In a previous post, I detailed how I bought new shoes for my trip to San Diego. What I didn’t write about was a funny little anecdote that happened while I was in the process of buying those shoes.
When I went to the store to look at shoes, I actually tried on a few pairs of shoes before settling on the running shoes. The sales dude who helped me was non-Asian which is an important detail to keep in mind. The first pair of shoes I decided to try on were a pair of Nike cross trainers. I also didn’t tell the dude specifically what I was going to use these shoes for. Combine that with the fact I wanted to test out a pair of cross trainers meant he had no clue what I had in store for them. When he came back out from the back, he said to me:
“These shoes are really good for badminton.”
I almost laughed aloud when I heard that. Come on! I know he was just playing odds of what sport I possibly could have been interested in but still. He went for something so stereotypical, even he should have paused and thought about it before saying it. I think I muttered, “that’s great” and just continued on lacing the cross trainers up.
You should have told him you were Jeremy Lin looking for basketball shoes, he probably wouldn’t have been able to tell the two of you apart, and may have asked for an autograph in exchange for a discount.