The five best sneakers we saw at Got Sole’s sneaker convention in the Philly area

If you were looking for nearly any and every sneaker imaginable, Got Sole’s sneaker convention was the place to be. Saturday’s event at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks brought in several local shoe retailers, national sneaker stores, and people from all over the country to buy, sell, and trade.

The Inquirer attended the event, which was brought to the Philly area for the first time since Got Sole was founded in 2013. While there were thousands of shoes on display, five in particular caught our eye.

Here are the five best shoes we saw on Saturday afternoon.

» READ MORE: Got Sole convention attracts ‘pure sneakerheads’ with plenty of Philly flair

Special collaborations that involve fictional characters rarely disappoint. Though the Nike Air Jordan 1 is a classic, finding cool ways to create special shoe releases is exactly what sneakers are about, which is why the Nike Jordan 1 OG Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse shoes catch the eye. The shoes, released last year, have a red base that is reminiscent of the Spider-Man costume in the movie, with unique translucent circles near the top of the shoe.

There were several other fictional character shoes at the event, but this was the best one of the bunch.

The extra touch with the Nike Chunky Dunks, the addition of the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream container display, immediately caught our eye going down the first row of the Got Sole convention. The tower of the Nike Chunky Dunky low SB shoes looks like a carbon copy of an ice cream you would get from the national retailer.

Released in 2020, these unique Nike dunks have been around for a while, but the allure hasn’t gone away. Evidence of the demand? The shoes are priced at $389 on Nike’s online store.

» READ MORE: ‘I’ll never stop’: Collecting sneakers can be ‘a source of joy’ — or provide some father-son bonding

Only 225 pairs of the Air Max 1 ‘87 Luxe “University of Oregon” PE were released by the Oregon-based NIL company Division Street earlier this year, making it one of the rarest shoes at Got Sole. The New York-based retailer that had the shoe in stock at his display told The Inquirer the shoes dropped in just three cities: Miami, Los Angeles, and New York.

The shoes feature an homage to the throwback Oregon uniforms, and feature an “O” on the back for Oregon’s logo, along with “Oregon” written across the front of the shoe’s tongue.

The details of this shoe are what made it so fascinating. The retailer displaying the shoe, Soleaisle, based in Elizabeth, N.J., recalled when the shoe dropped in September 2021, through a collaboration with Social Status and Nike inspired by federally funded free-meal programs in public schools. The shoes, named “Strawberry Milk” have a pink base, aqua-blue interior, and pink shoelaces.

The shoe box looks like a cereal box, and the back of the shoes has ingredients listed as if it were food. The shoe rollout also included a “Chocolate Milk” colorway.

» READ MORE: The story behind the Nike ‘Philly’ Dunks, featuring a color-changing swoosh and plenty of local Easter eggs

Finally, one of the unique shoes (literally) was the custom pair of Air Jordans made by Jim Buck of Levittown. His business, Made by Buck, makes unique shoes, several of which were inspired by Philadelphia’s sports teams. The Retro Green Nike Air Jordan 1 High, he calls them, are “caviar green leather with a smooth ice gray leather and tumbled white leather for the toe, tongue, and Swoosh. Adding an embroidered retro Eagles logo in the place of the Jordan Wings logo on the collar of the upper to tie the theme together.”

There was also a Phillies Nike-inspired shoe, with a brown base and the stitching of a baseball across the top.