Did you try to teach him to be proud of his independence and differences? Maybe you can work with him on nice come backs against the teasing.

I tried, His Mom agreed and already bought him shoes.

It's not a Nike thing. It's a kid thing. Kids are dicks, sorry

When I was young (in the late 80's) it was Air Jordans.

But, on top of being teased for not having them, you would also get jumped by kids who wanted to steal them from you.

Happened to me. Got Nikes, got teased because they were not a good enough model. Kids are monsters.

I always had Chucks, not because I didn't wanna get teased mind you I just thought they were cool. Kids teased me for different things anyway.

But man, they never really lasted that long. One to one and a half years of daily use, and they doubled in price in the last ~15 years (which maybe isn't that much but I feel the quality went down a bit).

I always knew shoes weren't going to save my kids from bullying, so I got them karate instead.

The bullying still happened, until they decided it was time for it to stop. Then it stopped.

I don't know if this is a bad idea, but recently all the Chinese manufacturers spoke out about how much the products they make actually cost, you can find the exact warehouse that makes them, and order directly from them, at a ridiculous mark down. Like a 10th of the price, or less. Might be worth some research. I see Adidas sambas for $10, including postage. They're all there. They just don't have the actual name label on them yet, because that's all they do when they reach the distributor, though, so might be useless to you.

I love Skechers.

Yeah this is a Nike problem and not something that's been going on since the beginning of formalized group education.

It's the Apple way.

At my school back when I was still in education it was all adidas :3

Instead of getting him 300$ shoes give him the choice of the cool shoes or the latest coolest video game or the shoes, or whatever hobby he enjoys…

Kids tease other kids because they themselves feel insecure.. that’s literally all it is… if you need Nike shoes to feel secure you’re probably not a cool person anyways

I got teased for my shoes. I got better shoes, I got teased for my jacket, I got a better jacket. So then they just made shit up to tease me about.

I saw the fucker that bullied me relentlessly for all three years in middle school about 10 years later. He was pounding stakes in the ground setting up for a carnival. He stopped me in apologized which was kind of surprising. I gave him an absolutely hollow but convincing thanks and what about my day.

I did a little light internet stalking, turns out he's vocal that can't keep a job, construction companies fire him for "no reason" and he's now down to whatever local company will hire him for physical labor. The only truly sad part is he has multiple children with multiple women and will not own up to any of them.

Though, I really suppose I owe a lot of who I am to the hell he put me through. Insults mean fuck all to me and I can ignore stress in a bad situation and make solid decisions.

Buy him a crowbar.

Ultimate tool against bullying

I’ll tease my kids if they don’t wear Asics

Good for you. Whenever I get this kind of situation with ny kid I think "Will this matter in five years? Will this purchase break the bank?" If not, I buy/allow/rent whatever and move on. It usually does the trick and I don't mind if in my mind it sounds ridiculous or exaggerated, It is not about me but whatever they are going through and as long as they get the tools they need, so be it. Kid is very down to earth and doesn't usually overconsume. The only place where we overspend is the bookstore.

At all the schools my kids went to.... Nobody cares. The kids really don't give a shit what other kids are wearing. In some ways it's bizarre given that wasn't the case when I was a kid. But in many ways it's great. I rarely ever hear of bullying, kids just are themselves.

Of course thats woke, because they actually speak to the kids and tell them to consider others and will not tolerate intolerance. So I expect schools like these are few and far between.

The solution to bullying is to do as the bully says /s

Man sketchers are awesome. I have a pair that I've re-bought consistently for years because they were the perfect fit, comfy, and were nondescript. Now they've discontinued them so I have to see if I can order them online.

I remember when I was kid though. We always had hands-down, goodwill, and k-mart clothes. But one of my Pop's jobs was a janitor at the "rich" school district and he'd watch the lost and found box and wait for the shit he brought in to expire.

Once it was in the bin for more than a month it got "donated". Half of that stuff went to the kids of the people that worked there. My brothers and I being some of them. So Pops scored me a pair of Air Nike when Jordan was at the height of his career.

Wouldn't you know it? One dude on the play ground had to ask why I was wearing a Walmart T-shirt while wearing Nike shoes. Seriously, kids are fucking brutal.

I learned long before that that I was "poor" so I learned how to play it off and flipped the script. "Are you that superficial that you give a shit? It never even occurred to me to look at what you're wearing but now that I am, all you are is a wigger" (slur for a wannabe in my era/location). He left me alone the rest of our school career.

I'm in my forties now but somewhere in my thirties he hit me up on Facebook and apologized for being a little shit. Turns out he had a bit of a crush on me and that's how he showed it amongst other reasons. He was newly divorced when he reconnected with me so I had to turn him down (that the only reason you're apologizing, dude?) but he was much nicer about everything this time.

Kids can be nasty but many of them grow up. Anytime you can stand up to adults in front of your kids it's teaching them how to stand up to their own peers. Show them every example you can of how to handle what they're dealing with. How you stand up to your family, friends, and peers, is how your kids learn how to do the same thing.

You can't buy yourself out of bullying. Even rich kids get bullied. Confidence in yourself and empathy for others are a far better lesson to teach the next generation.

My school everyone wore the same uniform. The only choice we could make was shoes or sandals 99.9% chose shoes. Sandal wearers got so much shit for it. It was a death sentence.

Man I went to a very affluent school and no one gave a shit about what sneakers we had. Unless you had Heeley's of course. ZOOM!

Kids are very materialistic.

When I was in middle school, I was probably the worst for me with the bullying. I came from a family that didn't have a whole lot of money. Like even the cheap stuff we had to cut corners with. And well I was fully aware, that there was no real difference between what I had and what they had, it didn't stop the consistent bullying. And the teachers never cared. The other students didn't care in fact some of them would chime in too. And when that's your life for several hours a day 5 days a week... You eventually just get to a breaking point.

I'll never forget the day I basically had a complete emotional breakdown because we were doing back to school shopping at Target, and I saw one of those trapper keepers. With a weird designs on the outside. They were all the rage. And it was like eight bucks I think. My mom did end up buying it for me, but only because her soon-to-be 5th grader, collapsed in the isle crying. I don't remember what I told her, but all I could think about was having that was going to make life just a little bit easier for me.

Kids can be real assholes to other kids.