The Devil Wears Air Jordans

As a sneaker enthusiast, I can't believe I actually owned a pair of these.

I took this photo of those Air Jordan 1's at my homeboy Frank's crib just right after I purchased these just three years ago. I was actually in Chatsworth to pay off some fines I owe at the Courthouse there during that summer of 2009. I was doing security in the Antelope Valley then and I just got my first check from them which was $1,600 ($300 from that check went to the bank to clear off some bullshit holds I was too lazy to take care of then). So after that, while I was still in a good ass mood, I decided to drop by the Northridge Fashion Center to cop some stuff since I was within the area. I went to Champs to see what they have, and on the display, they have a pair of the Air Jordan 1 60+ pack that was released that summer, and this was a month after they dropped. Then a sales associate came up to me and asked me what size I wanted (similar to the Fire Red IV retros at the Finish Line I blogged about two months ago). I told him my size (12 and 13) and he went to the back to see if it was available. I first, I though we were wasting out times since I assumed that the pack was sold out and they only had the smallest size available, but apparently to my surprise (again, like the Fire red IV story) he walked out with two packs with the different sizes I asked for. 

I thought them shits was sold out as I asked him. He told that somehow, they still managed to have a full size run of the 60+ pack. Reason I thought they were gonna be sold out because of the Black/Red 1's that came with the pack, but I really wanted it for the Boston Celtics colorway of the Jordan 1's that was also included in the pack. (I don't like the Celtics, but I like how the colorway turned out on the shoe) Again, this was a month after it dropped and typically at that point, most of the original Air Jordan retros with the OG colorways are sold out within minutes after the sneaker stores open. Anyway, I bought the pack which turned up to be $310 plus tax IN RETAIL and then bounced with my new pairs of sneakers. I went to Franks house to take photos of the shoes with his camera, but mostly for the Black/Red 1's cause I was planning on not wearing them so that I can sell them. A month later, I sold those Black/Red 1's for a hundred bucks and still kept the Celtics colorway for another year until I sold those to my cousin on New Years Day 2011. 

To this day, I still imagined of what if I never sold those Black/Red 1's and what if I actually wore them. That shoe was retroed 3 times since it dropped in 1985 and they made another retro two years after that. The history behind this particular shoes was unusual if you think about it. 

Right after he was drafted into the NBA, Michael Jordan was invited by Nike executives to come check out a presentation that they did for him and to also have him sign with the company. Michael refused to go because he really (I mean, REALLY) wanted to sign with either Adidas or Converse cause not only were they the top selling basketball sneakers at in the mid 80's, but also, Michael wore when he was playing at North Carolina. Plus the two companies has athletes who won NBA championships endorsing them: Adidas had Kareem Abdul Jabbar who wears them in the NBA and Converse had Julius "Dr. J" Erving wearing their pair, along with Larry Bird and Earvin "Magic" Johnson as their spokespersons. At that time, Nike wasn't a big company. It was mostly geared towards running than Basketball (the Air Force 1 that released in 1982 sold decent, but it wasn't as hyped as the Converse Weapons and the Adidas Superstar), so that made the company invest and trust in Michael as the tried to sign him. 

In 1985, his parents forced him to go to Nike's headquaters in Beaverton, Oregon, and they went with him so that he wouldn't miss out on this offer. When they got there, the suits at Nike presented him a video presentation of the shoes that they constructed for him. After that, Michael was disgusted and said that he'll look like a clown wearing the devil's shoes. Eventually after Nike kept persuaded him and giving him a 2 Million dollar contract, Michael reluctantly gave in, signed the paper, and the rest, obviously, was fucking history. If he still refused to sign with them, then I wouldn't have stacks to Nike shoeboxes in my room and and several other sneaker enthusiasts wouldn't have stacks of Nike shoeboxes in their rooms as well. I think I'd be wearing Adidas Superstars or some generic Payless shoes had Michael never signed with Nike. That just shows how much impact that pair of those basketball shoes (which was retailed for $65 in 1985) made throughout the years. 

Well, tomorrow I have to go with the little brother to the Newbury Park Adventist Academy in the Conejo Valley so that he can take the ACT standardized test over there, then for the rest of next week it more meetings, worthless appointments and several kids (and adults) dressing up as one of the Angry Birds consuming too much sugar this upcoming Wednesday.  Thanks for your time reading this. 

The Fifth Year in July

Independence Day was yesterday. I didn't like it.

I was at my crib in Sylmar during the whole 4th of July, and that shit was annoying. Drunk excited fools were blowing off Fireworks, Roman Candles, M80s, cherry bombs, and other explosives since the afternoon. Yes, fireworks went off during the daytime. As I said on my Twitter, It felt like being at an episode of World Wrestling Entertainment's Monday Night Raw with all that noise and explosions in the sky. If you've been to driven past Sylmar at least once, you'll see some people riding horses on the streets (in fact, its the only city in the San Fernando Valley where people ride horses on the streets legally) and on the Fourth of July yesterday, shit, them horses were scared as fuck and started galloping like crazy. Thank God nobody fell of and had a Christopher Reeve moment (that's how he got paralyzed for life until his death). The only thing I like about this holiday is the history of it, from when Washington gained its own Independence (hence the name) from Britain and had a ballistic Revolutionary war that started the formation of the United States of America. I'm very fortunate to live her my whole entire life.


