Macias 1

Jason Macias
ENGL 1301 124
Professor Briones
September 13, 2021
Laredo Sneaker & Streetwear Club

Introduction

When the demand of products is at a skyrocketing high, you would assume companies

would meet their demands, right? Some big named brands like Nike and Adidas have been

producing a limited number of shoes that sell out within seconds of release! Having a reliable

source to get certain limited products sure is a lifesaver. One reliable source is a Facebook group

called the Laredo Sneaker & Streetwear Club. Their sole purpose is to give people the chance to

obtain limited released sneakers and clothes, offer their knowledge on sneakers and other

services, and communicate with each other about their passion for sneakers.

Background

The Laredo Sneaker & Streetwear club was created to bring together the sneakerheads of

Laredo. It is a group heavily made up of males, but also includes females as well. It currently has

five thousand seven hundred members and was created on October 5th, 2014. Since its origin is

here in Laredo, the ethnicities of members are dominantly Hispanic. There are a wide variety of

ethnic groups involved as well. The reasoning behind this group’s creation was to give the

people a chance to buy or sell limited released sneakers or streetwear. Some named brands like

Jordan, Yeezy, Supreme, and BAPE are usually what group members target.

Services
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The group has expanded its services from just to selling or buying to cleaning sneakers,

checking the legitimacy of sneakers, and even customizing or restoring sneakers. Some members

go out of their way to buy the top cleaning products to offer their services to best clean the

sneakers while not damaging the quality. In our current era, replica sneakers have gotten better

with time that they almost look as real as the original. Members of the group know what

imperfections to look for when “legit” checking a shoe. Some examples that I have witnessed

they look for are stitching patterns, color and quality of the materials used, logo placement, to

even the height and shape of the shoe. When wearing your sneakers too much they can cause

wear and tear. Some group members offer their service to restore your shoe to the best of their

ability. This can vary from removing creasing on the shoe, repainting scuffs on the shoes,

whitening parts of the shoe to even swapping the midsole on some shoes.

Interactions

Their passion for sneakers has bonded them together to a point where they have a system

of communicating set up. Although it is plain and simple, it is very effective. The group’s main

way of communicating is through posts. When a member is looking for a specific shoe in a

certain size all they have to do is make a post with the name of the shoe and size. Sometimes

members are not necessarily looking for a specific sneaker but want to see what members have to

offer so they can just make a post asking what shoes they have in their sizes. Sellers just have to

post pictures of the sneakers, size and price to get their posts up. Admins of the group have set

requirements when posting sneakers for sale. The Sneaker group also has acronyms implemented

in their way of posting. For example, “DS” stands for deadstock which means the sneaker has

never been worn, “VNDS” stands for very near deadstock which implies the sneaker is not

completely new, maybe, worn once or twice, but looks good as new. When they want their own
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posts to move up to be seen by most of the members they will comment “bump” on their own

posts which means bring up my post. When commenting on a post, their week-old post moves up

to the top to remind people their shoe is still for sale. Members usually put a “BIN” price which

stands for the buy it now price.

(Figure 1 is an example of how group members create posts on selling or looking for shoes.)

On the picture to the left commenter A is using “DS” on a pair of shoes he is offering. On the

picture to the right “DS” is used again as a member is looking for a pair of shoes that are new

and any lot number. Off white dunks were released with different lot numbers meaning each lot

number had a different style or color while keeping the same silhouette. Often there are times
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where members will enter raffles that the company themselves create to have a chance to buy

shoes and post their excitement of winning. This group is more than just selling or buying

sneakers. It has brought complete strangers together by giving them an opportunity to share

about how passionate they are about sneakers.

Conclusion

To sum up everything The Laredo Sneaker & Streetwear Club has so much more to offer

than just selling sneakers. Not only do they offer to clean and restore your shoes or give you

knowledge on the shoe itself. They are a welcoming group sharing the love they have for shoes

and streetwear. One could only imagine how many more groups across the world there are. This

makes me wonder if companies will ever end their limited releases to give everyone a chance at

buying sneakers.
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Work Cited

Commenter A. “Just received today.” Facebook Laredo Sneakers & Streetwear Club,

https://www.facebook.com/groups/390605244428070/?

multi_permalinks=2687165401438698. Accessed 13 September 2021.