Blow Out Those Candles!!! – My Favorite Birthday Sneaks by Bryan Hinkle

In my house growing up, there was a tradition – you got a pair of shoes to start school, a pair for basketball in November, and when the season was over you wore those until the next school year. Not exactly ghetto poor, but there were no multiple Jordans in the closet waiting to be un-deadstocked.

Then, amazingly, around 7th grade, I had a notion, an idea, a VISION – shoes for my birthday. Now that I could rock with. Starting in seventh, the list of classics I pulled was long. Just to name a few – Reebok BB5600 (white/red/blue), Nike Air Delta Force, Nike Solo Flights, Air Jordan VI’s, Bo Jackson Trainers, and I could go on.

But there was only one shoe I can honestly call my favorite birthday pickup, and it happened kind of under the radar. Back then (yeah, here we go) there were no interwebs or message boards or release calendars. You walked in and saw what was on the shelf and walked out. So, birthday, 1993, I walk into a Fort Worth Foot Locker – wooden display shelves, round tables on the floor, scoreboard over the register, looking for the Jordan VII to be marked down since the VIII was soon coming out, and those I DID NOT want, as seen in the commercials, Doc).

Lo and behold, what do I see? The shoe that changed the game for me. Bright colors, small Swoosh, space-age lacing system, and just crazy enough that NO ONE I knew would have them. What was this magical piece of footwear? Boom –

The 1993 Nike Air Haurache Light. Completely slept on at the time, and to this day, STILL my favorite running shoe ever, and top 5 shoe I have owned, period. The colors, the comfort, the technology, all added up to a shoe no one knew what to do with. I wore these for golf, for weights, for running, for cross-training, for chasing girls – they were Vers-A-Tile.  I eventually wore the soles off and got into the Phylon midsole and alas, they were gone. I have not been able to get my hands on a retro in the US of this colorway, and the Free version was just sad to me, but if this EXACT shoe comes in my vision, I will have no less than, say, at least one pair. Happy Birthday to me, 1993.