Monday, February 18, 2008

The Nike Years

Dan worked for Nike for several years, when our boys were young. I really hadn't thought about it in awhile, until my friend, Gloria, mentioned that we had bought their daughter her very first pair of Nikes -- size 2, pink and white.

Shopping at the Nike Company Store was the best part of Dan's job, at least from the perspective of the boys and me. As employees (or family), we could buy Nike products at a fraction of the regular retail cost. We were allowed to purchase, without limit, for ourselves or as gifts for others.

As a result of the super prices, we did almost all of our boys' school-clothes shopping there. We could buy shirts, jackets, sweat suits, shoes (of course), back packs, and even underwear there! You hardly ever saw either Chris or Tim without "swooshes" on their clothing.

At this time, Chris was about 12 years old, and just becoming aware of "cool" clothing. And, in those years, Nike was about as cool as you could get! I hadn't realized just how important clothing was becoming to him, until the day came when Dan told the boys that he would be changing jobs -- moving from Nike to another company, to better his career.

To our utter surprise, upon hearing this news flash, Chris suddenly broke into tears. "Now I'll have to wear junky clothes," he howled, knowing (correctly) that his days of an all-Nike wardrobe were coming to an end.

Mr. Nike - Sixth Grade

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a handsom young man Chris was. One day we took Tim shopping for new shoes for his birthday. We told Tim he could pick out any shoe he liked, and he said "My Mom won't let me wear Nike's, because they cost too much." We said, "Mom is not buying these, grandpa is , and you get anything you like." What do you think he chose? Of course, Nike.

Linda Judd said...

Yes - he's still a handsome young man :-)

And yes, I guess Chris was right when he said, "Now I'll have to wear junky clothes." No more Nikes for the boys, except when Nanny and Papa came to the rescue. That's what grandparents are for :-)

Kelsey said...

Good thing Dan switched jobs; that prepared Chris for a cheapo wife who wouldn't be buying nice things for him.

It's funny he complained about junky clothes. He couldn't care less now. In fact, I have to ask him to not wear his white undershirts out in public sometimes.