Sneaker timeline
by MICHAEL CITROME 1906 – William Riley founds the New Balance Arch Company after observing chickens walking around in his yard. Deciding the design of chicken feet creates perfect balance, he endeavours to put that new balance into shoes. 1917 – The Converse Rubber Company begins manufacturing an early version of the All Star canvas sneaker. Hoosier hoops star Chuck Taylor adds his endorsement in 1923. 1920 – In a village near Nuremberg, Germany, Adi Dassler creates the first adidas shoe, naming it after himself. 1936 – adidas-wearing African-American track star Jesse Owens wins four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics. Dictator Adolph Hitler storms off. 1948 – After years of dispute, Adi Dassler’s brother Rudi splits from adidas and founds Puma. 1965 – adidas releases the embryonic version of the Stan Smith tennis shoe, at that time named after French racket star Robert Haillet. It goes on to great popularity, selling over 30-million pairs. 1966 – The Vans factory store opens in Anaheim, California. The owners didn’t have change for their first customers so they gave them the shoes, asking them to come back to pay the next day. All 12 did. 1968 – Nike launches the Cortez. Along with Dickies and Ben Davis it becomes the unofficial uniform of East L.A. gangstas and wannabes worldwide. 1971 – Nike founder Phil Knight pays Portland, Oregon graphic designer Carolyn Davidson (U.S.) $35 to create what Jello Biafra later terms the swooshstika. 1973 – New York State authorities begin distributing adidas Superstar sneakers, the shell toe kind, to mental institute inmates as standard footwear. 1974 – Track coach Bill Bowerman pours rubber into a waffle iron, creating the legendary Nike waffle sole but ruining breakfast. 1978 – Game of Death, Bruce Lee’s last film, debuts on U.S. movie screens. Bruce is seen wearing Onitsuka Tiger sneakers, reissued by Asics this year. 1979 – Nike Air debuts with the release of the Tailwind runner. Nike now owns 50 per cent of the U.S. athletic shoe market. 1981 – Converse introduces the Dr. J basketball shoe, endorsed by 76ers great Julius Erving. It proves popular with b-ball players at the time, and again with ironic retro kids in the mid-’90s. Dr. Js have recently been seen adorning the feet of rap schlockmeister P. Diddy. 1982 – Fast Times at Ridgemont High hits U.S. movie theatres. The film features Sean Penn as stoner Jeff Spicoli, whose chequered Vans slip-ons were also sported by the likes of pop icon “Weird Al” Yankovic. 1983 – Converse stokes the Larry Bird Celtics/Magic Johnson Lakers rivalry with team-coloured footwear. The purple-and-gold Lakers colours Weapon sneaker is currently in re-release. 1984 – The adidas Micropacer becomes the first sneaker with a built-in computer: a pedometer and stopwatch with a calculator-like LCD screen on the left shoe. The Computer Museum in Boston has a pair on display. 1985 – Nike unveils the Air Jordan, beginning the most lucrative sports-endorsement contract ever, eventually worth upwards of (U.S.) $25-million a year for the then-NBA Rookie of the Year. 1986 – Hollis, Queens rappers Run-DMC drop “My Adidas,” encouraging thousands of kids to pull the laces out of their shell toes. 1987 – Spike Lee directs and casts himself in the award winning “Spike and Mike” Air Jordan TV ads. Spike reprises his role as Mars Blackmon, the Air-Jordan-obsessed messenger from his 1986 directorial debut She’s Gotta Have It. In the film, Mars insists on wearing his Air Jordans while hitting the skins with his lady. 1989 – The Wall Street Journal, Business Week and Fortune declare L.A. Gear the best performing stock on the NYSE. The third-largest athletic shoe company in the world, L.A. Gear records 1989 sales of (U.S.) $617-million and has endorsement deals with Michael Jackson, Heather Locklear and Paula Abdul. 1991 – Celtics rookie Dee Brown bends down to squeeze some air into his (U.S.) $175 Reebok Pumps at the NBA Slam Dunk contest before winning with his “no-look” dunk. 1992 – The adidas Dikembe Mutombo, endorsed by the seven-foot-tall Zairian NBA All-Star, features a traditional tribal woven Raffla pattern and a huge shield embroidered in African colours on the tongue. 1993 – Near bankruptcy, L.A. Gear stages a comeback with L.A. Lites, sneakers with taillights that flash on every step. But the pressure-sensitive switches in the soles contain toxic, birth-defect-causing mercury. By the end of 1993, environmental regulators pulled them off store shelves. 1995 – Teenagers in Japan report getting jacked for their Nike Air Max 95 sneakers. 95s are in such demand that magazines are devoted to them and well-funded Japanese sneaker freaks fly to the U.S. just to stock up. 1996 – U.K. trip-hoppers Sneaker Pimps release their rookie album Becoming X. They got their name from claims that the Beastie Boys employed said person to find them vintage sneakers. The Boys later deny that claim, but sneaker pimping soon becomes big business in vintage-mad Japan. 1997 – adidas launches the Gazelle Natural, a hemp sneaker. It was originally going to be called the Chronic, leading U.S. federal drug czar Lee P. Brown to accuse adidas of trying to “capitalize on the drug culture.” 1997 – Nike recalls thousands of pairs of Air Bakin’ sneakers because the logo on the back of each shoe, intended to appear engulfed in flame, inadvertently resembles the Arabic word for Allah. 1998 – 110 teenage Bronx protesters deposit bags of old, disgusting sneakers inside Niketown in Manhattan. Said 15-year-old protester Iesha Harrison, “Nike, we made you, and we can break you.” 1999 – Footaction, a major U.S. athletic shoe chain, releases the list of the Top 100 sneakers of all time, led by the Air Jordan III. Nike gets 54 out of the Top 100, including 17 of the Top 25. All 14 Air Jordans make the list. 2000 – NIKEiD launches, one of several Web sites that let you create and order custom shoes. You can get nearly anything written on the side of your custom Nikes—but not adidas, pimp4life or SweatShop. 2001 – Converse declares bankruptcy and is acquired by Footwear Acquisitions, a corporation made up of some of its own former executives. The new management closes the company’s Lumberton, North Carolina plant that since 1972 had been making 65,000 pairs of sneakers a day. In July, the first Chuck Taylor sneakers made in Indonesia arrive in the U.S. 2002 – Italian fashion monikers Fila and Ferrari collaborate on the design of a shoe —aptly named the Fila Ferrari. The shiny, fire truck red sneaker bears the automaker’s stallion crest. But it’s not the first sneaker/car combo: the adidas Kobe was styled by the design team responsible for Mr. Bryant’s car, the Audi TT. Special thanks to the
’Net’s number one sneaker reference, Charlie’s Sneaker
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Sneak freaks
Name: Elsa
Bangz Age: 22
Name:
Dave One Age: 23 Name: Sarah
Ali-Khan Age: 28 —compiled
by Michael Citrome |
