Sneakers Unboxed
Iconic models, cultural relevance, special editions, performance and sustainability. All walks of life covered at the Design Museum.
Written by Craig Berry
Designer & Writer
For some people shoes are just something to wear to walk. You pick a colour you like. Maybe they’re comfy. Perhaps you fasten them with laces or velcro. Or even easier; just slip them on. Or, as long as there’s something between your foot and the floor; they’re good. It’s an everyday item that doesn’t necessarily need to look cool or cost much; they’re only going to get worn out anyway.
But for some people, shoes (or sneakers* to be specific) are the most important part of an outfit and they have to be on point, for several reasons. They are an expression of one’s style. They can pertain to a specific culture or movement. They can show your affiliation to a specific brand or artist. They have the special abilities to improve athletic performance.
Sneakers cross the line between an everyday item and a rare collectable; with few other objects or clothing items being so diverse and innovative, the sneaker industry is one of the most fast-paced. Thousands of new models, designs, colourways and collaborations are released each year (maybe too many actually) to keep up with the crazy demand of consumers. Previously, advancements in sport drove sneaker design and innovation, with new models released at major sporting events. But over the last half-decade, youth culture has been the driving force for this and has influenced and increased the speed of the industry.
A new major exhibition at the Design Museum in London, Sneakers Unboxed: Studio to Street, explores numerous facets of the sneaker culture by looking at what makes an iconic sneaker design, the cultural relevance of specific sneakers, rare, limited edition and one-off designs as well as some of the latest technological advancements of shoes for sports and sustainability.
I checked out the exhibition not long after its opening to see what the hype was all about as I am not a sneaker-obsessive to the level of crazy but I do appreciate the culture. I look out for sneakers that I like whether hyped or not aka I buy what I like but I do favour function over form. I have my favourite styles and I have multiple sneakers in my collection with around five or six in my regular rotation (mostly Nike Air Force 1's).
*For continuity with the exhibition, I’m using the word ‘sneakers’ when talking about these kinds of shoes but in the UK we call these kinds of shoes ‘trainers’.
Iconic Models
In a recent blog post, I wrote about the importance of the Nike Air Force 1 sneaker, a design widely regarded as a classic which spans various facets of society. Also in that blog post, I touched on other iconic shoes such as the Adidas Superstars and Converse Chucks; both of which feature in some way in this exhibition which is fascinating to see; as a Hip-Hop fan, it’s impossible to ignore the significance of these sneakers and how people took these from the basketball courts to the streets.
But other, lesser-known sneakers are iconic in their own circles and sports; with two other examples on display, firstly from football.
In the 1970s sports shoes gained the attention of British football fans, beginning in Liverpool and Manchester these fans aka Casuals followed their respective football teams throughout Europe. Through their travels, Casuals became more aware of hard-to-come-by brands in the UK at the time, looking to find and bring back designer shirts, jumpers and tracksuits (aka clobber) from Italy like Sergio Tacchini, Stone Island and Fila to wear on the football terraces. These clothes were paired with shoes from Germany; specifically Adidas.
Models like the Adidas Trimm Trab, Munchen, Samba, Spezial, Forest Hills and Gazelle are all shoes adored and adorned by Casuals then and still now. None of these shoes were designed to be worn as casual footwear but rather for specific sports like handball or fitness but they’re now synonymous with this and can be seen on any weekend at any football stadium as despite having its heyday in the 1970s and 1980s, Casuals are still going and Adidas have kept up to date with this and are constantly releasing and re-releasing iconic models, colourways and their City Series.
Skateboarding is the other ‘sport’ on display i’m choosing to highlight for its sneaker importance. Whether skateboarding is a sport or not is up for debate, its involvement in the Olympics definitely says something about that. Regardless, skateboarding demanded specific hardwearing sneakers that could withstand the action. Coming out of the West Coast of the US in the 1970s and ’80s, the local brand Vans became the favourite due to their uniquely responsive business model allowing demands and needs to be met.
Numerous Vans models have been developed over the years; all very similar in style and construction with vulcanised soles and a mix of leather and suede favouring various skater’s preferred styles wether low-top or high-top such as the Old Skool, Sk8-Hi or Era.
This variation in style came directly from skaters however as in 1989 Vans released the Caballero High-Top with pro Steve Caballero which was a high-top model with ankle support and protection. However, as skating developed to become more technical, skaters started to cut the ankle part off so their feet could move more freely; as such Vans developed the Half-Cab which was an immediate success.
Still today, Vans are popular in skateboarding (and other action sports like BMX) but are seen as the counter-culture footwear brand. Regularly seen on the feet of punk bands as well as collaborating heavily with punk bands such as Bad Brains, Iron Maiden, Slayer, The Descendants, Suicidal Tendencies and Social Distortion as well as Hip-Hop ‘punks’ Public Enemy; the Vans Sk8-Hi being the perfect canvas for these with its huge surface area.
“A classic that has stood the test of time, Sk8-Hi’s symbolize going fast and shredding hard. That’s what they were made for, so that’s what you want to do when they’re on your feet.”
Dakota Roche on Vans Sk8-Hi’s
Cultural Relevance
As mentioned above, specific shoes become iconic from being synonymous and attached to a specific group of people or a culture, but all the above examples relate mostly to sports in some way. One section of the exhibition focuses on a culture not related to sport but to music and it feels right that the exhibition in London focuses on the city’s export of Grime music.
In the early 2000s, the music genre of Grime emerged from estates in and around London, drawing influence from earlier UK genres such as UK Garage/UKG and Jungle but also inspired by hip-hop through rapping with lyrics often revolving around gritty depictions of urban life. Both musically and through fashion, it was a rejection of the flamboyance and exuberance of UK Garage and Jungle aka less silky Moschino shirts, more Nike hooded tracksuits, usually in black and paired with black Nike shoes.
