By Jason Genegabus

I made a rare daytime appearance in Waikiki last weekend for the second annual “Reuse-A-Shoe” drive at Niketown on Sunday.

Since I typically cover nightlife-related activities, this assignment was a welcome change. Instead of knocking a few back at the “Skin” pool party at the Sheraton Waikiki, I hung out and drank some free Jamba Juice while waiting for Mayor Mufi Hannemann to make his appearance.

The picture above is of the pile when I first showed up. I was asked to help judge a “Creative Kicks” shoe contest, where entrants had to redesign a used sneaker for a shot at a $120 pair of brand-new shoes.

Some of the entrants in the K-4 category:

The “Money Shoe” and “Nike McQueen” were also entered:

This is “Pinky Honu,” a sea turtle made from a used sneaker:

Some entries were very detailed:

There was even “Shoeshi” at Niketown. Get extra shoyu?

One of the contest’s winning entries (there were 12 winners in four different categories):

Soon enough, the mayor showed up. That’s him in the passenger seat of this antique HFD firetruck:

The Honolulu Fire Department collected so many shoes, they had to bring three vehicles. The antique firetruck was filled with shoes, as was this truck:

And this truck:

Mayor Hannemann also brought his own donation to add to the growing pile of sneakers:

And then he sang a song for the people in attendance, with a Niketown employee stepping in to dance:

The pile around 2 p.m. Sunday, right before I left:

Check out Tuesday’s “In the Mix” for more about this event.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 30th, 2007 at 4:35 pm and is filed under Outside The Club, Picture Blogs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.