Marcel Winatschek

These Shoes

Hannah and I were at the Adidas Originals store in the Hackescher Markt—that’s the market in Berlin—and she found these Superstar I sneakers in neon from the NBA Highlights collection. Fluorescent. Stupid bright. The kind of shoe that shouldn’t exist but did anyway.

I wanted them immediately. Not because I’d been looking for them or even thinking about sneakers. Just the pure fact of seeing something and knowing, in that moment, that I needed it. The neon was almost too much, the kind of color that makes you question your taste while you’re staring at it, but I’d decided before I even finished looking.

Of course I didn’t buy them. I left the store and that was the end of it. But I think about them sometimes—not often, just the way you remember any small moment that surprised you. I couldn’t tell you now what exactly made them so appealing. Maybe the color. Maybe the moment. Either way, they’re in the past.