Somehow, In 2017, We Are Still Ruining Rare Shoes

Last night, Takashi Murakami turned a pair of Yeezy Boost 350 v2’s into sandals. Most Complex stans were quick to hop on the photo, like it on Instagram, and comment how dope it is or how they would do the same.

But would you really? And if so, why?

Let’s go back to 2015 when it was “cool” to dip Air Mags (or any shoe that was sought after in that time) in a bucket of paint. Why did we do that, and why did we let it happen? After paint, it was dunking Jordans in mud, and so on, so forth. Coming from a perspective or someone who would love to have a pair of Air Mags, or Yeezy anything (I still have no chance of getting the Powerphase restock), seeing Takashi’s sandals makes my blood boil. One might say, “but he’s an artist, this is just another way for him to express his artistic nature and creativity.” Be that as it may, anyone can do what he did with those shoes. For the sake of argument, we’ll say it’s dumb creative, but it’s also destructive.

And so it leads me back to my question I posed before. Why are we ruining sought after shoes? What is the purpose of Paypa Boy eating cereal out of sneakers? Why did Takashi cut up Yeezys to make sandals? Why were we dipping shoes in paint or mud in 2015? I’m led to believe that it is all to get a reaction, some sort of attention. And while Takashi doesn’t need to do this for attention, he got it. We’re subconsciously waiting for “Kanye’s Nephew” to eat Cap’n Crunch out of the next fire pair of shoes. We’re hoping someone makes a video of Supreme x More Uptempo getting drenched in syrup, all the while spitting game to our friend about how we would never let so much as a speck of dust accumulate on the bottom of the outsoles. And maybe I’m just a neat freak when it comes to sneakers (as is the purpose of this site), but I will never understand why we have continued to ruin dope shoes. I will never be able to understand the feeling of content in doing it, nor will I grasp how we are okay with seeing it happen.

But I’m just a computer programmer by trade running a small niche blog telling people to clean their shoes.