BY JOHN ECKBERG
The Cincinnati Enquirer
![[nikes]](/editions/1998/11/13/nikes_180x120.jpg)
Chuck Vander Hoek and Andy Drasiewski sell vintage shoes to Japanese teens.
(Steven M. Herppich photo)
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High fashion in Japan could bring high dollars this weekend to some high-top basketball shoe owners.
Small Earth, a Grand Rapids, Mich., company that specializes in collectibles, will set up shop Friday through Sunday at the Holiday Inn I-275 North at Route 42 to buy vintage basketball shoes from the mid-1980s.
The company wants Nike shoes but will consider buying "Made in France" versions of Adidas shoes.
The firm is willing to pay top dollar for a couple of Nike versions regardless of condition. It will pay up to $400 for mint Nike "Dunk" shoes (1984-86), $200 for the Georgetown "Terminator" or $250 for first-edition Air Jordans.
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MOST VALUABLE SHOES
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The price for prime used basketball shoes depends upon the condition of the shoe, even to the point of original shoelaces.
Small Earth will consider buying shoes from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. today, Saturday and Sunday at Holiday Inn I-275 at Route 42.
The most-valuable shoes are:
Nike Dunk (with ribs) - up to $400.
Maize on blue or yellow on black Nike Dunk - up to $400.
Blue on white Tiger Dunk - up to $400.
First edition 1985 Air Jordans in 22 colors - $20 to $250.
Terminator Nike - $20 to $250
Men's sizes 8 to 10 bring the best prices.
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Most of the shoes it wants have something else in common. The people who designed and bought them had really bad taste or were color blind.
"Really ugly," said Small Earth co-owner Andy Drasiewski. "Unbelievably ugly . . . hysterical."
The best shoes are garish maize on black with flaming yellow shoestrings, grotesque lizard-print white vinyl over black and weird baby blue on white.
The business plan is not complex. If Small Earth pays $100 for a pair of shoes, it in turn sells them to a Japanese vintage clothing or shoe store for $200. The shoe store retails them for $400.
Add it all up and Small Earth has spent $323,000 in two years to bring old American high-tops to young Japanese high-rollers.
It's self-expression
Co-founder Chuck Vander Hoek shakes his head when asked to explain how hang time ever got mixed up with haute couture.
It has to do with nonconformity, he said.
Five days a week, Japanese teens wear uniforms to school and young adult men must be properly attired in suits and ties. What better way to express individuality on the weekends than to cut loose with vintage American high-toppers from the roaring '80s?
The company has criss-crossed the country hunting shoes: Peoria, Ill.; Baltimore; Cleveland; Detroit; Flint, Mich.; Milwaukee, Toledo, Ohio; Pittsburgh and Muskegon, Mich. - 30 cities in all.
In Cleveland, a mob of funky shoe owners filled a hotel conference room for three days. The company bought one out of 30 pairs offered. Everybody else was turned away.
"I was standing on a chair all day long yelling if you have Nike shoes, hold them up. Everybody else, thanks for coming but we are not interested," Mr. Drasiewski said.
Always on the lookout
They don't always wait for shoe owners to come to them. Mr. Drasiewski once bought a pair of old shoes off a man mowing his lawn in Michigan.
They bought a pair from a guy who had just finished lunch in a small coffee shop. On Thursday they scoured thrift stores in Colerain Township looking for classic shoes but found only one pair they could resell.
"We'll make $20," Mr. Vander Hoek said. "Enough to pay for our lunch today."
As for the legion of other sneaker brands - Asics, Reebok, Saucony, Fila, LA Gear, Pony and uptempos?
"Forget about it," Mr. Vander Hoek said.
"Stay home," Mr. Drasiewski said.
They want only Nike - Air Jordan and Terminator versions at that - and those French-made Adidas.
Riding the fad
Like most businesses, this is not a risk-free proposition.
Resale values have plummeted 30 percent from when Small Earth started out. That means that every deal this weekend is haunted by a nagging worry.
What if the bubble bursts? What if the fashion boom in Kobe, Osaka or Yokohama swings to Hush Puppies, penny loafers, saddle shoes or sandals?
"I don't see it ending in the near future," Mr. Vander Hook said.
"But when the music stops, we don't really want to be sitting on $30,000 worth of old shoes."
![[nikes]](/editions/1998/11/13/nikes_600x400.jpg)