Writing about LA Gear – My memory kicked back to my first (and only) pair of LA Gears. I don’t remember much about them other than the fact that they were black and white and had some janky cube of clear-ish rubber in place of an air bag. I want to say they lit up…they were called ‘LA Lights’ and I also want to say that they ran out of batteries and stopped working correctly after a few weeks on my feet. I don’t even know if they had batteries or if they were so advanced they ran off of the energy my 9 year old feet were putting into them, but they definitely stopped working shortly after. ⁣
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My parents got them for me for Christmas and this was after we had somehow seen some corny ass commercial with Joe Montana – the biggest star in Northern California at the time – walking around town with a big ass smile – wearing them. In those days, Joe Montana NEVER smiled so to see him smile was a big draw lol⁣
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I didn’t necessarily have any interest in LA Gears…I was much more interested in the skateboard brands than anything – airwalk, vans, vision streetwear (I was interested in Chucks, too) – but I think my parents just wanted to hook me up with a new pair of shoes. Note to self – never buy white shoes for a little boy. Not only is it completely counterintuitive – little boys in California are all about mucking about in the dirt – but they lasted long enough for me to know I never wanted another pair. ⁣
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The Regulators, too, I feel like I might have owned a pair of these because I remember they were like the cheap version of one of the most desirable shoes at the time – the Reebok Pump. ⁣
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Any of y’all out there own any LA Gears? Did these things ever even hit the east coast or were they mostly just a California thing?⁣