The 1950's witnessed another increase in the amount of leisure time available to families. The Baby Boom began and sneakers officially became the choice shoe for American youth as school dress codes relaxed. Hollywood officially sanctioned this fashion with a string of movies featuring actors in sneakers, including James Dean and his Converse Jack Purcells in West Side Story. Sales of sneakers soared to 600 million pairs a year in 1957, leading leather shoe manufacturers to issue ads claiming that sneakers were bad for children's feet and the sneaker manufacturers to respond with claims that sneakers cured the syndrome of "inhibited feet". Sneakers were imported from Japan in the early 60's, but accounted for only a small portion of the market until Nike founders Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman began importing Tiger shoes under the name Blue Ribbon Sports. Sneakers came into their own in the 70's as jogging became the new fashionable sport and created a need for a special shoe used just for the purpose of jogging. Technology created a need for exercise apart from work and the shoes to perform this exercise. Until this time, manufacturers had been concerned with high production, but now they began to focus on marketing shoes for a lifestyle purpose. Shoes for walking, running shoes, football shoes, basketball shoes-- every sport needed its own shoes- and then you needed another pair of sneakers for just casual wear. By the 80's, sneakers were everywhere. Woody Allen wore them to the ballet, Led Zeppelin wore them in their 1976 documentary, and Dustin Hoffman wore them while playing reporter Carl Bernstein in the movie All the President's Men. The shoes originally developed for sports became the mainstay for most people. Nike and Reebok were the market leaders while older brands Adidas and Converse were nearly in ruins. Newer companies came in and out of fashion and the industry began shelling out large amounts of money for sports endorsements. A major footnote in the Sneaker Era is the signing of basketball player Michael Jordan to a contract with Nike to produce and endorse his own signature line of shoes. Today, the Nike Swoosh and the Jordan Jumpman are icons and require no introduction.
Hip hop performers popularized several brands during the late 80's and soon stories began appearing in the news about children being shot for their sneakers. Shoe companies perfected their fashion and marketing skills by the 1990's. Sports endorsements grew larger and marketing budgets went through the roof. Sneakers became a statement and definition of identity and personality rather than humble athletic aids. It is interesting to note that during the period of time between the 1970's and the 1990's, sneakers suddenly became athletic shoes and major brands like Nike and Reebok divorced themselves and their products from the humble rubber and canvas sneakers and their history as technology advanced. The history of sneakers or athletic shoes as manufacturers would prefer them to be called became diversified at this point and is reflected best in the individual histories of the major brands.To read the histories of the major U.S. brands of athletic shoes, please click here to go to our brand histories main page.
