http://www.jsonline.com/lifestyle/fashion/may04/231715.asp
Who'd pay $115 for a pair of women's shoes? Lots of guys, that's who
By VIKKI ORTIZ
Curtis Jackson is, in most ways, a stereotypical manly man.
He plays basketball. He burps out loud. He leaves a mess in every room. But
until this past weekend, he felt there was something missing from his
guy's-guy image.
He wanted, no, he needed a pair of pink women's shoes.
"It's the hot thing to have," said Jackson, 21, who joined dozens of other
men in a long line at 8 a.m. Saturday outside the Finish Line at Mayfair
Mall in Wauwatosa. The store opened two hours early to accommodate a trend
that, in recent months, has left athletic-store clerks and vendors
scratching their heads.
Pink is the new, hot color in hip-hop and urban gear, especially for men.
And because almost none of the athletic clothing manufacturers make pink
shoes in men's sizes, fashion-conscious guys are squeezing their feet into
the women's styles. This past weekend, it was the Nike Women's Jordan Retro
12 Low that was released at the Finish Line. Other brands of pink women's
shoes - including Reebok, Phat Farm and K Swiss - have been popular as
well.
"I make sure and say, 'Y'know, that's a woman's shoe . . .' but they don't
care anymore," said Dominic Bowden, assistant manager at the Underground
Station at The Shops of Grand Avenue. Bowden said he sells at least as many
- if not more - pink shoes to men as he does to women.
Two floors above, at Lady Foot Locker, store clerk Frank Cunningham is
getting tired of disappointing women who want pink for their size 11 feet.
"I have to say, 'Ma'am, we don't have your size. We sold it to a young
man,' " he said.
Several famous men have gone public in pink this season, from Ashton
Kutcher in a pale pink suit escorting Demi Moore to Larry King and his pink
suspenders. But hip-hop style experts attribute pink's street popularity to
rapper Cam'ron, who made a name for himself with pink jumpsuits, pink
minks, a pink cell phone and a hot pink Range Rover that he sold on eBay
for $160,000 last month. With his new album, "Purple Haze," set for release
this summer, rumor has it the trendsetter may be switching to a new color.
But for now, pink's popularity is holding strong. Millions of viewers saw
Cam'ron accept a Source Award on Black Entertainment Television wearing all
pink in November. Soon after that Big Boi, of the Grammy-award winning duo
OutKast, stepped out in a pink jacket. And the trend seems to be growing,
said Stephen Hill, senior vice president of music and entertainment for
BET.
In the hip-hop world, Hill believes, the pink trend is not about being
preppy. It's an ironic statement of masculinity. "It's being able to say
'I'm so hard and rough that I'll look hard and rough even in pink.' "
At Nike headquarters, communications manager Nate Tobecksen said the men-
buying-women's-shoes trend did not surprise the company, given the way male
buyers responded to an earlier line that used more feminine colors. The
Twisted Prep line, which came out in October 2003, featured men's shoes in
dark pink, lime green and purple, and it was wildly popular, Tobecksen
said.
Tobecksen warned that women's shoes are narrower than men's shoes, but he
said this hasn't affected the pink trend.
"People who love shoes - some people call them sneakerheads - they're
devoted. And if they see something they like, people will go to pretty
great lengths to get them," Tobecksen said.
Which leads people such as James Smith, district manager for Mayfair's
Finish Line, to wonder whether the athletic companies make pink shoes only
in women's sizes on purpose. Shoe companies monitor sales carefully and try
not to flood the market, Smith said. But they might have avoided men's pink
shoes for another reason, he added.
"Fear," said Smith, who has worked in the athletic shoe industry for more
than a decade and has watched shoe fads come and go. "They're not sure it's
going to sell."
For now, they are selling. Consider Mitchell Blue, an 18-year-old student
at Bay View High School, who woke up early on Saturday hoping to get his
second pair of pink women's shoes. Blue says his pink has been a hit with
the ladies.
"Most girls like dudes that wear pink," he said.
By 9 a.m. Saturday - an hour after the pink Jordans went on sale - all the
size 11 shoes were sold out. By 12:30 p.m. the store was sold out of the
$114.99 pink and white women's shoes completely.
One of those pairs was sold to the manly Curtis Jackson, whose cell phone
rang playing Usher's "Can U Handle It" as he walked out of the mall. The
caller asked a question, to which Jackson responded with a triumphant
smile.
"Yeah," he said. "I got 'em."