Salehe Bembury sometimes stands in line for days at a time, waiting and waiting to make a purchase as soon as his desired items go on sale. But the sophomore fine arts major isn’t waiting for concert tickets or to get into a basketball game. He’s waiting for shoes.

‘I have always enjoyed cool shoes and always had the newest pair of Jordans, but never really started collecting until I entered high school,’ Bembury said.

Bembury is part of a relatively new collector culture that has been developing since the late ’70s. It began in New York City and blew up in the ’80s, when various hip-hop artists created the new trends, as well as when Nike started using new technologies to create fancier shoes. But, as many collectors point out, the culture really began with one thing: the release of the first Air Jordan in 1985.

Seen as one of the most sought-after pairs of sneakers within the culture, the Air Jordan I started a revolution in sports and style and continues to influence sneaker collectors even today.

‘The Jordans are what started it all, and they will never go away,’ said Eric Bourassa, a freshman architecture major.

Since then, the culture has become a movement, with people waiting for days to get new releases. A number of companies have fed off people’s desires and have started making more limited release shoes for consumers to purchase. Nike is one of the biggest pioneers in the shoe industry, and has released products over the years that have ‘sneakerheads,’ as they’ve come to be known, jumping for joy.

Bembury said when he was in high school, he fell in love with the different color variations and styles and started looking for the newest rare shoes to be released.

‘Back then, for me, it was about finding the most limited releases, but as I got further into the game, I developed my own taste and started buying shoes mostly for how they looked and not their status,’ Bembury said.

Bembury also saw shoes as an opportunity to make money and bought two or three pairs of a selected shoe on the release date, put them on eBay and made a nice profit.

In the past six years, Nike has released some amazing shoes that are all limited releases. Some shoes, such as the Be True To Your Schools shoes, are only released in certain regions corresponding to the inspiration of the shoe.

Shoe companies have also collaborated with other retailers to create shoes for a target audience. For example, Nike has worked with such artists and companies as Futura 2000, Pushead, eBay, Medicom and Diamond Co. to create specialized products. It has also dedication pieces to influential people in society, such as farm equipment pioneer John Deere, epic poet Homer and hip-hop moguls De La Soul. Holidays and events like April 20 (4/20) and the Lunar Eclipse have inspired materials used in certain shoes as well.

This form of placing art and design patterns on shoes has inspired a new form of art, sneaker art. Many artists paint their own designs on the shoes of their choice, while others have just incorporated their favorite pair of sneakers into their works of art. Bembury has taken his passion for sneakers and major to a new level by dedicating a few of his final art projects to designing sneakers. He also designed a T-shirt for Dave’s Quality Meat, a deli-themed sneaker shop in New York City, and hopes to land a job with Nike designing shoes after he graduates.

Adele Carr, a sophomore retail management major, became a part of the culture about a year ago.

‘I like these shoes because they offer comfort and style. It’s also something that is not mainstream, and I don’t like to be too trendy,’ Carr said.

She also saw the sneaker game as a chance to make a quick buck. Carr buys her shoes in West Chester, Penn., for box price, takes them to Flight Club in Manhattan and takes 80 percent of an agreed sale price.

The culture’s slow movement into the mainstream population has created such companies as Sole Collector, Hypebeast and Kixclusive to create magazines and online forums dedicated mainly to sneakers. Each one of these mediums has its main focus. Sole Collector and Kixclusive are magazines that bring readers the latest news in the sneaker world and feature interviews and stories with avid collectors, store owners and artists. Sole Collector is a Web site offering the same services, while Hypebeast focuses more on release dates for shoes and other items like clothes and toys. Due to the popularity of the culture, Sole Collector recently released podcasts through iTunes, which keep viewers updated on the same information but give them the luxury of watching and listening instead of reading.

Bourassa has been collecting for two years and considers the Nike Dunk his favorite shoe, although he said he loves many other models. Bourassa has 17 pairs of shoes in his closet at school, and about 25 in total. He doesn’t only buy shoes to wear, either.

‘If they don’t have my size, I will buy them a size smaller or bigger, and if they can’t make it onto my feet, and if I like them, I will buy them to display on my mantle,’ he said.

Ron Septle, a second-year law student, has been collecting for nine years, and said it all began when his mom bought him a pair of Nike Air Raids, Spike Lee edition, in the eighth grade. Septle went from there, and started buying shoes that fit his taste. From there on out, he was known as the guy with all the shoes at school. He and his friends starting getting more into it, and became collectors without even noticing what was going on.

‘I view collecting shoes like collecting stamps, and I wish that people wouldn’t consider sneakerheads weird,’ Septle said. ‘I think that the first thing people notice about your outfit, or at least with me, are your shoes, and I just made it a habit to always have on nice shoes.’

Published on April 2, 2006 at 12:00 pm