Background According to Foster himself, the track as a whole indeed describes the problem of mass school shootings in the United States. When writing the song in 2009, he felt that the country's handling of these shootings would continue to become a growing problem rather than seeing any improvement. And say your hair's on fire, you must have lost your wits, yeah. All the other kids with the pumped up kicks. You'd better run, better run, outrun my gun. All the other kids with the pumped up kicks. You'd better run, better run, faster than my bullet. All the other kids with the pumped up kicks. "Pumped Up Kicks" holds a darker meaning behind its alt-pop dance sound. Foster wrote the track from the point of view of a deeply troubled youth named Robert, who's named only once at the Mark Foster reflects on "Pumped Up Kicks" following the Vegas massacre The song is about a boy who fantasizes about shooting up his school Washington CNN — The phrase "pumped up kicks", which is the title of the song, refers to a type of expensive sneakers that only the rich could afford. And the other kids whom the troubled kid wants to murder own pairs of these "pumped up kicks", which clearly shows that they are more privileged than he is. .

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