Please help me track down my awesome fiery shoes!

August 12, 2008 7:40 AM

I recently lost this eBay auction, and have severe loser's remorse. Where can I go about finding a pair of these 6-8 year old Airwalks?

I had these shoes back in 2000, and bought another pair in 2002. Wore both pairs down to practically nothing.

I check eBay every so often for a pair, and nothing came up until a few days ago. I was so sure that I would win, and recapture a whiff of the coolness I thought I had when I was 18. I guess I underestimated the demand, and it's hitting me hard. Lame I know, but I wanted them so bad.

So where can I go to begin tracking another pair of these down? This model goes by the name of Airwalk Singe. There is absolutely no information on them on the internet. Is it possible the company would still have some? Is there some secret unindexed cool old shoe site I'm not aware of? Do I have to go begging on sneakerhead forums (and where are the best ones)?

Thanks for your help, I know with no Google hits this may be a fools errand, but if there's any chance I could score a size 12 - 13 of these shoes I would be a very happy camper.

posted by yellowbinder to clothing, beauty, & fashion (7 comments total)

I think you have 5 options:
1. Email the seller now and make a much higher offer (so unethical)
2. Sit and wait for another pair to appear on eBay (I've been waiting 5+ years for some pairs)
3. Trawl through this long list of online retailers
4. Post wanted ads at sneakerfreaker.com, crookedtongues.com and maybe niketalk.com
5. Get creative and make your own custom flaming sneakers from a regular pair of black Airwalks


12-13 is the most unusual size, and this is not a shoe that is deemed "collectable", so I think it will be next to impossible to find these. Welcome to the living hell that is sneaker collecting!
posted by roofus at 9:10 AM on August 12, 2008

While I can't offer advice on finding these, I can suggest you use a sniper to never lose an auction again: AuctionSniper.com has been my favorite.

It keeps you from playing the bidding game and from artificially increasing the amount you pay for something. But in your case, next time, you should bid an obscenely high amount to ensure you get these, since they're so rare.
posted by disillusioned at 9:34 AM on August 12, 2008

You mentioned you "check eBay every so often for a pair" but do you have a saved search which emails you every time a pair is posted for sale?
posted by sharkfu at 9:51 AM on August 12, 2008

I'll echo the above:

I check eBay every so often for a pair, and nothing came up until a few days ago.

Set up ebay to email you whenever certain parameters are met (airwalk, your size, etc.).

And use a sniping service. You can never win a hot item without it. I recommend phantombidder.com.
posted by dobbs at 9:58 AM on August 12, 2008

Just want to say thanks for the great advice. It would definitely be difficult to track these down. Except I just got a message from someone who saw this and has a pair. The blue model, but I like it. A bit more understated and perhaps more age appropriate. Hopefully it'll work out and I will be the promised very happy camper.

It really does pay to ask Metafilter. Hoorah!
posted by yellowbinder at 7:40 PM on August 12, 2008

D'oh! Said shoes are M.I.A. and wrong size besides. Blast! Anyone else? Heh heh.

Looks like it's careful eBay monitoring (or just a saved search for me!) Thanks all, I'm going to mark roofus's answer best for the wide range of options.

Sniping is good advice too. I tend to manually try to snipe, in this case I was too early and too low. I'll have it all set up for next time, if these ever appear again!

Thanks again, any further advice is welcomed.
posted by yellowbinder at 7:18 AM on August 13, 2008

Following up here, I managed to score a pair on ebay yesterday. For some weird reason I searched for them and found them the first day they went up, so I even beat the saved search I set up!

I sniped using Auctionsniper.com, and managed to get them for $56, vs. the $200+ the first pair went for. That was probably a little due to sniping, but also because they didn't come with the box, and the lister didn't use the style name.

So to others in this situation: Set up saved searches, not just for the brand/style name but for other terms that someone who didn't know the name might list it as. And snipe snipe snipe! It might seem like cheating, but it's not really, and will likely get you the item for less.
posted by yellowbinder at 10:01 AM on October 1, 2008