Submitted 6 hours ago by BigTrout75@lemmy.world to mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world
He’s always wore sketchers. Like since he was 4. Recently, he got really emotionally taking about shoes he wanted for middle school. He said if he doesn’t get Nikes he’s going to get teased. Great fucking marketing work Nike.
It’s not a Nike thing. It’s a kid thing. Kids are dicks, sorry
I got teased for my shoes. I got better shoes, I got teased for my jacket, I got a better jacket. So then they just made shit up to tease me about.
I saw the fucker that bullied me relentlessly for all three years in middle school about 10 years later. He was pounding stakes in the ground setting up for a carnival. He stopped me in apologized which was kind of surprising. I gave him an absolutely hollow but convincing thanks and what about my day.
I did a little light internet stalking, turns out he’s vocal that can’t keep a job, construction companies fire him for “no reason” and he’s now down to whatever local company will hire him for physical labor. The only truly sad part is he has multiple children with multiple women and will not own up to any of them.
Though, I really suppose I owe a lot of who I am to the hell he put me through. Insults mean fuck all to me and I can ignore stress in a bad situation and make solid decisions.
Yeah this is a Nike problem and not something that’s been going on since the beginning of formalized group education.
I always knew shoes weren’t going to save my kids from bullying, so I got them karate instead.
The bullying still happened, until they decided it was time for it to stop. Then it stopped.
man, when i was a kid i was bullied for reading at recess, or infodumping about inappropriate stuff, or being bad at running. kids these days are so materialist.
Now you have to make fun of your kid for being a sheep.
Pre-teen is the worst age for this. Just try to get your kid past this the best you can. Happens everywhere, eventually they will mature and learn.
Heck, this is always the plot in school movies.
Did you try to teach him to be proud of his independence and differences? Maybe you can work with him on nice come backs against the teasing.
Oh man it’s like every out of touch bad advice I was given as a kid came back.
Comebacks dont matter when you can just point at the shoes and call him broke (im not a teen anymore but come on guys lol, thats when you fit in to avoid issues or have issues, no magical way out)
There is a way out, but it involves not caring what classmates think. That’s a high bar for a lot of kids, especially in middle school, and kids have to come to that conclusion on their own. No amount of adults telling them “you shouldn’t care” will change things.
By high school I found social success after not caring what others thought. But I had been bullied my whole school experience up til that point, so by high school I had run out of fucks to give. In other words, I learned the hard way, but that’s something every teen has to figure out for themselves.
I don’t know about now, but back in the 90s the magical out was that you punched them in the face.
Back then the concept of a school shooting didn’t exist, and parents didn’t threaten to sue the school every 5 minutes.
So teachers would just let the fights go.
“Oh, Billy tried bullying Bobby, and now Bobby punched Billy in the face? Eh…call me when they break bones and spill blood. I’m going to go make popcorn.”
These days? I’m sure both kids would get expelled.
But it’s not “his independence” if it wasn’t his choice to buy those shoes. You cannot be proud of your own choices when they weren’t your own choices.
That’s actually a really good point you’ve made here. It’s easy to defend the shoes as a parent because you’re the one who (1) understands the rationale behind buying them and (2) made the decision to buy them
I wonder if a good decision in this scenario is to just give the child a shoe allowance and let them pick. If they want Nike’s they will have to find a pair that fits the budget
he could be but hes gonna get roasted for sketchers til college probably
It’s the Apple way.
I tried, His Mom agreed and already bought him shoes.
One of mine is in high school, and as much as I hate the confirming culture, especially because it's led by morons and marketing, I choose the same path. I allowed my (now high school kid) to participate in all the awful crap that I would never do myself when she felt middle school pressure. She was in the popular kids group.
The caveat has been it all comes with extreme education from my end. Not demeaning or condescending. I over-preach about marketing/ads/influencers and constantly question why people make the choices they do. I question everything though. "How do you know that?" often leads back to tick tock.
In my experience, the OTHER kids are now getting smarter as they age. Mine is now able to live her life how she wants and is still with that same group , and the kids (I shit you not) look to her for purchasing advice. The vanity kinda goes away as their brains leave that dumb social hierarchy age.
Note: My kids are/were decked out in Nike. We live by the world headquarters and a good chunk of the kids' parents work there. If that isn't peer pressure, I dunno what is!
When I was young (in the late 80’s) it was Air Jordans.
But, on top of being teased for not having them, you would also get jumped by kids who wanted to steal them from you.
I always had Chucks, not because I didn’t wanna get teased mind you I just thought they were cool.
But man, they never really lasted that long. One to one and a half years of daily use, and they doubled in price in the last ~15 years (which maybe isn’t that much but I feel the quality went down a bit).
I remember being 4 or 5 back in the 70s, my mom tried to put me in Chucks, I refused to wear them calling them “clown shoes”. LOL.
I feel vindicated.
Yeah, ever since Nike bought the lot they’ve been a bit mad with the designs…
I like the style, but yeah. They fall apart faster than wet tissue paper.
I remember when high tops were in vogue. Granted, I hung out with kids in the “alternative music” scene, and Vans sponsored Warped Tour so much that “Vans Warped Tour” was just a normal term for us.
Good for you. Whenever I get this kind of situation with ny kid I think “Will this matter in five years? Will this purchase break the bank?” If not, I buy/allow/rent whatever and move on. It usually does the trick and I don’t mind if in my mind it sounds ridiculous or exaggerated, It is not about me but whatever they are going through and as long as they get the tools they need, so be it. Kid is very down to earth and doesn’t usually overconsume. The only place where we overspend is the bookstore.
dont blame nike, blame the over-consumption introduced by unchecked capitalism. Comparing yourself to your surround has become the norm, leading to an increase in depression and, like you wrote, consuming too much. Americans on average buy 68 new clothing items PER YEAR, PER PERSON!! Maybe dont blame the kids, they are a product of their surrounding. Blame politics, and blame yourself if you have done too little politics in the last decades
Nike is one of the worst offenders when it comes to unchecked capitalism.
Do blame Nike, and all the other corps, they are the ones who force capitalism on us, they are the cause of this behaviour, they control the politics.
I get your point, but capitalism wasn’t always the norm. If you say corps control everything, it’s partially due to a faulty political system and a lack of interest in politics. And for that apathy, the citizens can absolutely be blamed. And again, if there wasn’t a superficial culture in the US where you HAVE to wear brands and drive european cars to not be ousted, there wouldnt be as much consumption. If you treat school like a cat walk, prepare to pay for designer clothes. The parent in the original post blames Nike for marketing. Yes, but if the kids around their kid weren’t pointing and laughing, this kid would feel very confortable to continue to wear sketchers. Kids are a product of their environment, bring them up in a ultra-capitalist environment and all they care about growing up is money and status. And it starts in school already. Group thinking is hugely problematic and not even thematized yet. This ousting because your parents can’t afford G-Star Raw is the only reason I would advocate for school uniforms. Something has to change but just pointing and assigning blame isn’t helping anyone and especially not the kid crying.
Nike marketing aside, sketchers are child abuse.
I’ll tease my kids if they don’t wear Asics
You should go out of your way to ensure you always have replacement sneakers for them, and not a single pair should be Asics.
Why not?
At my school back when I was still in education it was all adidas :3
Get him Hokas, tell him that’s what the rich actually wear.
Nice
pHr34kY@lemmy.world 9 minutes ago
I rock my Skechers, android phone, basic Casio watch, and drive my 2003 Suzuki.
I spend my money on stuff that works. Not stuff that’s marketed.