A Movement in Sneakers
Dion Walcott
In
138
inspadesmag.com
BY JACLYN TRUSS
the 19th century, a rubber-soled
shoe, whose colourful horizontal
line adjoining the upper sole
resembling the depth line on the hull line of
a ship, earned it the nickname the “plimsoll”.
It was in this moment that the first sneaker
was born. Becoming a sensation, originally
worn mostly by vacationers but soon becoming
popular among tennis players, the soles were
soon being modified with patterns to increase
their grip. At the turn of the 20th century,
the rubber-soled shoes, now coined “sneakers”
because of the of their quiet stealth, would
continue to grow in popularity as an athletic
and leisure shoe. Since 1984, Nike’s famous
endorsement deal with Michael Jordan
arguably became known as the inception
of modern sneaker culture, and since then
sneakers have represented a myriad of
meanings in society. Far from simply serving
the basic purpose of footwear, sneakers have
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