I played basketball all through grade school and high school and continued to play pick up since.  It was through basketball that I first got into sneakers.  The first pair I recall having was a pair of simple white Adidas.  They were nothing fancy, just whites from a sale bin.  My dad then splurged on a pair of sale Pumps for me which looked absolutely ridiculous but I loved.  Shawn Kemp eventually became my favourite player and I had a few pairs of the black and white pumps (I think they were the Kamikazi’s).  I then got onto the swoosh with a few pairs of Flights (also sale bins).  But of all my kicks, the ones I recall the most were the Nike Air Flight Huarache’s.  These were first made popular by the Michigan fab five (Jimmy King, Jalen Rose, Chris Webber, Ray Jackson and Juwan Howard).

I first had a black pair and then moved on to these white ones which had the black, lyon blue, and blue berry color scheme. I absolutely loved these and never forgot them. They were first released in 1992 and were reissued in 2014.  As soon as they were retroed, I picked up a pair (on sale) from some online store in Sweden.  I still play some pickupball and wore these shits only five times and my baby toe busted right through the shoe.

I was so sad, it’s like I was let down by my childhood idol.  Anyways, I recall Nike had a program where you could send in defective shoes (if purchased within two years).  I looked it up and it existed!  However, they would not guarantee to send you the same pair, but it would be the same size and a comparable performance shoe.  The downside was that I had to pay for shipping the shoes back to them.  Oh yeah, if they deemed the shoe not to be defective, you’re shit out of luck and they would send your damaged shits right back to you.  Despite this, I figured why not and decided to give it a shot.  I wrote a note begging for the same pair and explaining my childhood memories of these shoes.  Anyways, I heard nothing for almost two months and one day a package arrived and it was a brand new spanking pair of the shoes!  Thank you Nike! I am so impressed!  I think the fact that they were released again in 2015 helped as well.

On a related note, I came across an awesome brand of clothing by Vandal-A.  They have these “OG” shirts coloured in some of the original “OG” releases.  Saw this shirt which reminded me of my Huarache Flights.  A must have!