If 2016 taught politicians anything, it’s that co-opting pop-culture references to pander to young people does not work—think “Pokémon GO to the polls” and whipping and nae nae-ing on Ellen. But Markey’s “air revolution” dad joke suits his persona in a way that doesn’t feel forced. It’s also a sincere double entendre: he has a deep connection to a piece of popular culture that appeals to young voters, and he’s using it to offer them the kinds of radical climate policies that, if enacted, would lead to material changes in their lives.
In the history of American electoral politics, this is the first time Brendan Dunne, general manager of the sneaker-centric blog Sole Collector and cohost of the sneaker talk show Full Size Run, has seen a politician use sneakers “to say something so definitive.” Dunne told me that Markey’s Air Revolutions stand out for a couple reasons: it’s not a pair the average consumer would easily recognize, but the shoes were highly influential at the time of their release, given that they were among the first releases to show off the Nike Air’s “bubble” technology in a visible way—a development that contributed to Nike becoming the top U.S. sneaker brand. “You have to be a few layers deep into sneakers to know about the Revolution,” Dunne said, a point confirmed by Politico and New York magazine reports that misidentified them. He added that it would be “way too obvious” for a politician to pander to young people by flaunting, say, a pair of Yeezys or Off-White Air Jordans. “It’s the fact that he’s actually wearing something from an era when he got a lot of use out of it—the context makes sense, and it feels more authentic.”
Markey, who uses the 33-year-old shoes like a ’90s Toyota Camry pushing 300,000 miles, recently got them back from the cobbler—or, as he described it, sent them “off to the Air Revolution hospital” to have them “glued“ back together—just in time for his return to the campaign trail ahead of the September 1 primary. And they’re just as much of a fan favorite in-person as they are in his Twitter ’fit pics. “Let me see those shoes!” one young supporter yelled during a socially distanced campaign stop, according to a Boston Globe report last week that noted how “Markey shimmied his sneakers into the frame for a selfie.”
He’ll wear them until they wear out—an embodiment, he explained to me, of his working-class mentality, and a symbolic reminder to strive for something better. “From my perspective, Caleb, my basketball shoes have always been aspirational,” he said. “And when you put them on, you know you’re dreaming, you’re thinking of what the future is all about. So that’s how I’ve always felt about my basketball shoes—that’s why I still wear them. I get up in the morning and put them on. When I’m going to sleep at night, I take them off. So that’s who I am. And that’s who I’ve always been.”
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