My sneakers collection really shares something about my personality. My love for sneakers started when I was 11 years old. The year was 2004 and the Air Jordan 13’s were the hottest things out. My best friend at the time had the two most popular color ways, which were the breds and the flints. They are high top basketball shoes, the reds are black and red, the flints are white cool grey and French blue. I didn’t know anything about them but I always saw two very popular logos. The check and the jump man. Throughout that whole school year I probably asked my mom for a pair of those sneakers about 100 tines and her answer was always the same, “that’s too much money for one pair of sneakers that you’re going to mess up in a month, I can buy you two sneakers for that price”. As I got older her answer changed to “when you get a job and save enough money, you can buy yourself whatever you want”, and that’s exactly what I did. When I turned 14 I got myself a job working in an after school program taking care of kindergarten students. It wasn’t the highest paying job but at least it was something. The second I received my first paycheck, I remember cashing it out and running to footlocker, like I said I didn’t get paid much so I ended buying a pair of Nike Dunk Highs. After a couple of saved paychecks I was able to buy myself a pair Air Jordan 8 “Playoffs”, it was the greatest feeling ever when I bought them. My mom was proud of me because as a single mother she felt like she was doing a good job raising me. I’ll never forget that teary smile she gave me when I came home with those shoes. My mom taught me the value of a dollar and to work hard for whatever you want in life and I appreciate her for teaching me those life lessons. Fast forward 14 years later and I’ve had over 1000 pairs of sneakers in that time frame. After I bought that first pair of sneakers it only motivated me to work harder so I can buy more. I ended up becoming a sneaker collector and then ultimately became a sneaker reseller. I currently only have a little over 50 pairs of sneakers in my personal collection but over 100 to resell. My mom isn’t a fan of me reselling shoes because she feels like it’s to much of a gamble as far as prices fluctuating but she respects the hardwork I put into it. I couldn’t pick just 1 pair of sneakers to write about because they all have a story and that’s the reason they’re in my personal collection and not up for resell. My sneaker collection represents who I am and how far I’ve come, every sneaker has a story, whether its my oldest or its a gift or because I searched years for a specific shoe. Sneakers have always been so important to me because I’ve used them as a way to express myself. It’s an expensive hobby which can either be very profitable or very risky. As I get older I’ve started to drift away from reselling and focused on just growing my collection.