By Delores Wilson, February 19, 2020 — In the ’70s when sneakers became popular and part of the American culture, I met a male patient who was being prepped for surgery in the next few days. We discovered we had a lot of common interests. The field that I worked in was medical; we were trained in a “holistic” approach.
One evening he asked me what was wrong. In a heartbeat, I shared my story with him about my son who played basketball for Cardinal Dougherty High School. The school supplied the uniforms and the parents supplied the sneakers. I didn’t mind paying money for good shoes. However, I had no idea that sneaks cost as much as they did, if not more, for name brand shoes for men. I felt I had been robbed. He looked at me empathetically and he said, “Mother, I understand your pain. I am the CEO of that company and I wouldn’t want to pay that kind of money for sneaks either.”