On one of my posts last month, I explained that I just got a full time gig at Galpin Ford washing Mustangs and Lincolns and other Ford related vehicles. Unfortunately, I just resigned from working there and I was just there for a month. Reason being is that I got another job at the Topanga mall as a studio portrait photographer for Bezold Photograhpy. I applied for Bezold Photography a month before I started working at Galpin. I thought they threw my resume away or something cause I got an email from the manager saying that he wants to interview me. So I went to the interview, which lasted 5 minutes. All I had to do was just set  the exposures on the camera and demonstrate how to activate the strobe lighting. Went by quick. I got there five minutes late and I had some sweat on my forehead when I met the manager. After the interview was over, I then kept thinking that he may not hire me and that there might've been about 20 other experienced photographers that he could've chosen instead. All that nervousness disappeared after I got an email saying that I was hired and that I was gonna start on July 1st.

I'm not gonna lie, but I was happy as fuck after I read that.

That was the only best thing about that day. There were other shit that happened on June 29th which made Friday the 13th two weeks early.

-Katie Holmes filed for divorce from Tom Cruise. She could've been set for life from all the royalties that Tom Cruise made in his films. The worst part is that Katie Holmes also requested full custody of their daughter Suri Cruise in the divorce suit. As a person like myself who grew up next to Hollywood and has experienced two divorces from my parents (true story), this sucks. Well the part with Tom Cruise not seeing his daughter, but everything else about this divorce case is nothing in Hollywood.

-Lauryn Hill get sent to jail for not filing income tax returns. Shows that some musicians aren't that crazy rich. Very sad to hear a talented artist who won a shit load of Grammys back in the late 90s gets thrown into this mess.

-Adele announces to the universe that she's gonna be a mom. Good for her expecting a kid which was unexpected to the rest of us. The bloke who piped her is 12 years old than her.

-Lamar Odom returns to Staples Center. Not as a Laker again, but as a Clipper again. Now those games are gonna sell out and the tickets will increase in value. No surprise if his wife is getting scored on by Clipper Darrell in the Staples Center crowd.

-Magic Mike premieres in theaters. Fuck, no thanks.

-Instagram servers crashed from the storms in the east coast that messed up their server base there. Yeah, alot of scene kids and spoiled chicks with iPhones weren't able to take photos of their dinner at some restaurant or a landscape sunset taken at a place that I've never heard of for a few hours, and that caused them to loose their patience. Not just instagram, but Netflix was out as well. I don't even have Netflix so I can't speak on that. Anyways, it got resolved over the weekend and now its working. It weird cause I used to talk so much shit about instagram for the past two years but now after they launched a Android version of it last April, I then forgot everything I said about it and then got completely addicted to it. Then Mark Zuckerburg and Facebook's corporate ass bought it out for motherfucking 2 Billion dollars. With that being said, follow my black ass on instagram. Screenname: justforsneaks07

-Erin Andrews quits ESPN. I had the privilege to see her in person early last year at The Grove, and she looks better on TV. Her stint on "Dancing With The Has-Beens" and that peephole incident made her exposed as not just a sports reporter. I even blogged about her three years ago. http://justforsneaks07.blogspot.com/2009/07/my-dearest-rachel-nichols.html

So like I said, I'm glad I got to finally do what I like every weekend. Its crazy to actually say that my stint at Galpin Ford was shorter than Kim Kardashian's previous marriage to gay-ass Kris Humphries. But let me tell you what's actually longer than that fabricated marriage.

Myself joining Facebook (my first profile) five years ago- July 1, 2007

Myself joining Flickr- July 1, 2008

Myself joining Blogger (this site)- July 1, 2009

As you get older, you start to look back and notice how much time has went by from when you started on whatever you're currently focused on. I remember when I first launched "Random Shots" on Blogger (I originally had it hosted on iWeb back when I owned a Macbook in 2008), times were somewhat different. Barack Obama was just getting used to the White House. Now his term is gonna be up in 4 months. Michael Jackson just passed away a few weeks earlier. Now they're still doing tribute shows and his Physician Dr. Conrad Murray is locked up. The Lakers at the time just won the NBA title and Kobe Bryant won his fourth ring. Now the Miami Heat won the NBA title and Lebron James won his first ring. My little sister just finished her Freshman year at Kennedy High School then. Now she's about to start her Freshman year in College next month.

Many thanks to everyone (especially the ones who read my long ass posts word for word) for always to stop what you're doing for a few moments of your valuable time just to read some of the thoughts that I type up on here every now and then. I'm still gonna continue writing some entertaining stuff on here cause that's what I like to do, and the feedback of it makes me more confident as I keep typing. Again, thank you for your time.