My Experience Buying Basketball Shoes

It was 2021, I was going into my junior year of high school after transferring and the basketball season was about to start. I had been wearing the same pair of basketball shoes for the past couple of years through thick and thin. The court we practiced on at my former school was always very dusty and dirty. Because of this on top of the wear and tear the top of my shoes had accumulated, the bottoms were left with very little traction. All of this accumulated to mean one thing, I needed new basketball shoes. For those that do not play basketball, it is crucial to know that this was a very important matter. Unlike other casual sneakers that can be worn by most anyone as long as they are stylish and relatively comfortable, basketball sneakers have lots of small intricacies that, depending on the wearer, can make or break them. Depending on the user, one pair of basketball shoes that is seen as a worldwide staple can be utterly unwearable. For this reason, whenever someone finds a pair of basketball shoes they like they usually stick with that model for as long as possible. In my case, the pair of basketball shoes that I had grown to love were out of stock because they had come out many years prior. This meant that I had to find a new pair of basketball shoes that met all of the needs that were fulfilled by my prior ones but that were still in stock. With this in mind, my dad and I drove to the nearest sneaker store in search of new shoes. We ended up at a Finish Line store in our local mall and when we walked in I told the nearest worker that we were looking for basketball shoes, he simply directed us to the basketball section and told us to look around. I tried on a couple of shoes, none of them doing the trick, and eventually left empty-handed, thinking it would be impossible to find new shoes. The next day we drove to a new store, a Foot Locker a good while away. This time when I walked in and told the nearest worker I was looking for basketball shoes, he was passionate about the topic and asked me a series of questions regarding what mattered to me when it came to basketball shoes. He asked me about things like traction, comfort, style, and most everything that could be important in shopping for basketball shoes. After I answered all of his questions he directed me to a pair of Kyrie 4’s that ended up being the perfect shoes and the ones I would eventually buy. These shoes have been my mainstay and go-to whenever I recommend shoes to others. Looking back there is a lot to learn from this experience regarding sales. By simply being passionate about his job and taking the time to ask me questions about what I want, the Foot Locker worker turned the process of shoe shopping from a tiring, endless search into one that was enjoyable and insightful. This shows the true value of a good salesperson.