In 1984, a young rookie basketball player named Michael Jordan signed a $2.5 million contract with Nike. The shoes he was contracted to wear were far from modest sports footwear. Nike Air Jordan 1 combined a robust design, excellent cushioning, and breathable material, all essential for professional athletes. But their bold red and black colours challenged NBA regulations which required shoes to be white. Nike eagerly paid fines each time these colourful models appeared on players' feet, garnering public applause. Meanwhile, Jordan became a basketball star, over 100 million pairs of Air Jordan 1s were sold worldwide, and last year, a pair Jordan wore in his final NBA season sold for over $2 million. What happened?
Sneakers were initially purely functional. In 1832, New Yorker Wait Webster patented a method for attaching rubber soles to shoes. Seven years later, Charles Goodyear accidentally discovered vulcanisation, making rubber more elastic and resistant to heat and water. By 1916, US Rubber had started mass-producing Keds, marketing them as "sneakers." Comfortable and relatively inexpensive, they gained popularity, particularly among poorer communities. In the USA, sneakers became associated with African American youth, who adopted them as a visible symbol of identity. There were cases where gang affiliations would be recognised by the colour of sneakers. They became intertwined with hip-hop subculture and were favoured by skaters. Jordan's defiance of the rules reinforced the notion of sneakers as an expression of rebellion and anger. Soon after, the hip-hop group Run-DMC released the hit My Adidas. By the early 1990s, Kurt Cobain of the grunge band Nirvana made Converse trainers a symbol of rebellion and youth.
Today, sneakerheads-i.e. sneakers collectors-exist on every continent. Private collections can include dozens or even hundreds of pairs, and collectors compete in their knowledge of rare editions, construction details, brand histories, and the personalities who wore particular models. The booming popularity of sneakers has created a thriving secondary market valued at $10 billion. Sneakerheads organise meetups, form online groups, and closely follow street fashion trends. They occasionally participate in local exhibitions.
Whether this happened with the Sneakers Unboxed: Studio to Street exhibition, relocated from London's Design Museum to Poznań's Old Brewery, I cannot say. However, I do know it is surprisingly abundant. Besides hundreds of pairs of sneakers-some over 100 years old! - it features films, photographs, clothing, books, and catalogues, along with accompanying music.
A walk through the three floors of the exhibition is anything but dull. For beginners, a timeline of sneaker history is displayed at the entrance, starting with the fact that "Rubber was harvested from trees in South America around 1600 B.C." Other panels reveal that over a billion shoes have been sold since the Mayan era. The exhibition intriguingly explores the "creolisation" of sneakers, integrating them into local cultural contexts. Examples include Mexican Cholombianos, fans of cumbia mixed with vallenato, wearing religious symbols and Converse Chuck Taylor All Stars, or Bobbleheads from Cape Town, who love Nike shoes with their distinctive "air" bubbles. In the hall proudly stands a pair of sneakers born of a collaboration between rapper Mata and Adidas, inspired by lace-making traditions and adorned in red and white.
A significant portion of the exhibition is commendably dedicated to overproduction and recycling. One standout is the Sneaker Archaeology project, promoting the reuse of remnants and specific product components, developed as a graduation project at the Royal College of Arts in London. This collection introduced the "aesthetics of deconstruction" to the sports footwear industry, exemplified by a bold combination of sneakers with a pair of gloves.
The story of the sneaker phenomenon is not merely about the diversity of models or the passion of their collectors. It also highlights crucial racial issues; not without a reason, sneakers today are considered part of the cultural heritage of African Americans in the United States. The culture of sneakers owes much to African American artists and athletes who popularised them. Another valued feature is personalisation, which allows individuals to express socially significant values and beliefs. In this spirit, NBA player Dwyane Wade wore custom-made sneakers emblazoned with "Black Lives Matter," and NFL player Blair Walsh donned shoes bearing the slogan "Speak Out" during his games. In Poland, a similar gesture might involve outfitting sneakers with rainbow laces. Clearly, the mass production sector appropriates organically created symbols of rebellion and repackages them as marketable goods.
Of course, beyond racial and social contexts, the history of sneakers reflects changes in street fashion styles, including ostentatious consumption. A striking example is a pair of sneakers made of gold, designed in 2016 for prominent hip-hop artist Drake. This pair of Air Jordans, weighing nearly 50 kilograms, was valued at $2 million. In this way, sports trainers with rubber soles have made a long journey from suburban playgrounds to fashion runways and museum halls.
Waldemar Kuligowski
translation: Krzysztof Kotkowski
Sneakers Unboxed: Studio to Street
Pop Culture Gallery, Stary Browar (Old Brewery)
Open until 10 March 2025
© Wydawnictwo Miejskie Posnania 2024