Maybe you don’t remember your first pair of shoes, the ones you learned to walk in. Never mind remembering the second or third pairs. A shoe, at its most basal function, is just to keep you from running one’s feet raw. Collections would have been one of the last things they were meant for.

Collectors have eventually piled up and formed mobs, clumping together to make today’s sneaker scene as you know it. The sneaker scene in its entirety may be intimidating—with each limited edition sneaker costing 10 times the regular rubber shoes—and thus siring the sneakerhead stereotype.

Dissecting a sneakerhead’s sole may reveal that shoe collecting is a more personal affair than an overly preventive measure from feet blisters and calluses.

Kick start

Everybody has a story of humble beginnings and sneakerheads are no exception. Mykee Alvero (III AB Philo), founder of Them Kicks Manila, an online group on Multiply.com that serves as a network for shoe hobbyists to buy and sell shoes, says, “I guess it’s because shoes were part of my growing up. My dad was a huge Michael Jordan fan and there were times when he’d get Air Jordans for himself.” Either through a less known hereditary genetic trait or years of careful conditioning, Mykee made shoe collecting a thing of his own when he was in junior year high school.

Initially, Mykee was unaware of his growing collector’s itch but soon his love interest for shoes gradually matured. “I didn’t know at first because I only used to get what I thought looked nice,” he says. But he found more reasons to collect over time. “Some shoes came out ages ago, but are still really popular in present day. (…) I guess I found it cool how they could always stay present and relevant.” For him, it is the concept behind the shoes’ creation that catches his eye. From vintage sneaker models to artists’ signature designs to obscure Rocky references, the stories behind the shoes keep him collecting.

JC Taruc (IV AB IS) shares the same adolescent onset fascination with shoes as Mykee. “I’ve always been fond of shoes ever since I could remember,” says JC, remembering it like the first symptoms of a fever. “It started out as just simply buying shoes then as I reached college, I began researching more about shoes so I began looking for shoes not available locally through eBay or relatives who are based abroad.”

It may seem like a lot of trouble but JC is more than accustomed to the nitty-gritty labors of a collector. “Collecting is really just something I find solace and comfort in. I have a lot of collections,” says JC who is also an avid vintage toy collector. He says that shoes are the most difficult to collect. “It’s about the thrill of having a particular shoe. (…) The thrill talaga (really) of wanting a particular pair is what gets me going.”

Aptly named “Kix” Suarez (III AB IS), meanwhile, is not an open self-professed collector—“I’m not a collector. I just like shoes”—yet like any collector, his endearment toward shoes started at an early age (as Michael Jordan makes his second unprecedented appearance in this article). “Maybe it was out of the frustration of not really getting nice Jordans when I was in grade school.”

While Kix owns his share of collectible shoes, he keeps them for more personal, sentimental reasons. “It’s just that every pair is different. There are stories behind each shoe,” he says, preferring not to disclose the private stories. “The first ones I ever really liked are still with me. Most of them have meaning to me, like sentimental mushy meaning. There’s my first ‘skate’ shoe, my first designer shoe, my first real Nike. Stuff like those.”

The scene

Mykee, JC, and Kix, although differing in reasons for collecting shoes, are all part of a local sneaker culture that JC says is “definitely growing.” “More people are getting into it and there are more ways for people to pursue it,” says JC.

Xavier Gonzalez, known better by shoe hobbyists as travelling shoe salesman “Manila Guerilla” says that in the last two years alone, “a whole bunch” of stores and online resellers have set up businesses solely dedicated to sneakers. He says, “No signs of it slowing down, too, so it’s faring pretty well.”

Kix relates his own experience in the vending end of things “We joined a bazaar in Ateneo a few months back. We actually didn’t expect to sell anything. All we wanted to do was get our names out and be known that we sell and they can contact us if they wanted nice shoes.” An estimated nine pairs found new homes that day with one pair (a limited edition Nike Air Force 1 touched up by renowned Singaporean street artist Mark Ong who works under the name SBTG) costing a whopping P14,000.

Apparently, the sneaker love has spread itself across our fair metropolis infecting friends, family, and anyone in between. “My friends actually encourage my love for sneakers,” says JC. “Although not many of them are in the know about sneakers, some of them try to learn stuff in order to get where I am coming from.”

And it was just a matter of time before some naysayers were converted. “I used to have friends who would tell me that I had too many shoes,” says Mykee “Then again, those friends got into collecting as well.  Same thing with some of my relatives, I have cousins who got into collecting as well.”

Sole search

Even with the Philippine sneaker scene growing populous, shoe collecting has never and may never lose its personal appeal to individual collectors.

“It’s the same high people get from collecting stamps, toys, memorabilia cards, and anything else that’s collectible,” says Gonzalez. “The thrill of the hunt is undoubtedly fun too. The pride they get from seeing what they’ve amassed through the years. Owning stuff is fun, even more so when it’s the stuff you love.”

But Mykee says he doesn’t yearn for any particular achievement with his collection. “I’m not looking out to be a guy who’s all exclusive, limited, premium sneakers,” he says. “The ones who really last are the ones who just really like sneakers without the pretense of what’s valuable or limited.”

Kix agrees with Mykee’s sentiment. “It’s not about getting the better pair or having the most expensive ones. It’s just something I got into because it’s something I like and not something I want to be known for.”

With fervent sneakerheads in the scene, Gonzalez prophesizes: “The world will never run out of shoe freaks, whether it be for high heels or sneakers, they’ll always be there.”

This simply means that for as long as flip-flops don’t take over the world, or that a worldwide sock famine doesn’t strike, and that somehow the human race still finds relevance in walking, there will be sneakers. And for as long as there are sneakers there will be sneakerheads to covet them.