May 17. The rain was oddly therapeutic. Shocking to me, especially given how much I hate being unnecessarily wet. No one likes a random torrential downpour, but in the middle of a really rough day, I was legitimately soothed by the light shower.

Enough about me, though. The brief weather discussion wasn’t an inane ice breaker, but an opportunity for me to introduce the decision-making process behind the Air Jordan XII “Taxis” on a rainy day.

While New York City deals with erratic rainfall, my daily sneaker selection is considerably restricted. Each morning of this pluvial week, the goal has been to pick a pair that doesn’t feature a suede/nubuck upper (for obvious reasons), and — just as important — doesn’t have an ice sole. I can’t confirm, but it’s said that moisture accelerates the yellowing process.

As far as I can tell, ice soles are going to yellow and there’s nothing we can really do about it (outside of using Sea Glow and a chemistry set). Personally, I think it adds to a shoe’s character.

Anyhow, the CDP Taxis are a favorite of mine I rarely wear. There’s no real reason or explanation, other than it takes me a while to cycle back to them. The fairly plain white-black colorway goes well with just about anything, but so do other shoes in my collection. And so, the Taxis stay clean.

*****

The bug hit me to wear the Taxi 12s on the same day I visualized a set for fresh kick pics in the rain. Thank God for the rain to wash the trash off the sidewalk.

There’s too much monotony in the kick-pic game. The sneakerhead-slash-photographer contingent on Tumblr and Flickr handle their kicks with such extreme care that the pictures often feel unnatural — rarely in a good, abstract, or artistic way, either.

They call that bein’ hip? What world are they from?

So I had an urge to embrace recklessness. I believed rain drops hitting my lens and falling around my feet would add some reality to the pictures. It was an impulse I had to follow.

The end results were clear pictures with some gloomy grittiness.

Also, I thought it’d be cool to stand in the middle of a busy NYC street and hope a passing cab served as a backdrop. The plan worked. Yes, it’s an easy concept for the Taxi 12s, like juxtaposing Oreos with the Jordan 6 “Oreos”, but still appropriate.

Enjoy.