There’s No One-Size-Fits-All When it Comes Down to the Homeless or the Shoes they Should Wear.
Depending on what classification of homelessness one might experience, you might not get to take your shoes off at 5:00 PM. You might live in them, walk fifteen miles a day in them, and sleep with them on to keep them from being stolen or to stay warm. Throughout my entire life, I tried every brand available. However, it wasn’t until I became an unhoused, single individual that I truly planted my feet on solid ground. Only one survived the gauntlet: the New Balance 574, to be exact.
A Shared Road with a different journey
Most sneaker reviews are written by people who test shoes for an hour a day. They run on cushioned tracks, walk through air-conditioned malls, or jog along smooth park paths. They talk about “responsiveness” and “breathability” as luxury features. But they do not know what a shoe can actually handle.
The ultimate test of a sneaker does not happen in a controlled gym environment. It happens on the relentless, unforgiving concrete of American cities, homeless encampments and inside homeless shelter all across America. Ironically, it is the exact same pavement. A marathon runner training for a race and a person experiencing homelessness might use the very same stretch of sidewalk on any given morning. The runner passes by in a flash of expensive gear, hitting the smooth asphalt for an hour before heading home to shower and change.
I write this aspect out of knowledge of someone who was not just a single parent homeless father from coast to coast for roughly two decades mostly while battling a chemical dependency but someone who has experienced the three different classes of homelessness and have wore several different types of sneakers during the process-rather it was in the rain, sunshine or through the backwoods.
I knew just about every other sneaker on the market and wore several of them during my homeless journey. However Unfortunately, it wasn't until I advanced into the upper class of homelessness when I was introduced to New Balance 574. I was impressed immediately.
The Three Different Classes of Homelessness
Not only have I experienced the lifestyles of all three different classes of homelessness but I made it through and and has made it my signature theory to raise the awareness about them through my advocacy, global documentary and writings advocacy.
Upper Class (First-Class) Homelessness Definition: Individuals or families who actively maintain their hygiene and appearance while striving to return to mainstream society.
Living Situation: Often stay in emergency shelters, temporary transitional housing, vehicles, motels, or couch-surf with friends.
Mindset: Highly motivated with a strong desire to secure stable employment and permanent housing. I make it clear that they are often overlooked because they do not “look” homeless, but they have the highest potential to rebound easier with minimal structural assistance
2. Middle-Class Homelessness Definition: People who fluctuate between short-term stability and recurring setbacks, caught directly between the mindsets of the upper and lower tiers.
Living Situation: Alternates unpredictably between emergency shelters, transitional spots, and directly sleeping on the streets.
Mindset: Their grooming, hygiene, and morale are inconsistent and show wear. They desire to move up into mainstream society but face systemic barriers or personal cycles that cause them to continuously fall backward. Without intervention, they are at severe risk of slipping permanently into chronic street homelessness.
3. Lower Class (Third-Class) Homelessness Definition: The most visible and heavily stereotyped unhoused population, characterized by individuals who have largely disconnected from mainstream social structures.
Living Situation: Live directly on the streets, in public parks, or in makeshift encampments.
Mindset: Individuals in this tier generally suffer from severe untreated mental illness, physical trauma, or chemical dependencies. Because of these profound barriers, survival takes total precedence over hygiene, public appearance, or structural reintegration.
Along with the mindset comes different lifestyles and different terrain when it comes to the importance of the quality of footwear, especially sneakers, For someone unhoused, that road is not a temporary workout track. It can end up being a long term space. For nearly twenty years, I as a single parent father and a solo individual, I have experienced the three different classes of homelessness. During those two decades, my feet were one of my main asset, my only vehicle, and my primary means of survival.
Depending on what classification of homelessness one might experience, you might not get to take your shoes off at 5:00 PM. You might live in them, walk fifteen miles or more a day in them, and sleep with them on to keep them from being stolen or to stay warm. My entire life, I tried every brand available. One of my all-time favorites is Bata Bullets, which are iconic retro sneakers originally launched in 1964 by the Bata Shoe Company in Belcamp, Maryland. Famous for serving as the off-court footwear for the NBA’s Baltimore Bullets, these vintage canvas and leather sneakers have since been revived by Bata’s heritage line. “Chuck Taylors (All Stars) — which we always called Chucks — are my all-time favorite shoes. They have a rich history, originally debuting in 1917 as a basketball shoe before legendary player and salesman Chuck Taylor added his signature to the ankle patch in the 1920s, transforming them into a cultural icon. However, because of another sentimental situation that I will talk about some other time, today I am going to share a story about a different pair of shoes instead.”
Believe it or not as my AI artist and persona Protein the Past mentioned in the song on Apple Music Called Hate the Game he mentioned Chuck Taylors which happened to be my best shoe of all times being that I also have a different sentimental connect to which I will speak about at another time.
However, it wasn’t until I became an unhoused, single individual that I truly planted my feet on solid ground. Only one survived the gauntlet: the New Balance 574, to be exact.
While fitness walkers stick strictly to the clean, predictable center of the sidewalk, survival forces you off-road. The way your shoes wear down depends heavily on your lifestyle. In my twenty years on the pavement, I observed that the homeless community generally splits into three distinct classes, each putting a unique, brutal strain on footwear:
There are other terrains that consist of all three different classes of homelessness.
The Vehicle Dwellers: These individuals live out of cars, vans, or abandoned buildings. Their lifestyle involves heavy lifting, and constantly stepping in and out of tight spaces. They need a shoe that acts like a work boot — providing stable traction on oil-slicked parking lots and gravel — but without the heavy, joint-destroying weight of steel toes.
