Look up cost of living back during the time you are thinking about and what the money used to be worth back then I guess

I blame the parents and schools for not doing anything about bullies and teasing. I was in the trenches as a kid, I remember all the Jack Shit they did back then.

Same for iphone. Fuck Apple.

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.

Congrats, there’s a good chance you just bought into being part of the problem. Your son is probably now a card-carrying member of the group that teases other kids for being less than.

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.

One of my good runner friends (3000+ miles a year and owns 100+ pairs of shoes) is the biggest sketchers fans I know of. Apparently their good running shoes aren't even cheap anymore, like $110+.

I imagine these kids aren't wearing super shoes anyway, or else they would know the puma's are faster

Teach your kid to kick some teeth out with his Skechers. I have a feeling that your kid is going to get bullied no matter what he wears.

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

Buy him a crowbar.

Ultimate tool against bullying

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.