2023-11-18 13:21:00
I was on my way to leaving the apartment to attend an evening event. And since I belong to the indecisive, always doubting type, I quickly turned to my 16-year-old daughter, who is very well versed in fashion matters.
My request: Would she recommend this or the other shoe to me today to complete my look? I pointed my fingers at my feet; On the left I had a decent black leather low shoe to choose from, and on the right I had a white sneaker.
My daughter took a quick look and answered like a shot: “No, definitely not, they make you look like a German teacher.” Very happy because the decision was made for me, I put the leather shoes aside and slipped them on the second nonchalant sneaker.
When my daughter saw this, she said: “Why are you asking me when you end up making a different decision?” I was confused, hadn’t she herself said that I shouldn’t wear the middle-class teacher-style leather shoes with a suit? “No, no,” she said in a slightly authoritative tone, it’s the white sneakers. They make you look like a German teacher. It doesn’t work at all.”
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Aha, I thought to myself, and my beautifully ordered world collapsed like a house of cards. The so-called times had probably changed again, as we know, this is particularly evident in the details. When I was at school, no teacher wore sneakers. First of all, no pure white ones where the branding can hardly be seen.
Shoes like this were an absolute hit when I was young; you rarely saw them on TV, in a music magazine or in big cities. But you couldn’t buy a model like that in all of Germany. The absolute dream shoe of all young people. Much later, the snow-white “Stan Smith” was reissued on a large scale by Adidas. While only a few teachers in the eighties and nineties still wore strict costumes and suits, no one came to school with sneakers.
Of course, that has long since changed. Even TV presenters and politicians dare to appear in front of the camera in sneakers. Yes, the important issues and discussions in the country today are conducted and announced in squeaky clean sneakers. The sports show man Alexander Bommes is one such candidate, Lars Klingbeil from the SPD and of course Christian Lindner.
Maybe my daughter, without knowing these people by name, meant exactly this species and grouped them all under the heading: “German teacher”? Maybe only your own German teacher wears such shoes. Maybe teachers of the German language who are morally inclined will also be interested in immaculate shoe models in 2023?
The image of the white sneaker was significantly influenced when Paul Ziemiak (l.), Tilman Kuban (m.) and Markus Blume (r.) posed with it at the Junge Union’s Germany Day 2021.Political-Moments/imago
Perhaps. I don’t know, I couldn’t ask her anymore because I was now walking on the street in the leather shoes she favored. Luckily I had my daughter, I thought to myself, then at least I don’t look like a teacher. On the way, however, I had completely different thoughts. I looked around, now highly sensitized to the topic, and it was obvious: At People on the street wear sneakers.
Some were white, but ultimately they come in all colors and shapes, colorful, often black, countless brands. On the subway, the entire car wore sneakers on their feet. Later, towards Prenzlauer Berg, I saw a few Chelsea boots or Dr. Martens. And that at the beginning of winter! It’s even more extreme in summer, I thought to myself the next morning in the office, where the vast majority of people wear sneakers.
The sneaker is the jogging pants of Berlin
It became clear to me: In a world that is becoming increasingly complex and diverse, we are at the bottom, at the bottom of every human being, where they have physical contact with planet Earth and ultimately groundedness, i.e. at the bottom of the facts, that is where we really are at the bottom today Story arrived.
For a few moments I had the feeling that I was witnessing a huge conspiracy, but it wasn’t a conspiracy, it was reality: communism still exists, there is still a completely unified world, there is this one last bastion in which… Apparently the whole world really agrees: that shoes made of rubber and plastic are the right ones.
How did that happen? How did this agreement come about? Who ordered this? It went across all ages and classes, from the youngest to the oldest, all of whom in recent years had given in to the light running shoes that go so well with their waterproof windbreakers. From the richest to the poorest, everyone has found their sneaker.
Even the topic of trousers seems to be solved in a more varied way on the streets: some people like to wear skirts, dresses, leggings, and even some elegant trousers can be seen. Especially in Berlin, of course, the sweatpants, which the city is world-famous for wearing. Karl Lagerfeld once said: “Anyone who wears sweatpants has lost control of their life.” But that doesn’t matter to us Berliners and also to the city, which is considered by many to be the most casual and unrestricted. Here, where nowhere else do style rules prevail, sneakers are of course even more popular than anywhere else.
On the way home, the rain rolled off the leather of my black shoes and my feet stayed dry. For the past 200 years my shoes have been considered the epitome of etiquette, conservative and serious, but now wearing them I felt like the last remaining non-conformist in the world.
#Berlin #wear #sneakers