Katz’s Deli Hawking Sweet $5,000 Nike Shoes
That’s at least 100 corned beef sandwiches!
December 10, 2013
(Vimeo)
How do we trace our lives across the timeline? T.S. Eliot’s Prufrock measured his life in coffee spoons, but Eliot, as Adam Kirsch reminded us, was a famous English anti-Semite. Across the pond, we have delicatessen. Katz’s Deli, one Lower East Side institution, is turning 125.
In that time, unfathomable shifts have overtaken the neighborhood. Once home to immigrant masses and tenements, the seats at Katz’s were jammed by writers and stars of Yiddish theater. The Lower East Side blossomed and burgeoned. As Americans marched across Europe, the masses were instructed to send a salami to your boy in the army. The F train appeared, the city grew, and the Lower East Side turned into a center of fashion, revelry, and jaw-dropping real estate prices. Last year, we were there when Katz’s, its power felled by Hurricane Sandy, served food by candlelight to passersby, restoring one bit of normalcy to the darkened neighborhood.
How do you celebrate the storied past at its intersection with the chic, hipstery present? With some sweet Katz’s Deli sneakers. Not just sneakers, but custom-engraved, limited-edition Nike Air Force 1s. The good folks at SneakerMob described the kicks this way:
Katz’s iconic corner is etched into the upper, while a simple pattern of forks, knives, and spoons compliment the main attraction. Katz’s grand logo and their famous ticket are stamped on the insole. “When Harry Met Sally”, the movie which added to the deli’s fame, is featured in the sneakers packaging which really completes the entire custom piece.
The opening bid is $1,000 on eBay, but you can skip all that hassle and just plunk down $5,000 and you’ll be set. Not sold? Well, you also get an iPod nano with the soundtrack to When Harry Met Sally loaded onto it. Here’s the semi-pornographic video about the shoes:
For further content on the cachet attached the Air Force 1s, enjoy this stroll back to 2002 with Nelly and the St. Lunatics:
Happy bidding!
Adam Chandler was previously a staff writer at Tablet. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, Slate, Esquire, New York, and elsewhere. He tweets @allmychandler.
