On the hardwood, watch the shoes
No one ever will mistake me for a “fashionista.”
I’m your basic blue jeans and flannel shirt type of guy.
The closest I come to a fashion style is whether to wear brown plaid or red plaid today.
And, if you ask my wife, she would tell you I can’t tell the difference between navy and black, so I stay clear of those colors in my wardrobe.
Yet I admit to having a certain fascination this time of year with the styles and types of shoes being worn in gymnasiums across the region, from grade school floors to university hardwoods.
Are they high-tops or low tops, orange or blue, Nike or Adidas?
While I love hearing the screeching sound they make with each trip up and down the hardwood, these days, I also pay attention to the shoe itself.
Over the years, I have seen a lot of basketball shoes.
My oldest son played basketball for a while, mostly in middle school, while his brother played basketball all through high school.
I remember many shopping trips for each in search of the perfect shoes before each new season began.
These days, I follow my one granddaughter as she plays basketball for Findlay (Ohio) High School, while two other grandchildren play on development teams in Indiana.
And, of course, I rarely miss a game of the University of Findlay Oilers’ teams.
I especially thought it pretty impressive when Andrew’s teammates one year all coordinated their color and shoe style to match each other as best they could. While no shoe manufacturer was offering the team a deal to support an image, the teammates did what they could on their own budgets to promote their school.
These days, I see all kinds of shoes being worn, from multi-colored ones that draw attention easily to old and worn styles that probably now are being laced up by their third or fourth owner and which have seen a lot of up and down the court.
While no team I am watching this year has an exclusive deal with a shoe company to promote their product, I do wish international shoe companies would consider helping high school athletes and their families with shoe purchases.
Instead of branding professional and college teams with all kinds of free shoes, wouldn’t the publicity be much higher if Puma or a New Balance sponsored all the shoes for a high school team?
With most shoes ranging in price from just over $100 to some costing several hundreds, imagine the goodwill that would be created for a company by outfitting a high school team with low-priced options of their popular brands.
To understand that basketball shoe obsession, you need to go back to 1922, when a company named Converse was the main “sneaker” shoe industry.
Back then, Chuck Taylor, a basketball player who also was a marketer for Converse, asked the company to add some support to its shoe. The result were the Converse All-Stars, also known as the Chuck Taylor All-Stars, which were offered in only black or white.
By 1960, Converse owned the basketball shoe market.
But all that changed in 1984, when Nike teamed up with NBA legend Michael Jordan to create the “Jumpman” logo and Air Jordan basketball shoes.
Overnight, the shoe was an instant success, and, from that point forward, basketball shoe design became as much a part of the product as its durability and flexibility.
Air Jordans became a status symbol on the basketball court, and to own a pair was like owning a secret advantage on the hardwood. If you wore Air Jordans, you knew — but, more importantly, everyone who wasn’t wearing a pair knew — you could run faster and jump higher than anyone else because of the shoe.
Or so they thought
As far as status symbols go, there was none better.
If you find yourself at a basketball court in the weeks ahead, I would invite you to check out the shoes. I bet you will be hard-pressed to find any two pairs the same.
At the same time, though, I’ll bet you have a fun time matching the personality of the player with the design and color of the shoes they are wearing.
Bill Speer retired in 2021 as the publisher and editor of The News. He can be reached at bspeer@thealpenanews.com.