I’ve been hunting for a new pair of Nike trainers.  For ages.  Ages.

I have specifically wanted Nike trainers, because I know that they will fit me.  I don’t have to faff around trying on pairs.  Just hand me my size and I can walk away safe in the knowledge that they will be fine.  Always have been; always will be.

Should be easy to buy a new pair of trainers then?  Well, so you would think.  But I’ve been looking for the right pair for ages.  Ages.

The problem is that there are just so many designs these days.  And, the more designs, the more outlandish the designer seems to strive to be.  There are trainers with outlandish soles; trainers with outlandish uppers; trainers that are so outlandish that they no longer resemble trainers at all.  I just want a regular pair of trainers.  But can I find them?  No.  I’ve been looking for ages.  Ages.

So, I look on the Nike website, and I stumble across Nike By You.  It offers the means to design my own pair of Nike trainers.  To my own specifications.  Just exactly how I want.  I can dump the weird Vapormax soles; forget the bizarre zips of the Air Max Butane; kick into the long grass the odd colours; strange bobbles; and space-age fabrics that fill my High Street stores.  Here is a place where I can construct my own perfect Nike trainer.  Stripped back; functional; classic.  The kind of Nike trainer that I have been hunting for ages.  Ages.

And this is the result.

I chose the material.  The colour.  The style.  The emblem.  The laces.  And the price?  Well, I didn’t choose that, but it was not so much different to anything offered on my High Street.

Now, normally, I am not an advocate of the consumer taking the role of the manufacturer; generally, I don’t approve of the trade-fluid blurring of the production line and the end user but, in this case, I am prepared to make an exception.

I like my new trainers.  Nike by me.

© E. C. Glendenny

E. C. Glendenny is happy to have done some of Nike’s work for them.