in which could own them. (Not sure how long I’ll keep this up here, but I thought it was worth mentioning just because some people were asking why the shoes were so important)

The reason why these ridiculous sneakers are important to me.

Growing up, my family was never really that affluent. We always somehow scraped by, and I think, all things considered, had a pretty happy life. To get an idea for our household income, consider the meager salary that comes from a dude (my dad) being a Korean pastor in Knoxville, Tennessee (not that many Koreans). Somehow, through scholarships and what not, we managed to finagle me a pretty decent education at the Webb School of Knoxville, and then also later at Wake Forest by more of the same finagling (I’m not sure what would have happened if I had had a sibling, seeing as how we probably couldn’t have grinded out two private school and college educations— or at least that’s what my parents and me talk about sometimes).

By this and that, mainly because of close family and friends, I got to live a pretty easy life in light of our lack of means, I’d get a hold of some nicer things here and there, but it was always pretty appreciated, especially if it came from my parents, I knew that they would have had to have sacrificed something to get it. Obviously when I was younger it was more of a subconscious gratitude, and as I got older is when it became a little more clear as to what the whole story was as I got a better idea of the scope of things.

Between, I think, my freshman and sophomore years of college, my dad stopped being a full time minister and started somesort of biomedical thing with one of his best friends (the same friend who attributed to me getting some nicer things) and started doing work with this missionary service in India, but what that meant for me was that there was a little more disposable income around the house than normal. Since it was a new business, it wasn’t super successful or crazy money, but a little more wiggle room than what I had grown up around. My dad bought my mom a new house, the aforementioned house, and I graduated from college without any personal debt.

Around that same time (maybe a year or two after I’d started college), the above sneakers came out, Ice Creams. At that point, I didn’t really own many sneakers (I literally didn’t own any Nikes at the time), and the idea of paying $100-$200 for shoes seemed pretty ridiculous, not to mention I didn’t even know how to procure them, all I knew was that Pharrell made them and they were pretty sick, especially the bottoms. Considering my then circumstances, these shoes were framed as something unattainable to me, kind of really far out of reach than what I could ever really perceive myself procuring.

So now, I’ve been out of college for about two and a half years, and I’m doing alright for me being just a 24-year old kid living on my own, and I come across these sneakers, Ice Creams, at a random sneaker store, in my size. The price wasn’t crazy for re-sale, and I just kind of thought, “Wow, I need to own these.”

I’m not sure if I’ve done a good job as to explaining why I had to buy these sneakers, but I just wanted to put this out there, because I’m pretty happy about the fact that I’m now at a point in my life in which could own them.

(Not sure how long I’ll keep this up here, but I thought it was worth mentioning just because some people were asking why the shoes were so important)