Product Review: KangaROOS Tai Chi Jogger

The Wire, December 3, 2003

Price: $29.99 (I saved $30.01!!!)
Colors Available: Cool Grey/Navy/Lime
Sizes Available: 8-13 (Size 10 tested)

My pockets were burning up with the check I got for my last product review, so I decided it was time to let loose and spend a little hard earned cash on a style upgrade.

Due to financial constraints, I headed straight to the Seacoast’s number-one source of inexpensive fashion—Marshalls on Woodbury Ave. in Portsmouth. While perusing the shoe section in the back of the store, I found an item lurking in the racks that was surely hiding somewhere in the store when it was last renovated in the early 1980s: KangaROOS.

KangaROOS started selling shoes in 1978 with a patented pocket design, recognizing the need to accommodate miniscule, useless items while jogging in cut-rate running shoes (I guess they worked well enough to carry subway tokens so you could get home after a tough break dancing session).

I first found them in 1983. I was pretty cool then. I mean, yeah, I had the parachute pants, the friendship bracelets, and the satin jacket. Jesse’s Girl was my favorite song, and Michael Jackson was the coolest guy around. During a commercial break on MTV (back when they played music videos, all seven of them), I saw a commercial for a pair of shoes with a built-in pocket, and naturally had to get a pair.

Now, my memory might be a bit hazy two-plus decades later, but I swear I had a gray pair of Roos with fluorescent yellow accents. In fact, I think I had these identical sneakers (well, 10 sizes smaller) when I was 12.

I’ve been wearing these shoes pretty frequently over the past few weeks, and they are holding up nicely while lounging around at the Red Door or Quigley’s or Jimmy LaPanza’s. My biggest problem so far is that the UNH students I meet are now officially too young to have been familiar with the original incarnation of KangaROOS and just think that I’m wearing startlingly uncool sneakers on a Saturday night. Likewise, my parents didn’t seem to be able to work up much enthusiasm when I showed up wearing them for Thanksgiving dinner.

I know you’re thinking, but how do I get a pair of ROOS? Much to my surprise—and yours too I’m sure—you can find them at Red’s Shoe Barn in Dover, right next to the camouflage Wolverine and Timberland Pro work boots. There, on a display stand labeled “Retro” are my ROOS, along with another model—the “Combat”—with a sideways pocket for ease of use and contrasting stitching—all selling for $44.99.

Likes: Still stylish after all these years. You can actually run (or at least jog) in them.
Dislikes: Still can’t fit anything worthwhile in the pockets. Got shin-splints from break-dancing in them (in retrospect, it might not have been the shoes’ fault).