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In the beginning of the music video when Macklemore raps, “I was seven years old, when I got my first pair/And I stepped outside/And I was like, 'Momma, this air bubble right here, it's gonna make me fly', from the start it shows that advertisement ,even back then in Macklemore youth, advertise the idea that shoes would make a better basketball player which is obviously not true. As the video progresses, Macklemore raps how he felt wearing those shoes with the lines, “I was so cool, I knew I couldn’t cease them/My friends couldn't afford 'em/Four stripes on their Adidas.”, this verse conveys to the viewer that wearing Nikes shoes make you cool since its expensive and mostly unobtainability for most consumer. Furthermore, the other shoes depicted are dirty, which further distinguishes how Nike shoes make an individual look “superior”. The music video takes an immediate turn when Macklemore raps, “And then my friend Carlos' brother got murdered for his Fours, whoa.”, the tone of the video shifted as Macklemore introduced a common problem with Nikes during the 90’s including the murders and robberies associated with Nike’s shoes and it still happen today among other expensive shoe brand. Violence among young people over a pair of expensive shoes shows how consumerism wrap the mind among young, black men with the idea that if they own these shoes they can magically become better people which isn’t true in the slightest.
A person shouldn’t need to define their individuality by having or wearing expensive items. So during the music video when Macklemore raps, “But see I look inside the mirror and think Phil Knight tricked us all/Will I stand for change or stay in my box/These Nikes help me define me, but I'm trying to take mine off”, by presenting another student with the same pair of shoes shows how like any other item someone else will have the same thing. It’s a harsh reality for most people to realize that Nike shoes or any other expensive object are only an item and not specifically unique to that individual. Unfortunately, most young African American don’t realize this and even today still get affect by consumerism, wasting their money on these expensive shoes and even killing each other over these pair of shoes.
During the conclusion of the video, Macklemore summarizes his message with the last few verses as he raps, “It started out with what I wear to school. /That first day, like these are what make you cool. / […]/This dream that they sold to you.”, “For a hundred dollars and some change. /Consumption is in the veins. /And now I see it's just another pair of shoes.” These lines signal a realization to Macklemore and hopefully to the viewer that Nikes are just ordinary pair of shoes. One can tell that the tone become somber during these verses, that the pride Macklemore took in wearing Nikes in his young age was ultimately pointless in the grand scheme of things. He broadens his message by using the word “our” to that of the American culture as a whole and towards his target audience of young black men of the “shoe culture” is obsessed with buying and flaunting expensive items to make ourselves feel superior over others who can’t afford them when ultimately it just a waste of money.
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