“Sneakers to me was the illest symbol of the American dream. The thing that got me into sneakers was, when the Jordan V came out, I still remember this kid, it was third grade, and this kid–blond hair, blue eyed, all white everything–he walked across the lawn at recess the day the Jordan V fire red/whites came out, and I just saw the 3M dancing. You know the sun hit the 3M? It’s like disco on your foot. And I was like this is money, cuz my mom is not gonna get me that pair of shoes.
So for a couple weeks I kept taking the garbage out, helping my mom cook, whatever … She didn’t know how much they cost. She was like ‘Alright you’ve been really good for two weeks, your grades are good, let’s go see these shoes.’ We go; they were in the display case. You saw them from the parking lot. Even my brothers were like ‘Damn that is a pretty-ass shoe.’ My mom was like ‘This is beautiful.’ We see the price, she was like ‘You funny, man. You a comedian out here. You brought your whole family out to see this pair of sneakers?’
That was my entry into untouchable American culture that I could not have. My pops was like ‘You more a Charles Barkley dude.’ He got me the Forces. I hated Jordan ever since then. I was like ‘You put out these fly shoes, I can’t touch em, I can’t have em.’ So I rode for Barkley, wearing his ugly ass sneakers.”
Restaurateur and writer Eddie Huang on the new podcast from Stretch and Bobbito, What’s Good.
