If you want to represent on the blacktop, you've got to get out of those ratty old Zips. Whether you're craving classic Chucks or ice-blue Kobes, here's where to kick it online.

Classic Sports Shoes
classicsportsshoes.com
Best Foot Forward: The retro look is so in, it's nearly out. So order your Sambas, Swim Slides and Puma Suedes, but be quick about it.
Bone Spur: Free ground shipping -- but only on orders of $75 or more. In other words, fee ground shipping.

Kicksology
kicksology.net
Best Foot Forward: This site reviews the shoes the ballers are wearing. ("If you're willing to go through a day of pain, the Shox BB4 will eventually provide you with a fit and feel like no other hoops shoe.")
Bone Spur: Site wonders what 'Sheed is doing with old-school Air Force 1's. Maybe those fines left him strapped for cash.

Sneaker Nation
sneaker-nation.com
Best Foot Forward: Lessons on how to take care of your footwear (hint: get a toothbrush), plus a message board so you can put your foot in your mouth.
Bone Spur: The denizens of Sneaker Nation love the Nike Cortez, which, they proudly note, is East L.A. gang apparel.

Really Big Feet
reallybigfeet.com
Best Foot Forward: You know what they say about people with big feet? Right, they can't get comfy footwear. Except here.
Bone Spur: No people, with big feet or otherwise, need a link to "Silly Prilly Gifts," which includes "things made from rocks."

SITE UNSEEN

Charlie's Sneaker Pages
sneakers.pair.com
So Charlie Perrin has a shoe fetish. Hey, our Uncle Waldo collects hair clippings of Hollywood stars -- what are you gonna do? Charlie maintains sneakers.pair.com, the sneaker site to end all sneaker sites. There's sneaker archaeology (check out the fossil), sneaker jokes (humor not included), sneaker ad bloopers (L.A. Fear?), the athletic shoe stock market report (not good), a sneaker Hall of Shame (hello, Reebok Pump) and a glossary of sneaker nicknames. (Apparently, skippies are way cooler than fishheads.) Want to relive Nike's growing pains? Check out the 1975 Blazer -- so heinous we doubt even Bill Walton would try one on. Wondering why that pair of hi-top Chucks has been hanging from a utility line down the street since '88? Charlie might just know.

This article appears in the April 30 issue of ESPN The Magazine.