Shoes have always been a girl thing. It's sort of a broad statement as not every woman likes them, but often it's true. It's very common a woman has twenty pairs of shoes. With the success of Sex and the City in the late 90's and early 2000's, the women's shoe scene exploded. Suddenly every woman and their mother needed a pair of Manolos. This may still be the case in many people's minds, but for a certain group of people, the tables have turned. I think it may only be a NYC-based teenage boy thing, but I'm afraid it may be catching on.
In 2004, a Harvard college student, Mark Zuckerberg, was bored in his dorm room one night and decided to conduct on experiment. He soon created Facebook, and it became a world-wide success. One of the features of Facebook is "groups". They can be anywhere from a fan page or something people don't like at all ("I Hate Getting Texts That Only Say 'K'"). One popular group, Buying and Selling Kicks NYC, is a group that's a store as well. Members post pictures of their limited edition Nikes or other sneakers and other members bid on them in the comments, and the seller and the lucky winner meet up and exchange the shoes and the money. Sometimes, the seller will not ask for money but for an iPod or gift cards or a trade for another pair, and so on.
Rare, good-condition, Nike SB's can sell for up to hundreds of dollars, just like designer women's heels. Lots of people, male and female collect shoes, but now teenage boys don't collect. It's an addiction. They will be on NDSBG Marketplace (another Facebook group) or Buying and Selling Kicks NYC, 24/7, even during school hours, uploading, commenting, buying. They'll spend their month's allowance on a pair of sneakers.
Somewhere, somehow, shoes became a guy thing, too.
First photo from here, second photo from planetdunks.com.
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