800 Pairs

I own three pairs of sneakers. One’s basically dead. That leaves two.

Julia from Berlin owns 800.

I get the obsession. Sneakers are good shoes, and once you start paying attention there’s always another one calling. But 800? That’s not collecting. That’s a whole life decision.

Adidas flew Julia and a few other true believers to Herzogenaurach to live out that dream for a day. Part of me resents her for it. The bigger part understands completely. There’s something clean about that level of commitment—no excuses, no performance, just someone who loves shoes more than is reasonable and built their world around it.

At my current pace I’ll hit 800 in about thirty years. By then Julia will probably be deep into something else equally absurd. Knitting. Weird chips. Climbing mountains in animal costumes. The world’s full of rabbit holes, and some people are just better at finding them.