Obviously we all have our own views on what forum is better, what color scheme is more appeasing to the eyes, who is right and who is wrong, and that's perfectly fine because that's what being an individual is. You will always have people who are happy with the way certain things are and others who dispise it, that's the nature of life. This war of words pretty much symbolizes this. You have two leaders so to speak who truthfully believe they are right. Who believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that their way is right. Personally me, I could care less who really is right or wrong, or what forum is better because I've been in this culture for far too long to allow others to dictate how I should view things. How I view what's happened to this culture is my beliefs and my beliefs alone. Maybe when I was 14 or 15 I could be " star struck " enough to allow others to really influence my ideas, but at the age I am now its far harder to do that.
We live in a capitolistic society that is the truth. Cash really does rule everything around me as wu tang would put it, but to me there are always things I never utilize in order to make a profit. The sneaker culture would certainly be one of them. Some of you will dissagree with me and say " boo hoo they are just sneakers man" but what many of you don't realize is that it it wasn't about the sneakers persay, but it was about something else. It was about having a culture where all your qwerks and foolish antics were accepted beacause it wasn't about who had the most exclusive sneakers regardless of weather they were ugly or not, it was about having stuff that you loved. It was about taking the time to really find something that you liked, not because someone else told you it was hot and that you should purchase because of that.
Now in that culture did you always have people who were trying to make a buck? Of course you did. You had individuals like Jersey-Joe who would undercut everyone at anychance he got. You had people like pgone who would sell your own shoes to you if you gave him the opportunity. And yes there was steve with Instyleshoes as well. But back for a majority it was about the love. You can come back and tell me time and time again that I'm wrong and blah blah, but that's the reason I'm still here. And that's the reason so many people are still here. Fad's come and go and people enter one culture and leave it soon after the fad is done, but you will always have individuals who stay strong and continue to nurture the basics of what made that culture so great to begin with long after those individuals have left.
Perhaps I was a little too harsh with some of my words too you Steve and for that I appologize. However my views are mine alone and I didn't care to fight Method Man's battle. I've always fought my battle and mine alone. What I did say is that I truely believe you led to making this culture mainstream. But then again so did Slam Ed by putting niketalk in Slam in the first place. However with the summits and magazine it brought out something that I really hadn't seen before. It brought at the greed and lust of people. That more than anything is what I disagree with.
Does a hobby or a culture need a new influx of blood from time to time? Of course it does. If new people aren't introduced and groomed to take over then the hobby dies. However with your endevours you brought this love to light far quicker than most of us had ever thought possible. Was it scary? Perhaps....perhaps it was scary to see thousands of new people introduced to something that used to be much smaller. I personally remember when we hit 5,000 members at NT and I thought, wow this is getting blown out of control; and now look at it, you have nearly 120,000 people in both forums.
Steve you yourself said that you decided to end the competitions because you thought it had really gotten out of control, and if that's the truth than I commend you for that. However if it's not the truth than it goes back to the exploitation of a culture that never asked for it in general. I do know that your contract with Nike ran out for those competitions and if its just a coincidence that you decided to end the competitions there than that's fine. However if that's not true.........well than that's only for you to know and to decide if its right or wrong. Personally I think its sleezy.
I'm not even going to comment on the K-town thing because quite frankly I don't know any of the facts. However I will say that poaching our key members here if true is ridiculous. And the proof is in the pudding.
As far as @#%$ goes, in terms of a business venture I commend you on it, because I myself am a business man( your more than welcome to come to my club if you ever find yourself in Miami). From a businessman's prospective it seems to be a success, however from the perspective of one who kept himself in this culture for the purpose of love, well I personally see it as a travisty. Indirectly or directly it had a hand in bringing this to a mainstream that in many respects never deserved it. Many of you will say, who are you to decide who deserves it and what not, but let me ask you, if you could walk into a store and grab a pair of espos right now for retail price wouldn't you want to? Who remembers the days when you didn't need to camp out for Jordans? Sure they might sell out that day, but you could go in during the day and purchase them. The people who I speak on who don't deserve it are the individuals who utilized this to exploit others. Its the same thing that happened with Marvel Cards, Pogs, Pokemon, and Sneakers. When something is mainstream like this you will always have people who see dollar signs. It makes me sick to my stomach that people would bring their mothers or grandmothers to a camp out in order to secure a sneaker for selling. Years ago you would never see such a thing.
So I guess the question is where do we go from here right? Well for me I hope eventually this becomes a fad for people and it dies out like so many fads before it, because then we'll be able to go back to the root of why we all were here in the first place. Will it happen? Who knows? No one can tell the future, but one can keep hope.
TeamKnicks
...TEAM RAPTORS !
insultIf I asked you to work on SC the magazine FOR FREE and fill it with "props" for NikeTalk, what would you think? That's what you offered us. Now, if you don't understand THAT, you ain't shuffling a full deck.
