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This is MPR's Life Kit. I'm Jeff Pear and growing up, sneakers for me weren't just something that

went on your feet. They didn't feel like they were just a part of the culture. They almost felt

like they were the culture. It was one of the best parts of my childhood. From the colors to the way

people wore them, something as simple as a clean pair of shoes gave a lot of us the confidence to

walk down high school hallways where their heads held up high. And me, a way to connect with people

in a new school. I even remember spending hours on Jamaica Avenue in Queens, New York as a kid,

going in and out of shoe stores, trying to talk down the price of sneakers so I could get the

final piece of my first day of school outfit. But there are people who wear sneakers and then

there are sneaker heads. The sneaker head world was something that I got back into while we were

all stuck at home looking for ways to write out this pandemic. But the sneaker head world was also

a lot different from what I remembered. And I wasn't the only one who thought so. Well, first of all,

...