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We used to call them bo bos and bubbleheads. We even called them zippies, but when I was really young, no one snapped on any one else because there was only one kid in the neighborhood who had enough money to have shoes that weren't talking. Which means that the rubber had separated from the upper, or split so that when you walked your shoes made a slapping sound, lol. I wore some shoes until the sole had a hole that you could put your finger through. This didn't change until I was playing in an area we called the jungle and a rusty nail went through my shoe into my foot. Even then, the shoes I got were Kangaroos which were cool because Walter Payton wore them... Shoes though are and always have been a status symbol in the black community. Just like style has been important. When you have a group of people that are oppressed to the extent that we were, everything becomes who can look the best when we get the chance. But in the past 30 years, sneakers have taken on a completely different beast altogether.This began with, like you said, Puma Clyde/Suedes. B-Boys in particular the Rock Steady Crew was featured in movies like Wild Style and Beat Street and all of sudden sneakers became street status symbols and this was further enhanced by Run DMC and My Adidas. In 1984 though, Nike had been paying players and olympians to wear their shoes but it really wasn't taking off until Carl Lewis did what he did in 84 and Sonny Vaccaro told Nike to sign Michael Jordan. The rest is history. Your link to the shooting is an unfortunate aspect of sneaker culture. So is this which happens every year at Christmas This is an annual thing. This past year I had to put the door back on for a local store after a crowd stormed the store. After you watch this video, this is what is shocking, they aren't limited edition. The demand is just so ridiculous that people feel that it is life or death to get a pair of kicks. I'm a part of this culture and I used to feel kind of bad about how much money I made from selling kicks. Then I realized, that I wasn't taking advantage of anyone who hadn't decided they wanted to be taken advantage of. Get this, I was an educator... I stopped teaching to sell shoes. (That's ridiculous isn't it?) It is until you realize that in the past two years I've been able to take my family on vacations from New Orleans, to Orlando, to San Diego to Nashville, to Washington D.C. and I didn't even wink when I had to pay the bills. When I was an educator, we hadn't gone on vacation in over 10 years because we couldn't afford it. There is so much in this that I could talk about but I will leave you with this for the moment. On Tuesday I bought three pair of Kobes for about 550.00 dollars. I sold those three pair of Kobes for 350.00 per pair and they sold in one day. I own my own shoe company ARCH. I've said this before on here, but I'll repeat it. Of the 600 plus pair of shoes I've made I can say 90% were purchased by people like you Troy. People who buy shoes not for the cool or hip factor, but to use them for what they were made for. The thing is Troy, the people like you tend to be white. But at the same time, the people who are buying the shoes at the crazy resell values tend to be white and not black. This is a generalization, but is basically true. Is there a problem when Black folks feel that their status is created by their shoes, yes. But, who do you blame? There has to be some personal responsibility in this. America is a capitalist society with an economy based on selling things to people, not making things, but selling things. In order to sell things, companies have to create a wow factor: Limited Edition, The Newest Model... The whole world of marketing is setup to create feelings within people of self worth based on these things. If people stopped buying, the economy in America would crash. Is this an excuse for the ridiculous things happening with sneakers, no but it definitely explains the amount of money pushed into making these things cool... and who doesn't want to be cool?