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Cool Sneakers
Column
Cool Sneakers
Mr. Bootblack is a philosopher with distinct views of his own. He earns a living cleaning shoes. Once every two weeks he writes an article about footwear for GDS – and about the wearers.
Josė is one of the first who comes by my stand in the morning. The city never sleeps, but sometimes it is a little slower-shortly before the flood of people hits and we on the street know its rhythm. We live from it and Josė, in his sneakers, is among those who wear genuine shoes which one can polish. "And, young man", I ask him each morning at about a quarter before six, "already going to play sports again?" Then he laughs because he is on the way to the office and he knows that I believe that JFK was the highpoint – since then, men’s more casual style has become less and less elegant. I know that modern men go to work in gym clothes-even if they don’t play basketball for the Knicks, but rather work at a computer. But just because I know it doesn’t mean that I necessarily like it.
Josė is one of us-even if he hasn’t sold newspapers in Times Square for a long time like back when he was a boy and the New York Times really was still located here. I’ve known him a long time and I have probably seen no other human being as frequently as I’ve seen Josė. Today, he is an editor for one of the Internet web pages of the Old Grey Lady and he tells me that it is still the best newspaper in the world – and nonetheless almost bankrupt. "Bootblack", he then says, "You did the right thing. Your job cannot be outsourced to Bangalore and done via the Internet. Perhaps your underchallenged brain has still proven beneficial." I point to his gym shoes and say: "Technology won’t drive me away, but rather fashion."
Josė sits down for a couple of minutes in the other chair as if he were a customer and I consider him to be my favourite when I think about the fact that, although he has no work for me, only occasionally a cigar from when he has visited his relatives in the Dominican Republic. He tells me the headlines just like back then when he still proclaimed them aloud. He was already the link between the world in my head and all the events that were taking place out there on the great planet-including the link between yesterday and tomorrow. He tells me about how the situation in North Korea is and of new telephones which can tell me what the weather will be like and have names like fruits. Headlines are always for today; tomorrow, they are already meaningless, but that’s OK to me. "Bootblack", says Josė, "a man who lives so much in the here and now as you do must nonetheless actually love fashion!" I have to smile at that. "Well", I say, "it’s about what one makes out of it. It isn’t enough to just go online because it’s modern. One must want to have the best online newspaper in the world." He nods. "But hey", I say, "cool sneakers!"