This is notably seen on Dizzee Rascal’s 2003 debut album, Boy in da Corner, a grime classic from one of its OGs along with artists like Kano, Lethal Bizzle, and Wiley.
Photographs in the exhibition space by Simon Wheatley from 2004–2006 also show this style of fashion and sneakers. Since 1998 Wheatley has been photographing UK music culture across London in streets, estates and pirate radio stations, published in his 2010 book, Don’t Call Me Urban! The Time of Grime. Through his photographs early Grime fashion is highly visible featuring lots of brands; inspired by US Hip-Hop but with a London twist.
JC: What were kids wearing when you first started shooting?
SW: You can see it in the pictures. The usual sportswear mainly, sometimes with a bling flourish.
JC: Did the looks evolve throughout the time you were shooting? Like, were kids getting into new brands or anything like that?
SW: I didn’t pay that much attention, really. I think you can take Nike and adidas as the fundamental base and it goes from there to smaller brands and then to the rarer ones, which could appear suddenly. I can’t really remember any names, but I know New Era was huge throughout. Everybody had, and has, a New Era.
Excerpt from a VICE interview between Simon Wheatley & Jamie Clifton.
Also on display are numerous sneakers designed for and by grime artists such as Skepta. His 2017 Nike x Skepta Air Max Ultra ’17 combines design features from the original shoe with the colourway inspired by Skepta’s first pair of Nike Air Max (AM): a pivotal collection of Nike shoes highly significant in Grime culture including, AM 90s, AM 95s (also called 110’s) AM 97s, AM Plus and more.
“I have been wearing Air Max for so long, since I was seven playing around in the estate; I feel like I know my Air Max well. Air Max is from when we were running the streets, it was comfortable to wear in London, whether you were going out to a club or kicking a ball in the streets. Those kinds of things stick in my mind from the young, magical, fantasy years of my life.”
Skepta on Nike Air Max.
Special Editions
One of the most defining factors in the number of new sneaker models and colourways being released each year is special editions and collaborations. People love it when their favourite sneaker model is reworked or reimagined in some way either with a brand, a musician, an artist, a celebrity or whatever and whoever.
In my opinion, there are far too many collaborations happening lately. What was once a special thing that happened now and then has become a weekly occurrence. You could say that that’s a good thing as brands keep up with consumer’s demands but in my opinion, it comes across as brands trying to make as much money as possible by driving up hype with the result being lazy and boring sneaker designs. Another result of this is that these special editions are no longer easily purchased by those who want them; no longer can you walk into a store and pick up your size but rather now, entering raffles is part and parcel of getting these sneakers.
Nonetheless, over the years there have been numerous amazing and iconic special edition and collaborative sneaker designs; so much so that a whole section of this exhibition is dedicated to this part of sneaker culture with multiple pairs in a huge display cabinet. Some standouts for me are the Nike Air Yeezy II ‘Red October’, the Nike SB Dunk Low ‘Pigeon’ and the Nike x Off-White Presto.
Although a lot of these special editions in this ‘shrine’, I have seen before or heard of, the sub-section I found most interesting was to do with sneaker culture in Tokyo, Japan. It’s a part of streetwear culture that I know exists but have never really looked too far into; although I do like that it has a mysterious allure to it in that sense so I am happy to keep it that way.
The exhibition explains briefly about the late 1990s streetwear culture called Urahara (named after Ura-Harajuku, a district in Tokyo) where collectors honed their skills leading to brands doing collaborations with local creatives such as Hiroshi Fujiwara, Jun Takahashi, Tomoaki Nagao/Nigo and Hommyo Hidefumi. These creatives established Urahara and Japan as a special sneaker capital and ended up designing and releasing numerous Japan-only special editions, something that still happens today.
Performance & Sustainability
As I mentioned earlier, developments and advancements in sneaker and footwear design were once driven through sport and despite being the lesser defining factor now, sport is still important to the industry but even more so now is sustainability.
Sneaker production is incredibly carbon-intensive and they are often made with synthetic rubber and plastic, using energy-intensive processes and using glue which is harmful to the environment.
New materials, manufacturing techniques and transparency in supply chains are ways in which brands are tackling their environmental footprint from production. Sneakers are now being made using recycled plastics collected either from recycled sneakers, the factory floor or the ocean. Brands are also now looking to extend the lifespan of sneakers through upcycling and refurbishing to minimise the need for people to buy more. Sustainable and vegan glues are being used as well as a strive to use more fabric and less leather in production, numerous brands opting to use a woven or knitted production.
In a recent blog post, I covered sustainability in the fashion industry in-depth, specifically looking at Nike’s Space Hippieand Adidas’ SUPEREARTH ranges.
My standout here was several pieces by London-based designer, Helen Kirkum who creates new and unique sneakers by recycling and hacking together old parts with the result being something “inherently personal and one-of-a-kind”. Through her practice, Kirkum challenges us to rethink the meaning of consumption and the way we interact with the products we own.
My big take from this exhibition though is how sneakers have managed to get a whole exhibition at a major museum? Are sneakers art? Do they belong in a museum? What’s driving this? Is it hype, or innovation or corporate brand greed? Or is it the youth? Are people more interested in sneakers than traditional art? As streetwear icon Virgil Abloh put it recently, many young people nowadays “may value sneakers more than a Matisse.”
Many questions to think about. The exhibition at the Design Museum in London is on until 24 October 2021 but expect it to tour.
Read more blog posts on craig-berry.co.uk or my Medium page.