The Campers (The Deep Off-Roaders): This group lives completely unsheltered, set up in hidden encampments deep inside wooded city parks, underneath highway overpasses, or along riverbanks. Their daily routine is entirely off-road. To get to their tents or protect their privacy, they must navigate steep dirt embankments, sharp gravel, jagged rocks, overgrown brush, and hidden mud pits.
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No matter which lifestyle you find yourself in, standard running shoes quickly fall apart. The thin rubber soles shred, and the cheap plastic structures collapse. New Balance became the gold standard for me because in my opinion, It was the only shoe engineered well enough to handle all three worlds seamlessly, even though I only found out about New Balance after becoming an upper class homeless and working my way back into the mainstream of society but taking them through all the other terrains mentioned by way of filing homeless documentaries, and my global homeless advocacy .
Suede Armor on the Hidden Trails
After finding housing, I continuously found myself in homeless areas bing that I became an internationally recognized social impact documentary filmmaker homeless activist and published writer, kept my Reference in those same paths and I came to a better understand that the New Balance was hands down the best show for endurance.
This off-road reality is exactly why New Balance’s use of high-quality suede is an unexpected miracle for survival. Most people think mesh or thin leather is the best material for a walking shoe. However, synthetic mesh lets water, sharp twigs, and morning dew soak straight through to your socks, leading to painful trench foot. Cheap leather cracks, splits, and stiffens into plastic knives after getting wet and drying in the sun.
The heavy-duty suede on a New Balance acts like a flexible shield. When navigating the dirt trails of a wooded encampment or kicking through the debris under a highway bridge, the suede resists tearing from sharp branches and briars.
Furthermore, maintenance on the street is a challenge. You cannot just throw your shoes in a washing machine. When New Balance suede gets caked in dry mud from an off-road camp or covered in city dust from a long walk to a shelter, you do not need soap and water. A stiff brush, a rough stone, or even a dry cloth can knock the dirt loose and restore the material. The suede breathes well enough to keep your feet dry, dries out relatively quickly without warping when caught in a downpour, and retains its shape over years of constant flexing.
The Lightweight Shield Against Fatigue
When you belong to any of the three classes of homelessness, weight is your worst enemy. If you are a a homeless residing in the words or a homeless encampment, carrying a heavy backpack of survival gear to and from your location, or a commuter walking ten miles across the city to secure a meal, every extra ounce on your feet feels like a lead weight by nightfall.
New Balance cracked the code by creating a shoe that feels like nothing, yet protects against everything. The lightweight construction saves vital physical energy during long treks. It provides agility when navigating unstable, muddy hillsides and prevents the deep, muscular fatigue that turns a long walk into a painful crawl. It is an engineering feat that athletes appreciate for split-seconds on a track, but on the street, that weight reduction is a daily blessing that preserves your stamina.
Years of Shock Absorption
Beneath the lightweight suede is the foundational cushion. Standing on concrete for hours at a time — whether waiting for a shelter bed, a meal, or legal assistance — wears down the human body from the heels up to the lower back. The impact of the pavement is relentless, and walking on uneven off-road terrain only worsens the toll on your ankles and knees.
As an upper-class homeless at the time-I wore my New Balance every day as they provided a level of shock absorption that keeps the skeletal system intact. Their arch support and foam midsoles do not collapse after a month of heavy use like other commercial brands do. They maintain their structural integrity under the weight of constant, daily wear across dirt, gravel, and asphalt alike. That cloud-like comfort is not just a luxury; it is a vital barrier against blisters, stone bruises, and chronic joint pain.
Part VI: The Verdict from the Pavement
People buy sneakers today based on marketing campaigns, athlete endorsements, and internet hype. They look at the logo on the side and think about status or fashion trends, and that’s alright.
I only had New Balance shoes during the later stages of my homelessness. However, my loyalty to the brand comes from the other side of the tracks. It was forged through my final stage of living on the concrete, battling the weather, mud, and survival. I only wished I had owned a pair during the beginning and middle stages of my homelessness. Because of this, I completely understand how happy someone experiencing homelessness would be if the company donated a pair to them.
However, my advocacy later took me back into those exact terrains, working with all classes while filming documentaries and doing community outreach. That is how the shoes ultimately survived the full trial. While the rest of the world tests shoes in pristine, controlled environments, my life was a two-decade endurance trial across the hidden, rugged terrains of the city. New Balance is the best shoe on the market because it survived the hardest test a human being can throw at it. It kept me moving forward when the ground beneath me was at its harshest.
Most people view footwear through the lens of luxury, fitness, or fashion. My story encourages the reader to look at the exact same object through the lens of utility, terrain, and social reality.
We talked about how tough, how light, and how well put together they were. But after I made it up to the upper class homelessness and transferred back into the mainstream, I dressed the part of a person who you wouldn’t think was homeless. So, all that I mentioned about them — what I didn’t mention was style, as you can pair them with just about any attire.
How this pairs together is that whether it comes down to identifying the three different classes of homelessness and a sneaker for them, there’s no one size that fits all.
None of this would have been possible without the grace of GOD by first delivering me from my nearly two decades of addiction, which I have written about in my book called Eric Protein Moseley`s Recipe for Recovery.
This ebook has already been purchased by Babson College, The Los Angeles Public Library, The Pasadena Public Library, Pueblo Public Library, and it is also available on platforms such as Amazon, Askews & Holts, WorldCat, OverDrive, Smashwords, Draft2Digital, Apple, and more . It is also available on Barnes & Noble and Apple, along with other outlets in those categories.
Eric Protein Moseley is A globally recognized social impact documentary filmmaker, published writer and musician through his AI persona Protein the Past through my AI Label The Coolest Cowboy Records and “A 50-Year Musical Comeback”
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