I recently met a kid wearing Reebok Pumps. Nostalgic images of Michael Jordan in his prime flashed in my mind as I recalled the days when the Pumps were the most cutting-edge basketball shoes around. After asking him if I could check out his shoes, I pushed the little inflatable basketball on the tongue of the shoe that said, “Pump,” and wished I was the one rockin’ those old-school high-tops. In awe, I asked the kid where he got the shoes, and he simply shrugged and replied that he found them in his house and thought they looked cool.
This is one hip nine-year old.
This incident had me thinking about retro sports shoes, including my current faves: Chucks. Ah, the Converse All Star. If ever there was a classic shoe, this was it. In fact, it is the oldest and bestselling basketball shoe of all time.
First created in 1917 by the Converse Corporation, the shoe was not initially a success until a few years later when they caught the attention Chuck Taylor, a basketball player for the Akron Firestones. Taylor liked the shoes so much that he decided to promote the shoe by becoming a Converse salesperson. He pushed the shoe at basketball games and clinics that he attended, and even contributed to design modifications of the shoe. As Taylor’s name became synonymous with the Converse All Star shoe (Cons), it was added to the shoe’s ankle patch in 1932.
Inspired, Taylor went on to design a white pair of Cons that were introduced at the 1936 summer Olympics, held in Berlin, Germany, and soon basketball teams and high school kids were sporting the shoes. Their popularity even infiltrated the U.S. Armed Forces, as Taylor joined the Air Force and coached their basketball team. It is said that, at the time, servicemen could be seen doing their exercises in the white high-tops.
The National Basketball Association formed in 1949 and many of the professional players in the league wore Cons. In fact, Converse had an 80 per cent share of the sneaker industry by the late 1950s. This was the heyday for the shoe as Taylor died in 1968 and other shoe companies were busting onto the basketball shoe market with innovative and alluring ideas.
After this dry-spell, Chucks experienced a revival in the late 1970s as the shoe became more of a fashion statement than a performance shoe. The company responded by designing more variations of their classic shoe, but could not hold on to the momentum. In 2001 the Converse Company filed for bankruptcy and was bought out by Nike. Ugh.
It is remarkable to think that the structural design of this shoe has not changed in 90 years. The clunky rubber sole and lack of arch support point directly to why Cons are no longer considered performance athletic shoes. Yet, with shoe designs like the “Kurt Cobain,” which are brand new Chucks that look like they have been worn for years, it is obvious that this shoe’s ability to reflect popular culture is the key to its staying power.
I suspect that, even though Cons are produced by the sleazy Nike corporation, their trendiness and affordability will never get old.
Long live Chucks!
And what about the Adidas Superstars? Those symmetrical three stripes have had their ups and downs, but are also making a comeback as superstars such as Jay-Z, Cold Play’s Chris Martin, Fergie and Missy Elliott, to name but a few, have all sported the shoes either on stage or in videos.
These are all recent incarnations of the basketball shoe that was first released in 1969 and worn on the court by Kareem Abdul Jabbar. One of the first low-top shoes in a high-top market, the Superstar quickly became the shoe-of-choice for NBA players. But like the Converse All Stars, the Adidas low-top became an even more popular shoe off the basketball court, thanks to the ‘80s hip-hop group, Run-DMC.
Run-DMC were popular for wearing their Adidas Superstars on and off the stage without laces and with the tongue sticking out. This lace-less style imitated prison style, where laces were removed from prisoners’ shoes so they couldn’t be used to strangle a person or for people to hang themselves. Shoes without laces also hindered a prisoner’s ability to run because the shoe was so loose on the foot. Commenting on the lace-less shoe trend happening on the streets, African American poet and activist Dr. Gerald Deas wrote a poem in 1986 called “Felon Sneakers.” With lines like “Peace black brother/the race of life is hard and long/and your sneakers have to be tight,” Deas’ poem cautioned against the lace-less street style and urged young black men to lace up their shoes tightly, a metaphor for not getting caught up in the prison system.
The following year, Run-DMC released the song “My Adidas” in 1986. The song basically praises the versatility of the Superstar shoes that can be worn everywhere, but the lines “with no shoe string in ‘em, I did not win ‘em/I bought ‘em off the Ave with the tags still in ‘em,” seem to be a direct response to Deas’ poem. Run-DMC is promoting the lace-less style, but also making the specific point that their shoes were not illegally acquired. Thus, it appears as though they are attempting to disconnect the lace-less street style from the lace-less prison style, and therefore trying to legitimize their style.
It is not hard to see why, with such flagrant brand promotion, Adidas made an endorsement deal with Run-DMC. The million-dollar deal was the first of its kind between hip-hop artists and a major corporation, and resulted in a Run-DMC line of clothing.
From a revolutionary basketball performance shoe to an unprecedented endorsement deal, the Adidas Superstar is a shoe with a rich cultural history. Forty years later, as the shoe continues to persevere, let’s not forget where it came from.
Rest in peace, Jam Master Jay.
