As I’m walking between buildings, I glance down and see one pair of shoes more than any other over and over and over again. The white hightop Converse. The one shoe that everybody seems to own. It’s a shame when something gets so mainstream that it’s not as cool as it use to be, and the white high Converse are too mainstream.

   Let’s take a blast to the past. The black and white old skool Vans. Last year, I distinctly remember only two or three people having them. Seeing those 2 or 3 students, one would think “whoa those kids have style” or think that they’re cool because they’ve never seen the shoe before. As time went on, more and more people started to purchase them. It went from two or three students owning them to ten. When one glances down and sees ten pairs of the same shoes, the wow factor and originality of the shoe is gone. Now seeing people with the old skool Vans, I instantly think that they’re trying to follow along. Not that they like the shoes themselves. This is the direction that the white hightop Converse are headed, when it’s not so much a trend but a game of follow the leader.

  To me, a person’s shoe game can say a lot about them. When I see the same pair repeatedly, I start to wonder if people are getting them because THEY think they’re cool, or to follow the trend while it lasts. It’s easy for a person to lose themselves in a trend and just follow along, because they don’t want to be the odd one out. The trend is hitting harder than one might think. Walking from North to South on a Tuesday, 13 students had a pair of the white hightop converse on, and walking from my first to second hour 9 students had them on. This goes to show that the white converse are becoming more popular, and becoming less original.

  Seeing the shoe worn by more than 8 students, one could guess that the high-top converse is headed in the same direction that the Old Skool vans went. As cool as the converse used to be, they’re slowly losing their originality and becoming too mainstream to be considered original.