Not that it was total bedlam, either. “In Brooklyn, kids earned their stars and stripes,” says Avshalom. “There was a rank and file. You had to know who the kid was, who his big brother was. There was a code of conduct. You’d have to be very careful who you jack, because maybe it’s not worth it. But then, the real kids in the neighborhood wouldn’t even have to raise a finger to jack your shit.” Sneakers, according to him, were like a form of currency in those neighborhoods, no different than cash but for its visibility, alternately conferring cred and being paid forth as tribute. An ad hoc form of law and order to which anyone who’s watched the hood-explaining classic The Wire can attest.