A Beginner's Guide to Sneaker Terminology

With the sneaker game changing so drastically and a new generation jumping into an obsession, I thought it was only appropriate that I get the newcomers up to speed on how to talk that talk when it comes to kicks. I decided to put together my own kicktionary of terms. Check out my blog Beginner's Guide to Sneaker Terminology.

AGLETS

Aglets are those little things that are on the end of shoelaces. They used to be made of simple plastic but now, they come in everything from carbon fiber to custom labeled versions to Jesus piece-matching gold.

BEATERS
Beaters are those kicks you always choose to wear, even after they've been worn over and over again. In fact, at a certain point, you start to love every bit of "character" that shows in the form of creases, scuffs, stains, and that always lovely stench. Well, maybe not the stench. And without fail, even if you have 1,000 pairs of sneakers, you wind up with a pair of beaters.

COLORWAY
A sneaker's colorway is the particular combination of colors applied to a sneaker. It's also a vastly annoying term, but a necessary evil in this world of ours. Often times, a nickname is associated with the colorway that's found on the box. For instance, the Oregon, the Black Cements and the True Blues are all different colorways of the Jordan III silhouette. Come on people, can't we just memorize the color codes?

HIGH TOP

High-tops back in the day were made to give additional ankle support. They were also actual high-tops, meaning the height of the sneaker was well above the top of the ankle. There are very few true high-tops made today. What passes for a "high" today would have been a low back in the day.

OGs

Originals. Not a retro, not a re-release, but the first time a shoe released is the only time a sneaker is called OG. It's like code, for original. Don't get caught slippin' and say a retro is an OG because the Twitter sneaker police will ridicule you, because, you know, they have nothing better to do.

RETRO

A retro model is a sneaker that came out previously that is released again. Retro sneakers are simultaneously the best and worst thing about sneakers. On the one hand, a retro model (aka bring-back, throwback, re-release) gives most of us the chance to grab a pair of shoes we either couldn't get before, or we wore so much we gotta have another pair. On the other hand, it's retros that seem to be the highest in demand on the resale market, making them harder to come by because of the quick buck people think they can make off of them.

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