Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/09/22/these-530-pre-distressed-snea.html
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Just hunt the local Goodwill and you can do better than these.
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I took this picture nine minutes ago, to use in a tweet lamenting that it was time for these old Nikes to retire.
Do you think I could get anything for them?
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A little bit of tape and some marketing… $400 easy… 
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It’s been a trend for too long
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Got a deal for ya -
I’ll give you twenty bucks, you can keep the duct tape. Fair? I’ll even distress them myself. By hand, or maybe foot.
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Last stage Capitalism?
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Distressed or not, it sure seems like a copyright infringement on Converse:
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Or go directly to a homeless man and buy his shoes for $530. The genuine feeling (and smell).
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Stupid yes. Outrage worthy? nah. I mean I guess get outraged that someone dumb enough to buy these has the money to buy these in a supposed meritocracy.
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What doesn’t piss people off now? The current climate is “You better have a fucking strong opinion about this, and it better be backed up with all the stubborn will of a toddler.”
Now I’ve heard of Golden Goose, which is what this shit is always for.
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Getting Golden Goose in the line right now. My closet is a potential gold mine!!
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It’s only trendy if you buy them from a high-end couture. If you wear them out yourself, that’s just low-class /s
p.s. Anyone wanna buy a pair of really thrashed Birkenstocks?
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There are levels of outrage. I’m fine with people being outraged with this product. I am irritated at it, and I have worked for people that would have let their kids buy these shoes.
The outrage is as useful as “thoughts and prayers” unless it causes people to do more than just complain.
For me, several things come to mind. I know something about somebody that runs around with these shoes and brags about it. I know that this is paying, likely very poorly, for part of somebodies daily wage in another country. I know that this is a call to action for somebody. I also know that these are going to end up at upscale rummage sales and thrift stores and will likely just be binned!
I dated somebody and once on a trip to Sun Valley, we picked up some Chucks. We were booth really skint and this was the least expensive place to get shoes, and it was also where they got shoes through their entire childhood. After walking out of the store with new shoes, the first thing they did was shuffle their feet in a square of fine dirt just down the street. “Nobody but posers wear perfectly clean shoes.” I was introduced into the family ritual. Some years later, driving to NOHO, I passed by that same store, and saw some kid shuffling their feet in that dry square dirt, leading me to believe that it was part of local culture, or that kid just stepped in dog poop.
Many years ago I worked for a family took conspicuous consumption to bazaar levels. For instance, the master bedroom walk in closet space for both husband and wife was larger than most single family residences. (To my memory). They were packed with outfits, jackets and shoes, many only saw a single day’s ware, if that. I was once admonished for noting that one of them wore the same capris a few times in the month. That was apparently a huge insult to suggest that they had to rewear clothes. I just thought they liked the outfit. In the end, they spent huge amounts of money to be perceived as having money, yet always complained about being seconds from the street. The government was making them broke, not their spending habits. They would donate clothes from time to time, but it was always when they were so far out of date as to near useless for a thrift store to sell as an amazing find.
My bet is that people, that buy these are buying the irony, they care little for others that are not like them, and likely believe in strongly meritocracy and/or some divine force has granted them wealth and denied it to others.
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Just adding (for the folks who can’t see how insulting this is) that this is the barbed-wire posing as velvet rope.
Rich and/or white people in power consistently steal culture from the brown and/or underclasses. Music, cultural norms, hairstyles, clothing, and they profit from it, financially and/or socially. If you think the waste of money is the real issue here, you’re not seeing the big picture.
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If you’ve never understood all the fuss about cultural appropriation but these sneakers piss you off, congratulations. There’s a great analogy here.
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Would anyone actually buy these!? Or was it some conceptual thing???
If people actually bought these for $530 I would like to go ahead and announce my new line of t-shirts.
They are cotton poly blend, and have been body aged for 5 - 15 years. Prices vary according to vintage probably in the $150- $300 range.
There is one Towncraft that is 20 years that is special and will only sell at auction. Starting bid: $3,000
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Not to worry, they have plenty of other filthy, overpriced shoes to choose from.
Roger That!
IMHO these are enough of a class war insult that anyone dick enough to wear them deserves bad things to happen to them. Just don’t get captured…
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Part of the Derelicte collection, by Mugatu
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