By Justin Juul
I know I’m not supposed to buy Nike shoes because they’re made by starving children in developing countries — unlike Converse, New Balance, and Reebok shoes which are all made by high-paid workers right here in San Francisco — but holy shit has Nike made an awesome sneaker. Their new Free-Everyday line has a super-streamlined look with a custom-colorway option, which is what really sealed the deal for me (mine are all grey with brick-red highlights).
But that’s not all. They also come with a little microchip you can slide into the sole. The chip pings to a bracelet (or an iPod) so you can monitor your progress. Also, if you’re a nerd, you can personalize the back of your new shoes with a two-word phrase. I was going to get “America Rules” emblazoned on mine, but there was a copyright issue so I chose “Manifest Destiny” instead. * Come on! Starving children are great and all, but really, how could I not buy a pair of these things?
You see, I’m a runner, but until I got my Nikes I was just a casual nighttime runner, a secretive runner if you will. Now, I’m a machine. I’ve already clocked 50 miles on my new kicks and I’ve got my sights set on running the first half of the SF marathon in August. Why the sudden change? Well, it sucks to admit, but I’ve never publicly expressed my love for running because runners are fucking dorks. Have you seen their shoes!? Before the Nike Free-Everyday was released, the only running shoes you could get –good ones, I’m talking about—looked like they’d been designed by colorblind robots from the planet Zorton. This isn’t 1986, guys. This isn’t Back to the Future II. Mismatched neon, totally useless plastic ridges, and air bubbles may have been cool at some point, but this is the nineties, man. I need my kicks to look fresh! And now they do. But compromising my morals wasn’t as easy as I thought it’d be. And soon, other problems began to surface