The explosion of hip-hop from the mids and its global dominance in the s meant that sneakers quickly became a visual symbol of hip-hop and a symbol of its separation from the mainstream. Likewise, when rave culture blossomed in the s and s, sneakers became the footwear of choice for the hour party people who dressed to sweat.
The current nostalgia in sneakers extends to design imagery, styles, and colour combinations. Luxury brands have also taken note, capitalising on historical references, status concerns and a relaxation in social dress codes.
Leading high-fashion brands, including Chanel, Louis Vuitton and Balenciaga now consider sneakers a must-have fashion item in their collections. Where once s women swapped their commuter sneakers for power heels at the office, people now wear their sneakers all day.
While many sneaker fans continue to prioritise style over environmental concerns , others are demanding transparency around the ethics and impact of production, leading to the rise of the sustainable sneaker. Adidas has been making sneakers using recycled ocean plastic since , but says it wants to go further. It launched the Futurecraft Loop in April, a sneaker made exclusively from percent reusable Thermoplastic polyurethane that can be recycled again and again.
Adidas, Brooks, Reebok, and Salomon showed positive working conditions at their factories in a survey, but there was still a problem with low wages.
Sites like the Good Shopping Guide can help customers can make more informed choices. One key to enduring sneaker love is scarcity. Adidas only released of their limited-edition My Adidas Superstar shoes. West also generates exclusivity with low production numbers — only 40, pairs of Yeezys are made worldwide for each drop and shops in Australia may only have 25 pairs of each incarnation.
Reebok, for their part, made a killing with their Blacktops after they discovered the market for sturdier street basketball shoes in the inner cities of the s. Reebok uncovered niches off the basketball court as well—astutely marketing their slim, pliable Freestyle shoes to the female-dominated workout market in the s at a time when Nike execs declined to serve that clientele.
Though Nike eventually recognized the opportunity to cater to aerobics fans, their bias let them get beaten to the market; they had fallen behind Reebok in overall sales by Through the expanding sports scene, sneakers had assumed their position on the vanguard of popular culture. Run DMC was especially denounced for wearing their shoes without laces, a street style trend of the era that some believed was reminiscent of prison culture, since inmates were not allowed to own shoelaces lest they turn them into weapons.
Unfortunately, some concerns about sneakers were warranted. As the rates of homicides and other violent crimes rose in the United States throughout the late s and into the s, it appeared to many that sneakers were a status symbol that often set off hostile encounters.
In a particularly appalling case, prosecutors believed that the murder of year-old Michael Eugene Thomas Where? Even amidst controversy, the cultural presence of sneakers flourished. What makes Cinderella a princess? The magic glass slipper.
The history of sneakers is long and fast-paced, with various hurdles along the way. It begins in , when an American scientist named Charles Goodyear invented vulcanized rubber: a process of adding sulphur to heated rubber to make a pliable substance, both waterproof and mouldable.
Several decades later this groundbreaking process would be applied to shoes, allowing for more durable soles.
Used primarily for plimsolls, variations of which have been around since the early 19th century, the ancestor to the modern-day sneaker was born. Skip forward to the early 20th century and two companies were working out how to capitalise on the vast potential of rubber-soled shoes — bringing them to the masses, rather than a privileged few. A year later, Converse released its All Star shoe.
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