Faraz Ghanbari
Converse REACT Pandemonium
Twitter: @Laced_Heat/Instagram: Laced_Heat
The year was 1994; it was back-to-school time for me, and I had just moved to a new town. My parents never had much money so getting a fancy pair of shoes wasn’t something common in my household. I would get new shoes every year, but they would always be the ones on sale or on the clearance racks while all the other kids in school were rocking Ewings and Jordans.
That year, I’ll never forget, I went to the mall with my mom to pick a pair of shoes. I went into a small sports store and found the Converse REACT Pandemonium that Kevin Johnson wore. I thought the shoes were amazing, especially because of the REACT JUICE they featured (this was back when Converse was making moves with their basketball shoes). They were $80 – and that was a lot of money for shoes in the 90s – so I obviously wasn’t expecting to get them. I showed my mom the kicks anyways and was caught off guard when my mom actually splurged by getting me the shoes. I couldn’t wait till the first day of school to wear my new shoes. I’ll always remember these as they were the first shoes I got that I cherished and actually cleaned after each and every wear. Thanks, mom!