Photo: Refined Guy

When I first started to wear Converse All Star trainers it was because they were different at the time, my school days were spent in the days of inflatable Reeboks, Nike, Adidas, and the long forgotten labels Troop and British Knights. The classic Converse fell between a rock and a hard place for the twatty kids for whom appearance was everything; they were cheaper than the ridiculously overpriced shoes favoured by sports stars and rappers, yet they were a ‘name’ and as such you couldn’t be mocked for wearing them. They were adopted by the so-called alternative crowd (a contradiction in itself as most alternative kids all looked and dressed the same) and pretty soon they were the official uniform footwear for us cool kids. That became the problem, everyone was wearing them and the shops had no discrimination, maybe they should have stipulated that only people in bands or the music business should be able to buy them. It was at the Leftlion photo shoot in 2011 that I first noticed that the individuality factor of Converse had died but I remained loyal, the classic black and white boot was the only thing you would see me in. If someone went to a gig and looked down they would have very little chance of identifying someone, which would have been to our advantage should that have been the only clue in a murder investigation. However, the police have never raided the Jam Café (to give one example) in the hope of catching a Converse wearing criminal.

"Yes, we are all individual"

This weekend I was due to buy some new trainers and had decided that I was going to break free from the All Star and go for a new brand altogether. This isn’t a decision you take lightly, this is on a par with a dramatic new hairstyle or a tattoo. Not wanting to give the aforementioned twatty kids the satisfaction, I had already decided not to go with Adidas, Nike, or Reebok. For the sake of irony I had considered Hi-Tec, but they are still shit and no amount of protestations about post-modernism can change that. Gola (a shit brand at school) seem to have gained some level of retro respectability as a brand name on bags but I wasn’t aware of them still making shoes. Dunlop was out of the question as my dad wears them. No offence meant towards my dad of course, but should I be seen walking down the street with the same trainers on it will just look weird. My only hope was to trawl the shops before making a choice.

Photo: Gary Barwell (one of these pairs of feet is his, the other two people are Jake Morley and myself)

Nothing grabbed my attention yesterday until I saw a nice pair of black trainers with no ankles (another departure for me) and decided to buy them. Although I obviously haven’t broken free from the Converse name I am at least glad to no longer be wearing the shoes of the masses.

My new shoes

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