Lets talk about Sports Sneakers.

Sports Sneakers have always felt like a strange item in Torn.

They cost $14 billion and give a permanent 5% increase to Speed gains while they are in your inventory. The odd part is that Speed is the only battle stat with an item like this.

There is no equivalent for Strength, Defence or Dexterity. So why just Speed?

Was the original plan to introduce a full set of battle stat enhancers and the idea was never finished?
Was there a specific reason Speed was chosen?
Or were Sports Sneakers simply a one-off experiment?

Chedburn openly said around nine months ago that he does not like the item and would consider phasing them out by buying existing pairs back from players

That leaves a few possible directions;

1. Expand the idea and introduce matching items for Strength, Defence and Dexterity.
2. Rework the idea so the items still have value without becoming something every serious player feels forced to own.
3. Remove them entirely, buy back the existing pairs and accept that permanent battle stat enhancers were not a good direction.
   
   

Personally, I think leaving Sports Sneakers as the only item of their kind is the least interesting outcome.

What was the original intention behind Sports Sneakers?

Are they part of an idea that was never completed, or are they simply an item that should be removed?

Would introducing equivalent items for the other battle stats improve long-term progression, or would it just create another set of compulsory multibillion-dollar purchases?

Would you buy them?

They're one of ched's greatest trolls. There's people who whore strength, defense, and dexterity, but does anyone love speed?

I mean, there are crime enhancers so why shouldn't there be stat ones too?

Expand the list so we can have boosts to the other battle stats too. It would encourage players to interact via renting them out (Ched really likes getting people to interact) and buying them abroad would take money out of the economy, curbing inflation further (which seems to be a high priority these days). Ched should see this as a win, not something worth abandoning.

Thing is we already have SEs to supercharge battlestat gain. For something that's worth 14b, it's just not really worth the money and it'll just end up being another item that the super rich players get that gets them an advantage over less rich players. As they are now it's not worth at all to get them unless you have so much money you don't know what to do with it.

I personally support reworking them so that they're viable and buyable for mid-game players (or those with NWs around 10-20b) instead of being overpriced luxury goods that not many people care to get, are able to get at all.

[image: media1.tenor.com]

Tbh I think more end-game items or goals (and acquiring one of each stat item could become a goal for some) is a good thing, and in this case so long as it's gained in some way that creates a money sink.

Hell, there could be a merit for owning one of each for X number of days, similar to the "Collector" one.

It's a giant nothing burger, small fries, and a diet coke.

One of those things too small to matter much either way.

10:57:18 - 20/06/26 You bought 1x Sports Sneakers at $14,000,000,000 each for a total of $14,000,000,000 from UAE

Hey, I just liked the colour, OK?

Also: still working on my next NW merit, and they didn't hurt it.

Would you spend another $42,000,000,000 Torn City Dollarydoos for the full set?

Oh man, I wish I had the money.

But, yes.

Will buy for 13, they say they lose value the second you drive em off the lot.

The problem with expanding the list is that while speed isn't a 'must have' for most people, just about any other enhancer would become a 'must have'.

Those with the money / dedication can already significantly outperform those with either lower funds or lower commitment.

Adding in another 'must have' which is gated by a significant NW imposition would only add another 'P2W' element to the game.

Ms. has / buys shoes, a lot of shoes.  RL, I have a pair of "smart" leathers, and a pair of subtle construction types, that have lasted me 5 years. Total cost: about £100. If I spent half our NW real-life on a pair, I'd be a dead man.

In Torn however, it's fine. 😄🍻

I think its a kinda a fun unique think, i say keep it the way it is. 

I wonder what the break even is compared to just spending 14b on stat enhancers instead.

As Broxogar pointed out though, due to the general meta of Torn anything similar to these that works for any stat other than Speed would become mandatory.  The top-end of Torn generally prioritize Defense over Dexterity, because it's so much easier to negate someone's Strength than their Speed.  Yes, there are a few folks who have gone deep into Dex, there's a reason you see most of the titan players focus on Strength and Defense.

It'd be interesting to see what would happen to the meta if the Spd/Dex ratio for avoiding damage was dialed into something a bit closer to Str/Def instead.  My gut feeling is that it'd likely improve the health as far as battle stats.  But on the other side, we'd probably see the loadout meta be turned inside out.  Hard to say really.

Ideally what should be done is that other similar items should exist, one for every stat.  Although I can see a lot of potential uses for the shoes, if it was up to me then I would also implement a way to pick the color scheme.  Yellow and grey aren't exactly screaming "Yeah, I want this one...", if it wasn't a stat enhancer then I have my doubts anyone would pay that much for it.  I can see the apparel section expanding, Horns of strength, gloves of dexterity, invisible brazier of Defense, and of course stiletto boots of speed. These should be available for the lovely Ladies of Torn, and of course similar items for the guys.  

They're a holdover from the days when self-busting gave dexterity upon completion.

They're a bucket of water countering dexterity in a sea of game aspects that promote training dexterity.

They're a whale identifier.

They're a way to diversify your wealth and passive income.

They're a tool to maximize training when reading certain books.

They're a balancing factor to the huge boost to gym training defensive stats in strips clubs.

They're a lucrative Hamster prize.

They're a way to remove cash from the game.

They should probably not exist in the current game state, though it seems odd and wildly unfair to buy them back for Torn dollars. (Especially with the pairs locked on inactive accounts) I plan to chat with Ched about this in person at Torncon here in a few weeks and will share any insight he provides. 

Side note: When I say unfair, I mean unfair for newer players who never got a chance to gym-train with sneakers / books / huge steadfast like players like me have who were able to turbo-charge our speed training and the liquidate the sneakers for basically what we paid. (There is a point around ~8b speed where it makes sense to just liquidate the sneakers and turn the proceeds into relatively safe-low-yielding PI rental investments that fund skateboards vs. training through even a specialist gym... keep in mind skateboards regularly trade hands for like $415m)

Side note #2: Sneakers don't just give a flat 5% speed, they multiply other multipliers by x1.05 in addition to giving 5% more speed when gym training  So your 15% steadfast turns into 15.75%, your 30% Speed book turns into 31.5%, your 3% fitness center gains turn into 3.15%. Etc. It can reality add up when you're talking 10,000's of thousands of energy through the gym.

The real question is, why arent they wearable? imagine spending 14b and not being able to show off ur drip

Ched seems to not love the idea of introducing items that will primarily benefit older accounts, the "double points refill" solution for the points market coming to mind. If you introduce a full set, the top 2000-3000 NW HoF could buy them without giving it much thought. Newbies could aim for them sure, but it would widen the gap which seems to be against Cheds design vision.