Sneaker pimp gives “activewear” new meaning
Operation McFly brings consumers Back to the Future
Lexi Pathak
The Link (Concordia University)
MONTREAL (CUP) — In a post-gluttonous holiday daze stuffed with too much turkey and too much shopping, some of us pledge not only to work off that holiday belly, but also to stop the excessive consumption. Others sign a petition asking Nike — a capitalist giant — to provide them with yet another object of desire to feed their addiction.
An online petition, dubbed Operation McFly, requests that Nike recreate and sell the Marty McFly Moon boots Michael J. Fox wore in Back to the Future II. The brainchild of Montrealer “sneaker activist” Al Cabino, the petition has already garnered over 4,600 signatures since its creation in mid-November. Cabino, named 2006 Noisemaker by the Montreal Mirror, has also appeared on the Maclean’s newsmakers list, MTV, the Globe and Mail, the Boston Phoenix, and the Washington Post.
But Cabino, who has been seriously involved in sneaker culture for the past two years and is currently writing a book on it, said the petition has nothing to do with personal fame:
“I am not into the media circus thing. I’m not doing it to be on Entertainment Tonight,” he said in a recent interview.
For Cabino, it’s all about the love of sneakers. “It all started with a simple question, and the simple question was, can sneaker activism work? And the answer is yes.”
He points to the other movie-sneakers that have already been marketed to the public, including Forrest Gump’s Nike Cortez, Uma Thurman’s ASICS Tai Chi Tigers from Kill Bill and Rocky’s Chuck Taylors, but Cabino claims that the McFly boots are the “Holy Grail of movie sneakers.” It seems that many others agree, including celebrity signers such as DJ AM and Kanye West protégé Lupe Fiasco.
Yet some people aren’t so supportive of Cabino. They oppose his use of the word “activism” and his support of Nike, a company whose admitted sweatshop notoriety has made it the target of anti-globalization protests.
“I get hate mail,” said Cabino. “But there is love and hate in this world. I get emails from people who love my idea, and I get emails from people who hate it. You have to have both.”
The hate mail doesn’t faze this sneaker lover, who says he doesn’t challenge his critics’ interpretation of activism.
“I am applying activism to sneaker culture. I am not taking anything away from the workers’ rights movement.”
If Cabino is a sneaker activist, he isn’t the first. In 2001, MIT graduate student Jonah Peretti rocked the footwear world with his request for personalized Nike sneakers bearing the word “sweatshop.” Customer service at Nike refused to process Peretti’s order and didn’t fulfil his request for a photo of the worker who made his shoes, either. Peretti’s story spread like wildfire across the Internet, much to the consternation of the powers-that-be at Nike.
Rubber-soled activist
While most activists are fighting against social injustices, Cabino is merely trying to get a pair of sneakers (even if they are really cool silver ones). Cabino says he is a new type of activist, but still fits into this category because he’s trying to work with other people towards achieving a common goal.
“You have to be active to get what you believe in. I believe in applying activism to sneaker culture, I believe in sneaker activism, I believe in what I believe in,” Cabino said. “I understand why people want to put me against the traditional activist. But we are both fighting for something.”
According to the Oxford dictionary, activism is “vigorous action to further a cause,” but the word typically implies making change that will move the world forward, such as the activism of Rosa Parks, Mahatma Gandhi or Noam Chomsky. Even Adbusters’ Blackspot sneaker campaign, with its “Sweet Spot (for kicking corporate ass)” and its “Hand-Drawn Anti-Logo,” could be argued as being more revolutionary than asking a sweatshop giant to make yet another product.
No one can deny that Cabino is, in fact, being active. He is actively dictating what he wants to consume, and he is mobilizing like-minded people towards his cause with impressive results. If he’s successful, the consumers of the world will be able to sport a flashy new pair of sneakers.
Kalle Lasn, editor-in-chief of Adbusters, sums up the new trend in corporate activism: “Well, he may be an activist by the dictionary definition, he is not an activist in my eyes. A job of an activist in this consumerist age is to challenge big corporations and to make them think. For [Cabino] to petition Nike, who has such a huge control on the sneaker market already, well, it just makes me sad.”
