via Kristine Adelante

by Nick Grant

as told by Jessica Grant

I was blessed to meet, fall in love with and get the chance to spend the rest of my life with a beautiful, smart, savvy small town Midwestern girl who grew up in a modest home with a family who would eventually take me in as their very own flesh and blood. She became my life, but before she even came into my life, I only had one true boo thang that I cherished beyond belief: my sneakers.

Fuck, did I love my sneakers. And I still do. Sometimes, it still gives me chills at night thinking about which pair I’m going to flex in the next day. Not even caring if it will make an impact on those around me (it doesn’t) or if they will somehow put me onto another level that is unreachable by plebs (it did...OK, maybe it didn’t). But, sometimes, this euphoric balloon is deflated by that very person I gave the driver seat in my vehicle of true love, placing sneakers in the back (Safe in their boxes, of course).

I have a feeling that many men and women who have an obsession with sneakers would do the same if they found that one perfect, warm-bodied human significant other. Even if that significant other would never ask you to give up on that other love of your life. But there are always those undeniable, undeterrable moments when your better half just doesn’t understand. You can try to explain it to them, but it just doesn’t resonate with them like it does with you. So, instead of trying to tell you what I think she thinks, I’ve let my wife tell all of what she thinks of my sneaker habit. She has some choice words, some burning questions and downright says some shit that really pisses me off. All things I’m sure any sneakerhead with a significant other can relate to.

"Why do they all have to be so expensive?"

via Nick Grant

She got a bad taste of this right from the jump and I blame myself for introducing her to this too soon. When we first got together in college and I was spending all of my extra cash on sneakers, I'm pretty sure she questioned what she was getting into.

Knowing damn well I didn't have a job, except for basketball camps in the summer, and a small allowance from my parents, considering they weren't paying for my college education, almost every dollar outside of McDonald's double cheeseburgers was spent on Dunk SB's, Co.Jps and rare Jordans. But it wasn't her money, so she learned to live with it.

Now, it's a real fluctuating scale she is basing this on, considering I've purchased many pairs of Vans that have been $75 and less. But, when she sees the pricetag for my Rick Owens or adidas x Raf Simons, her mind blows out of her butt.

"It will never be something I get used to," she says. "I get that nice things cost money, but sometimes you don’t even hesitate at the price tag on a pair of shoes and unfortunately we don’t have unlimited cash.”

I'm pretty sure she thinks I'm a label whore without saying it to my face. But, had it not been for my sneakers, I am not 100 percent sure she would have even noticed me.