A Sneaky Culture

I collect sneakers. I realize to most this seems like a strange hobby for a man, however I assure you it is a big thing now among hip young urbanites. Finding rare Nikes and Jordan, along with some other less known brands has become an interesting subculture and good marketing fueled it all.
Sneaker culture is like another participatory culture, there are forms where people trade gossip about upcoming shoes, show off their collections and even try and sell them. There are blog setup with news and rumors about upcoming shoe releases, and the lot. However the interesting thing about this participatory culture is its close ties to one of the largest corporations in its field and idolizes over consumption. We have all been sold on the shoes as being cool we do not care about the politics of that little swoosh.
The real ironic thing is that these are the same youth that clam to care about causes and will only wear cloths made by lesser-known liberal companies that contain political messages akin to that of the 60’s. So they make you believe you care about these causes, meanwhile you are working against these ideals by over consuming and supporting Nike.
These type of people (including me unfortunately) clam to care about social issues and a disgusted that wealth is so unevenly distributed, meanwhile they are wearing $400 jeans, a $300 jacket, a $75 tee shirt and to top it all off $500 shoes they bought from another collector that paid half of that. It is a great real world example of ironic hypocrisy and of the power of PR. It is a grim future that when the youth culture is no longer based on an ideal or way of thinking, but on a brand. Are we that cheap? Are we that foolish? It seems like it.