12 THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT SNEAKERS
Originally strictly weekend and casual wear, the humble sneaker is now a daily regular. Consistently one of Lyst’s top searched categories, the demand is ramping up every year and, quite often, footwear is the considered the personality point of a ‘look’. Black jeans and tees all day long but turn to sneakers for a point of personality. Off the back of Lyst’s hugely successful Greatest Sneakers of All Time exhibition, we’ve collated 12 of the most interesting sneaker facts you probably didn’t know.
1. The first celebrity-endorsed basketball shoe was the Adidas Jabbar named for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and initially costing a sweet $1000.
Credit: SneakerNews
2. The Adidas Adicolor H came with eight coloured markers for the wearer to customise the stripes themselves. It’s the first known commercialisation of customisation.
Credit: Sneaker Files
3. New Balance was initially a business of orthopaedic products and prescription shoes. The shoes were intended for the likes of policemen and other physical professions but once athletes took notice, bespoke shoes were requested from the company.
4. Tennis ace Chris Evert wore Converse throughout her career and in keeping with championship regulations, the brandmade ultra refined versions of her namesake shoe. The only colours featured were glimpses of grey and silver.
Image via Pinterest
5. Nike Air Jordans are always released on Saturdays so young people don’t skip school to get them. Awww.
Image via Pinterest
6. The three stripes of the Adidas logo are said to represent the founder, Adi Dassler’s, three kids.
7. The Nike waffle sole (the design of which came from the inventor’s wife’s waffle iron) was originally called the “nipple sole”.
Credit: Popular Mechanics
8. Nike’s famous slogan is inspired by a famous murderer. Dan Wieden of Wieden + Kennedy was reading about criminal Gary Gilmore uttering “let’s do it” on his way to execution at the same time he (Wieden) was working on the Nike account. Creepy.
Credit: The Independent
9. Vans offered custom sneakers as early as 1966. You could take fabric you liked into the factory and they would make shoes for you out of it. This changed when factories moved overseas.
10. With a couple of exceptions, New Balance’s numbering system reflects its price. Take the model number and divide by 10.
Credit: New Balance
11. The Nike Air Force J is one of the best-selling sneakers of all time yet it was never advertised.
Credit: Kicks on Fire
12.Sneakers are so named because in 1862 female inmates of London’s Brixton Prison were recorded referring to warders wearing ‘sneaks’ as they silently ‘sneaked’ around the cell blocks .
This content originally appeared on Creative Review in partnerships with Lyst