The Debate for the Best Shoe Brand Continues
Credit to Etaf Abdallah
Reale puts on his Air Jordan 3 Retro OG ‘True Blue’ shoes. Reale plays basketball, enjoys busing and all kinds of shoes. He once met professional basketball player Kyrie Andrew Irving, who plays for the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association
New balance is a footwear and apparel company founded in 1906 based in Boston, Massachusetts, that is dedicated to aiding athletes in their pursuits. While New Balance products are not currently environmentally friendly due to their use of regular cottons and petroleum based fibers, they have committed to several stability goals such as having 50 percent of its polyester to be recycled. Even though New Balance isn’t as popular as some bigger brands such as Nike and Adidas, it recently has made a surge in popularity, with the 574s, 550s and 990s being some of the most popular sneakers within the brand. New Balance has also made a shoe with NBA basketball player Kawhi Leonard. Being an athletic brand, New Balance has a wide variety of sports wear from basketball shoes to soccer and baseball cleats.
“I have to go [with] New Balance,” sophomore and baseball player Dominic Jefferies said. “They have the best cleats.”
Nike is another sports based footwear and apparel company. Nike was founded in 1964 in Oregon and is easily one of, if not the most popular sports brand in the United States. Nike has made large leaps in their sustainability with their “Move to Zero” program and their “Nike Forward” material. You can even buy refurbished shoes from their official website and they have many stores that allow you to drop off worn shoes for donation or recycling. Nike is the brand behind some of the most popular shoes in the United States with their signature Air Force 1, Air Jordan series and their various other collaboration shoes such as Lebron, Kobe and Giannis.
“I like Nike SB’s because they got a longer lasting material for skateboarding but they got good color ways,” sophomore Adian Martinez said.
Birkenstock is a company that primarily sells sandals and shoes that are made from leathers, textiles, natural cork and synthetic fabrics for comfort, durability and look. The Birkenstock company boasts environmentally friendly practices and products through water based adhesives and the use of jute; a natural stabilizer. One of the secrets to the comfortability of specifically their sandals, is the footbed, which was originally coined by Brikenstock in the 1930s.
“They’re very comfortable,” social studies teacher Kimberly Coil said. “They may not always be the most stylish, but my feet feel good and that’s important.”
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