Express Yourself! Through NikeiD...

Oh, how I miss the days of school uniforms. My son, Knowledge attended Woodlawn Community from kindergarten until 6th grade, and the students were required to wear uniforms: maroon polo shirts, khaki pants/skirts, and black dress shoes. But  now that Knowledge is 14 years old, and attends Kenwood Academy, where the students have the freedom of wearing what they like, all I can say is
I wish Kenwood required their students to wear uniforms. My issue is convenience and saving monies from buying clothes and shoes throughout the school year. Anyway, Knowledge is definitely finding his own individual style and expressing it.

Knowledge is a basketball player, so more then anything, basketball shoes are important to him. As a mother being frugal, I don't mind spending $80-$100 on a pair of good basketball shoes. However, Knowledge wears a size 11, and admires some of the most expensive basketball shoes, he has a bit of a quirky approach to how he goes about picking the shoes that he likes, too. Whatever, the case, I leave the basketball shoes buying up to Knowledge's father. Within the last 4 months, his father has spent about $450 on basketball shoes.

But the last pair of gym shoes I bought Knowledge, was this summer; he designed himself online at Nike.com using the company's NikeiD application. The shoes were gifted to him upon completing school, exceeding expectations, while also managing his sports activities, too. I asked him what he wanted as a reward for doing such an awesome job in his academics and sports and he immediately said a pair of NikeiD gym shoes. I agreed and he didn't hesitate any longer to design his shoe.

NikeiD is an application that allows you to pick from thousands of Nike shoes, apparel, and gear in which you can design yourself online, order, and have sent to you or you can pick them up from your nearest NikeTown. The application allows you to pick men, women, or kids' shoes and from various sports types. As it specifically relates to shoes, you can custom design your shoes by picking the colors for the soles, outer casing, shoe strings, eyelets, the tongue of the shoe, and the Nike Swoosh, and the type of material for the shoe such as leather, nubuck or mesh. You can do a combination of materials, as well.

So Knowledge opted for some Nike Dunk High Premium iD's. The shoe is a high top and can be worn on the basketball court or as a casual gym shoe. He choose the colors of midnight blue for the outer casing, shoe tongue, and sole, green for the shoestrings and gold for the Nike Swoosh. Knowledge had the option of picking leather, mesh, or nubuck for his shoes and he choose leather. The leather combination was stylish because of the smoothness and bold colors. Knowledge called the shoes his "All Star Dunks" because for as long as he's been playing basketball, he has always been known for his awesome sportsmanship! To complete his order for his custom designed Nike gym shoes, Knowledge had the shoes shipped to NikeTown at the downtown Chicago location. When the order was ready, Knowledge received an email letting him know his shoes were ready for pick up. The day we picked up the shoes, Knowledge and I made it a date. We caught the train downtown to NikeTown, made our way to the NikeiD department, and Knowledge submitted his receipt from his online purchase as proof for pick up. As promised, the shoes were ready and Knowledge was happy! I was happy for him!

After my son designed and purchased his shoes as a gift from me, I became a raving fan of NikeiD. I think the app is really cool after allowing my son to add his personal touch to a shoe, giving him the freedom to express his unique style through something he loves; his basketball shoes.