My Experiences with Name Brand Shoes

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Yared T. Berhane

English 1A

19 February 2013

Essay 1

Professor Rogers

My Experiences with Name Brand Shoes

Name brand shoes are given a value based on the perception of our society. Depending on the brand of shoes and the famous people that the shoes are associated with, a price value is assigned. The cost may vary based on the reputation of the store that sells them. People often feel pressured to have the best and newest name brand shoe in order to keep up with the current fashion trend. Others may not care about fashion but they will wear name brand shoes because they are comfortable. Imitations have been developed for those who would like to wear name brand shoes and cannot afford them. The opinions of our society have put a ranking system in place, which determines where the best name brand shoes are sold and where the imitations can be found.

Footlocker is where the real name brands are sold. These shoes have real logos and signs that do not fall off very easily. Shoe collectors find that footlocker sells the most comfortable shoes such as Nikes, Addidas and other name brand shoes. Footlocker is well known and trusted, for this reason, the shoes sold there are very expensive. For many people, the expensive shoes are worth the price. Also, footlocker promotes athletics such as biking, hiking, basketball, baseball, and football. Many famous athletes such as Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryan, Tiger Woods, the William sisters, and the track runner and all time favorite Michael Johnson and the list goes on and on and on, that have shoes sold by footlocker presently or at some point in time. Its like a sing a long to brain wash young teens to look so fresh and so clean. To have expensive shoes allows teenagers to be the most popular and the coolest looking youngster ever. Even though footlocker sells very comfortable shoes, the problem is that many people cannot afford the expensive shoes. One pair of shoes is approximately $95.00 to $200.00 dollars. This is the major reason why people buy look a like shoes for less than the original price.

On the other hand, Big 5 is a shoe store that is known to sell brand name shoes for less than the price sold at Footlocker. One difference though is that the shoes sold at Big 5 have slight defects. One defect is the size of the shoes. Sometimes one shoe is a little smaller or bigger than the other shoe and sometimes this is noticeable and other times its not. Another issue is that the logos sometime fall off or erase off. For example, Nikes would end up as Ikes and sometimes the N in Nike would fall to the side and read as Zikes. Another example, Jordans would sound as Ordans. The third issue is that the shoes bought from Big 5 does not last that long. They usually last at least five to six months. Although Big 5 may not sell the highest quality shoes, it’s more affordable for families with children that have feet that grow really fast and play multiple sports.

Furthermore, Payless is another shoes store that sells shoes at a reduced price. This store often offers shoes for sale. Sales such as buy one get the second one for half the price attracts many customers. However, the shoes are not name brand, they are look a likes. In addition to this, Payless shoes get ruined very quickly and thy make loud noises when people walk in them. For example, when I was a young kid in the 6^th grade, my mother bought me a pair of shoes from Payless. It looked cool so I wore them to school. When I was walking, I kept hearing loud swoosh…. swoosh….swoosh sounds, so I stopped walking and the sound stopped. I started walking again and I heard the same sounds again, swoosh…swoosh…swoosh. I stopped and the noise stopped. I started walking again, and the sound kept getting louder and louder. Someone said, “dude..your shoes are making sounds, did you buy them from Payless?” I was so embarrassed, I said “no… I bought them from Footlocker.” It was so funny because I was new to America and I did not understand the inside jokes but I knew that I should always say that I got my shoes from footlocker.

In conclusion, the value that society has placed on name brand shoes has influenced the way of life of many people all around the world. People are willing to pay a lot of money to fit in with the current trend. Others prefer to be comfortable and are only willing to wear expensive name brand shoes. “Monkey see, monkey do.”