Aaron Kr. 
Trekking it out to the city in a pair of two-decade old OG Nikes is an incalculable risk that can be met with disastrous consequences despite a high reward of breaking necks and kicking it legitimately old-school. But there’s no spoiler alert necessary because you already know how this one ended: the midsoles of these OG ATCs completely dissolved and split lengthwise, leaving the heel fighting desperately to hang on while slapping up and down the pavement. ‘Twas the doomed ending of this original pair of the Nike Air Tech Challenge worn by beeibeei, a fearless female sneaker fiend who traded in her soul/sole for a date with a pair of OGs – but that courtship was cut short to no surprise.
Being within walking distance of ALIFE in the Lower East Side of Manhattan was a boon to this relatively catastrophic experience, and like all women do on bad dates, beeibeei left ’em behind and hunted for fresh meat or a quick replacement. As she left ALIFE with her new pair of kicks, beeibeei was no longer hindered by the pins and needles that accompany the act of wearing vintage kicks – and although she may have enjoyed the few hours of living on the edge, doing a mental fist-pump after every city block successfully cleared, the Air Tech Challenge’s soul/sole was gone for good. She might’ve looked back once or twice as she left the store but when a sneaker arrives at the point of no return – depreciating to ‘unwearable’ vegetable status – there might be no reason to look back, as the shoe has no choice but to be glued together or mummified on a display case. Rest in peace, gone but not forgotten, additional cliche death-related statement. You’ve lived a long life, but it was time to go.
