Toronto's Bata Shoe Museum has an exhibition on right now that is all about sneakers. It's called Future Now: Virtual Sneakers to Cutting-Edge Kicks. I haven't been to it yet, but it's on the list. Because this is interesting to me for a few reasons.

One, shoes are important and, as a general rule, I always wear them when I leave the house. Though there may have been some exceptions to this general rule.

Two, sneakers are high fashion. Just look at everyone walking around Paris.

And three, sneakers are such a great example of a clothing device that went from utility (we need to protect our feet) to fashion (we all have a desire to express our unique identities) to art collectible (yes, lots of people buy shoes that they never actually wear).

So if you're looking at stuff like NFTs and digital fashion and scratching your head as to why they have any value, sneakers are probably a good place to look to help you understand why many of us seem to have a need to collect things that help us define our sense of self.

This is, of course, one of the reasons why Nike bought a digital shoe company.

I suspect that the exhibition will be at least partially about this and at least partially about really cool 3D-printed shoes.

Toronto's Bata Shoe Museum has an exhibition on right now that is all about sneakers. It's called Future Now: Virtual Sneakers to Cutting-Edge Kicks. I haven't been to it yet, but it's on the list. Because this is interesting to me for a few reasons.

One, shoes are important and, as a general rule, I always wear them when I leave the house. Though there may have been some exceptions to this general rule.

Two, sneakers are high fashion. Just look at everyone walking around Paris.

And three, sneakers are such a great example of a clothing device that went from utility (we need to protect our feet) to fashion (we all have a desire to express our unique identities) to art collectible (yes, lots of people buy shoes that they never actually wear).

So if you're looking at stuff like NFTs and digital fashion and scratching your head as to why they have any value, sneakers are probably a good place to look to help you understand why many of us seem to have a need to collect things that help us define our sense of self.

This is, of course, one of the reasons why Nike bought a digital shoe company.

I suspect that the exhibition will be at least partially about this and at least partially about really cool 3D-printed shoes.