NIKE "my"D

People gaze into the windows and briskly I walk past them, through the glass front doors. "Do you have an appointment?" the huge, intimidating, hip-hopped out black man says to me upon my arrival. He is sitting on a couch in front of a laptop amongst numerous other employees, every article of clothing he wears is bigger than the sheets on my bed and he is way too cool for me, way too casual. I feel far too gay to be at this establishment. But none of them can tell this. Unshaven, wearing my favorite Black Yankees baseball cap, a bit hip-hopped out myself, they very well might know I'm gay. But they sure don't know I'm nervous.
An early Christmas gift came in the form of an appointment at the NIKE iD store on Elizabeth Street tonight. I was struck by the exclusivity factor upon my arrival. "Appointments only, guys" was muttered to more than one of the brave inquisitors who stepped inside. And the apparent difficulty in getting an hour long time slot for designing your own, one of a kind shoes seems practically legendary. (It's currently anywhere from up to a year's waiting list, names are drawn at random, and I seem to have gotten my appointment due mainly to the fact that I live in the neighborhood, was given a special pass code, and there was an unexpected cancellation earlier in the week) Without a doubt the "Fabulous Life" endorsed NIKE iD experience is one for the memory books.
From the bottle of Voss handed to me once I'd begun the design process to the personalized/one-on-one/all access/hour long service. And from the gift bag I left with to the ultimate end result- my two sets of all original, nobody else can have the same pair shoes that will be arriving in 3-4 weeks, it's just like the tagline says,
"Uniqueness is the Ultimate Luxury"