I fought so hard until my dad bought me a pair. Damn I thought that maybe once the bullying would stop in school.

I still wore the wrong jeans and shirts, though.

Nothing like a pair of shoes conjuring up memories.

I picked up a pair of Shaq shoes when I was in middle school for that reason. Weirdly it did help. I remember a kid that would pick on me stopped because he thought my shoes were cool. Everyone thought they had to have been really expensive too (like Jordan shoes), but they weren't. I had found them at some discount retailer. I'm not even sure if they were legit, but they said Shaq and they looked cool. Eventually someone else found the shoes and brought up that they were inexpensive shoes, but by that time I'd already moved on to a different pair of shoes.

They were probably legit and intentionally more affordable: https://www.blackbusiness.com/2016/07/shaq-affordable-shoes-...

I too had the original Shaq Rebook pumps. Did you pick up one of these?

https://i.imgur.com/MLtw137.jpg

Another gimmick to mess around with. The instant inflation tool (has a CO2 cartridge in it). Circa 1992 it seemed cool as a young kid, fun to mess with for a couple of weeks during school - up to the point where you had to buy the replacement cartridges for something entirely unnecessary.