I remember my first pair of velcro sneakers. I remember they were white leather, and each shoe had two velcro straps. It was extra cool to cross one strap over the other to create an X. I remember my mom was psyched because I am the slowest person on the planet when it comes to getting ready for anything, so thanks to the advent of the velcro sneaker, my shoe-tying would no longer make us late for things.

I remember when penny loafers came back. But they couldn’t be just any penny loafers – they had to be Bass Weejuns. And they had to contain pennies, right-side up, with Lincoln’s profile clearly visible in that little half-moon window. I remember stepping on the backs of the loafers to flatten them down – a DIY conversion to mules. We also did this with our…

…Sebagos. And they had to be Sebago. They couldn’t be Bass or L.L. Bean. I remember lacing them in parallel lines instead of criss-crossed, and instead of tying the laces, the ends had to be wrapped into a little coil.

I remember fluorescent laces shaped like springs with which we replaced our everyday laces.

I remember making “friendship pins” by stacking seed beads on tiny gold safety pins and lining them up across the bottom laces of my Tretorns. I remember trading them with friends, but only if the safety pins were tiny and gold, not giant and silver. I remember going to Robin’s Hardware in Vineyard Haven to buy the beads and the pins. They were on the wall to the right when you walked in the door in the same place where they hung latex masks at Halloween.

I remember Sam and Libby ballet flats with big leather bows.

I remember push-down socks. They had a name, which I can’t remember. Scrunch socks, maybe? I remember Claudia Kishi wore them all the time in the Babysitters’ Club books. I remember it was super cool to coordinate two sets of socks with your outfit, and then stack them, say, yellow over green on your left foot and green over yellow on your right.

sneakers_velcro

These are way cooler than the sneakers I owned, but at the time, I wouldn't have been caught dead in these, because in the 80s, it was rumored that Adidas stood for "All day I dream about sex." I was, like, 10, so Nike it was. Or probably Reebok....

Advertisement