Ben is 13.

1995.

What a great year.

The Chicago Bulls go 72-10, win the Finals and secure a place in history as the best basketball team ever.

The original Playstation was released and we were ushered into a new era of videogaming.

The BMW E36 M3 is introduced to car fans in the United States, it was and will always be my favorite car of all time.

I was 13 and I was a freshman at Monte Vista High School.

The Pharcyde's "Drop,"  Boys II Men's "On Bended Knee," TLC's "Creep" and "This is How We Do It" by Montell Jordan rocked the airwaves.

Nike releases the best shoes in it's history:

The Air Max.
The best Air Max ever.  The shoe stood out to me instantly.  I remember first seeing it and being enamored with the forefoot visible Air Max pockets and the way the shades of grey faded from top to bottom.  The neon/grey colorway is classic and iconic, my favorite colorway was the white/emerald.


The Air Jordan XI.
The best Air Jordan ever.  When it first released it polarized everyone.  PATENT LEATHER?! on a basketball shoe?  Yep.  I remember seeing them and knowing I had to have them.  I now have over 20 pairs of this shoe in different colorways.  The shoe featured a carbon fiber midfoot support as well as full length Nike Tensile-Air cushioning.


The Air Penny One.
The first signature shoe for one of my favorite players.  This shoe is a classic and was very popular with everyone when it released.  The white/white colorway was gangster, my favorite is the original one.  This shoe is the ultimate in comfort with it's forefoot Tensile-Air, the predecessor of Zoom-Air, and it's huge rear Air Max2 air pocket.


The Air Max Griffey
With it's full length Air Max cushioning system and ankle strap it was a performance monster.  The colorways were based on his team, the Seattle Mariners.  This shoe was recently retroed and I was able to get a pair of the OG ones finally.


The Air Zoom Flight.
Tim Hardaway and Jason Kidd rocked these crazy shoes.  The shoe featured TPU globes on a huge midsole with a full Tensile-Air (Zoom-Air) cushioning system.  The shoes also had faux carbon fiber all over them in 1995, which is definitely fashion forward.


The Air Max Uptempo.
My favorite shoe when I was 13 was my white/black-emerald (Spurs colorway) Air Max Uptempos.  Even more than my Jordan XIs and Pennys.  These shoes were worn by David Robinson and Scottie Pippen as well as most of the NBA at a point.  The shoe featured full length Air Max with a rear Air Max2 unit.  So gangster, especially in all black with a white Swoosh.