Ok, so this is gonna be a bit long, and get emotional for me, but PLEASE 🙏 bear with and read it if you could? If you are an old head OG, you will 100% understand. It's a day late because I had an unexpected trip to the hospital in Philly on Monday early evening. And that was after several hours at my local Urgent Care due to feeling like absolute hell. 102.9° fever, chills, shaking I was so cold. But no nausea, but I felt dehydrated (again). Not the way I wanted to spend my 48th birthday 😞. But it is what it is. More on this in a few.

I tried 2 raffles and didn't get any. And like others, I also tried SNKRS and that was an abysmal failure. And with being on long term disability (from an insurance company policy I paid for when I worked, NOT SS) paying north of $300 was not even a thought. I've bought less sneakers this year than I have fingers on one hand. And those I did buy were at clearance. $37.50 Kukini Waters & $59.99 Shaq Court Victory. I won't pay retail unless it's for something that means A LOT.

Well, these mean a lot. I've posted on the last page my story on the OGs when I was 13 and my love for Andre Agassi & what he did to get me to love this amazing sport. And this is what I was hoping to see Tuesday but having to stay in the hospital until 1 pm Wednesday delayed my pickup from UPS. Pictures DO NOT express how UNBELIEVABLY AMAZING these truly are. My hopes were answered..


I got a pair for retail! 🥹🥹🥲🥲 And thinking these would fit like all the other releases I got in an 11 (very snug now), I was striving for an 11.5. But an 11 was offered and I say why not. I can always remove the insole if need be (my big toe on my bigger foot has been broken several times and it messed up my size as the knuckle it so tall now). Well, THESE FIT PERFECTLY!! With wiggle room too! As I said the photos don't do them justice. The shape is UNREAL! PERFECT! The pic above of the left shoe on the box says it all on that topic.

I said "offered" above. Someone helped me obtain them. I won't say who, but they know who I'm talking about. To the person who made me smile when I opened the box (my jaw dropped honestly these are THAT GOOD) THANK YOU!! 🥲🥲🙏🙏 I honestly can't say it enough and I'll always be in their debt for this assist.

The hospital stay was due to my never ending battle with Crohn's. It's been a 32 year struggle for my health battles that started at 16 with Ulcerative Colitis for 10 years (1993 medicine was so far behind vs today). That led to J-Pouch surgery (entire large intestine is removed and a man-made pouch is put in place. A temp ostomy bag is attached while the insides heal and then months later reconnected). Had that at 25. Two years later my liver was failing and had a transplant at 27. Add in a bowel obstruction a month after the transplant, and another in 2011 while in Canada watching the Phillies play Toronto (and seeing Roy pitch against his former team the only time he did). That was fun as I took an air ambulance flight home to Philly airport & surgery at Penn. This was the 5th different time my ab wall was cut open! I got a hell of a cool scar! 👍 And a car accident that gave me a brain bleed (arachnoid hemorrhage of the brain) and a massive concussion. & 6 weeks of vestibular therapy.

That all leads to then finding out in 2014 I have Crohn's and it's been that the whole time. Hiding. Got so bad I left selling Fords (which I did for 23 years, from 20-43) on 1/31/2020 as I was selling 200+ a year but also using the restroom 25+ times a day. Unbearable mentally & physically. So I called in my STD/LTD policy I paid for for years. And I live off it. It isn't much, enough to get by (barely). But I gotta get better to go back to working (a different job. Not into that car sales life anymore). How long that will take to heal? Not sure.

So lately really dealing with a flare that's just horrific. And like I said physically I'm so cooked. I try and do my Cars & Coffee meets on the weekend as it tries to keep me sane but I don't want to keep the trips on the bathroom at bay. Plus driving my 2006 Mustang GT does make me smile (owned since new). If I didn't get out, I'd be even more cooked mentally. I'm partly there dealing with this BS, but when I saw these were coming many months ago when we all leaned, I wanted and needed a pair. But not at $300 dollars.

But the assist I got (Thank you again kind person) help make me smile when they are few and far between. Everyone has struggles and everyone deserves a pick-me-up to help them out. Could be something small like buying one lunch. Or for me, these were my pick-me-up. I needed a "win" with what I've been dealing with and I got it. 🥲🥲🥲 I'm calling it now ...RETRO OF THE YEAR!! That's my (current life) story in a nutshell. Thank you to anyone who read it. It means the world.

Jeff.

Finally pulled one of these sets out of the plastic today.

Already caved in last week. No regrets 👌

Very nice materials on these.

A+

Today, 1 day we will get proper retro of IV’s and all the colorways

Ok, I'm not anything near model quality, but I just had to post the zip shirt, jorts, & my 2015 ATC IIIs together (with the bucket hat) so people can see how the crop shirt fits.



I'm 6' 185-188 and athletic build. 44 today with no beer gut (all my medical issues with Crohn's and my liver transplant I never drank in my life). So I don't have the belly that the shirt won't cover, just a messed up ab wall from the 5 times I was cut open and my ab wall (and skin) stapled back together. It made one side puffy vs the other more flat. But all in all, I LOVE THIS GEAR!!! 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

NIKE, MORE PLEASE!!! Purple '91 French Open?!! I'd get that jacket in a second!!

My pair arrived , along with some friends 😂

Me at the skating rink in '91 rocking the spurs starter and ATC4...
🤯😅

Summer appropriate, Wimbledon on the horizon... just perfect.

pulled these out the closet yesterday plan on giving them more wears.