They find identity in a pair of sneakers. JACOB ADELMAN on the latest consumer obsession.
Almost there. After standing in line for hours, sneakerheads finally reach the doorstep. (AP Photo/Jacob Adelman)
Some fashion followers spend a lot of time and money trying to keep up with the styles everyone else is wearing. Not members of a burgeoning fashion subculture who call themselves "sneakerheads."
These footwear aficionados blank their bank accounts and spend nights outside shoe shops on the eve of limited releases to have the styles that nobody else has -- or at least as few people as possible.
"You want to have your own identity, so if you're that dude who always has the cool sneakers, always standing in line and stuff like that, that's just what you do," said Brandt Alexander on a recent Saturday morning after waiting 14 hours outside the city's best-known sneaker boutique, Undefeated, for a new Nike to be released.
Sneakerhead culture got its start in New York City, where East Coast hip-hop esthetes made athletic shoes -- like Run-DMC's once-ubiquitous Adidas shelltop -- into must-have street fashion accessories. But some sneaker wearers wanted footwear fashions to call their own and scoured mom-and-pop shoe shops for undiscovered styles.
Shoe companies -- Nike especially -- picked up on this individualist impulse and started collaborating with clothing designers, graffiti artists and even footwear fans themselves on limited-edition and custom-made sneakers.
That deliberately limited supply of high-end shoes has fueled the growth of sneakerhead culture in places like Los Angles, with growing numbers of people going to extremes for a pair of exclusive kicks.
"Living in L.A., with the whole shoe hype, it's getting difficult to purchase the shoes," said Robert Kay, 26, who waited 12 hours in line for the new Nike. "If you really want to have it, you've got to come out and spend the night in front of the store."
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asap contributor Jacob Adelman is an AP reporter in Los Angeles.
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