Throwback Thursday Vol. 1.0

In an order to post on a more frequent basis I'm gonna post something every Thursday that was influential in the past and has either been forgotten or had a lengthy legacy. It could be music, movies, sports, shoes, style trends etc... you get the idea. Anyway here's the first throwback: The Nike Air More Uptempo (1996).



Now y'all might be thinking "they're just shoes" but to me these were the first real pair of shoes that I was proud to rock on the playground. I was 6 years old and I begged my ass off to my parents to buy me a pair of Air Jordan XI's but they were mad expensive and my parents weren't about to spend a whole lot of money on kicks so instead they bought me the much more affordable Uptempos and from that day forward I was a sneaker head for life. They were to me at that point in my life the best shoes I'd ever had.

What made them even cooler to me was that they were worn by one of my favourite players in the NBA in Scottie Pippen. I grew up as a Bulls fan and Michael Jordan was my favourite player (I used to watch a video called "Come Fly With Me" which was about Jordan's life in the NBA, pretty much every single day) and of course I rooted for Scottie too so when I found out the shoes I was wearing were the same ones he wore on the court I felt like maybe the shoes had magical powers and I would become a better basketball player (It's gotta be the shoes right?). And for that the Nike Air More Uptempo's will forever be remembered by me and for other shoe aficionados it'll just be the fact that they were one of the most stylish kicks of the mid 90's that embodied the fast rising hip-hop culture revolution that was taking place.

Let me know what y'all consider your first "real" pair of kicks to be in the comments box.

Peace and Much Love to Ya :)