97 Fun Facts About Sneakers

The name "sneaker" originally referred to what quality of the shoe?

Its quiet rubber sole let a wearer sneak up on people, unlike a hard leather sole. In 1862, inmates of London's Brixton Prison were already saying 'sneaks' for the rubber shoes their night warders wore.

What do British speakers commonly call sneakers?

Trainers, short for training shoes, is a young word that dictionaries date only to the 1970s. Before that, a Briton's canvas sports shoes were plimsolls.

Whose 1839 discovery of vulcanized rubber made the modern sneaker possible?

Charles Goodyear hit on vulcanization when rubber mixed with sulfur landed on a hot stove. It made fortunes for others, but he died about $200,000 in debt, and the tire company only borrowed his name.

The British plimsoll got its nickname from a line on what?

A ship's hull carries the Plimsoll line, the mark showing how deeply it may be loaded. The band joining the shoe's canvas to its sole reminded people of it, and in one telling, water above that band meant wet feet.

Which filmmaker played Mars Blackmon, the motor-mouthed fan in Nike's Air Jordan commercials?

Spike Lee created Mars for his 1986 debut film She's Gotta Have It. In the Nike ads, Mars keeps asking Michael Jordan 'Is it the shoes?' until Jordan tells him, 'No, Mars.'

Which teenager's Nike deal of about $90 million in 2003 dwarfed Michael Jordan's $2.5 million of 1984?

LeBron James signed straight out of high school, before he had played an NBA game, after Nike, Reebok and Adidas fought a three-way bidding war for him.

Which children's TV host swapped his dress shoes for sneakers at the start of every episode?

Mister Rogers made a ritual of it, zipping up a cardigan and tossing a shoe from hand to hand as he sang. His mother knitted the sweaters, and one of them now hangs in the Smithsonian.

What about Michael Jordan's new Nikes broke NBA rules in 1984, inspiring the 'Banned' ad?

Their colors: black and red broke the NBA rule that shoes match the uniform and teammates' pairs. The league's letter was really about an earlier Nike model, not the Air Jordan 1 the ad was selling.

The Jumpman logo came from a photo shoot for which magazine?

Life sent Co Rentmeester to photograph Jordan before the 1984 Olympics, and he asked for a ballet leap, not a basketball jump. He later sued Nike over the logo it inspired, and the courts sided with Nike.

Which NBA star left Nike for Under Armour in 2013 after a pitch that got his first name wrong?

Stephen Curry heard a Nike official call him 'Steph-on', his father recalled, and one slide still carried another player's name. He signed with Under Armour instead.

What is the small plastic or metal tip on the end of a shoelace called?

Aglet comes from a French word meaning 'little needle'. The tip was made to help thread a lace through its holes, and it also keeps the ends from fraying.

Whose signature has appeared on the Converse All Star ankle patch since 1932?

Chuck Taylor was a salesman, not a star. He joined Converse in 1921 and spent decades on the road, living in motels and running free basketball clinics with a trunk full of shoes.

In which film does a boy lace up PF Flyers to outrun a huge dog called the Beast?

The Sandlot gave a fading brand a flash of fame with Benny's dash from the Beast. Later owners made the most of it, selling a Sandlot edition of his shoes for the film's anniversaries.

Which tennis champion became an investor in the running-shoe brand On in 2019?

Roger Federer joined his fellow Swiss at On, and a year later the brand launched a sneaker named The Roger. 'It's not for tennis, it's for the street,' he said.

Which tech founder made gray New Balance sneakers part of his daily uniform?

Steve Jobs took the idea from the uniforms at Sony's factories in Japan. When he proposed a vest for everyone at Apple he was booed off the stage, so he settled on a uniform of his own.

What was Nike originally called when it was founded in 1964?

Blue Ribbon Sports made no shoes at first. Phil Knight imported Japanese running shoes and sold most of them at track meets out of his car, seven years before the Nike name appeared.

Nike is named after the Greek goddess of what?

Victory: Nike was the Greek goddess who personified it. Shown the company's new logo in 1971, Phil Knight said he didn't love it but that it might grow on him.

Which Japanese shoemaker did Nike's founders originally distribute for?

Onitsuka Tiger and its American distributors fell out in the early 1970s and went to court over one running shoe. A judge let both keep selling it but gave the Americans its name, so the Japanese firm renamed its version the Corsair.

How much was Carolyn Davidson paid for designing the Swoosh in 1971?

$35 paid for the 17.5 hours she billed at $2 an hour. In 1983 Phil Knight thanked her properly, with a gold Swoosh ring set with a diamond and 500 shares of Nike stock.

Which famous slogan did ad man Dan Wieden say he adapted from a condemned murderer's last words?

Just Do It reworks 'Let's do it', which Gary Gilmore is reported to have said before his execution in 1977. Wieden, writing for Nike in 1988, said he liked the 'do it' part and simply changed the rest.

Bill Bowerman ruined which kitchen appliance inventing a new sole?

A waffle iron from his wife's kitchen gave Bowerman the pattern for a light sole that gripped without spikes. The first shoe to use it was nicknamed the Moon Shoe, because its tread was said to look like astronauts' footprints.

Nike's founders renamed their Aztec running shoe after which historical figure?

Hernán Cortés conquered the Aztecs, which was the point. When Adidas, maker of the Azteca Gold, threatened to sue over 'Aztec', Phil Knight recalled, Bill Bowerman asked who had beaten the Aztecs.

Which Nike shoe was the first to use visible Air cushioning?

Air Max 1 put on show what earlier Nikes had hidden. The Tailwind had carried an air unit since 1978, but it was sealed out of sight inside the sole, so a window was cut in the side to reveal it.

Frank Rudy, who sold Nike on air-cushioned soles in 1977, had first worked in which industry?

Aerospace: Rudy was an aerospace engineer who left the industry in 1969 to invent on his own. His gas-filled pouches were soon built into a Nike running shoe.

Which Nike sneaker earned the nickname 'Uptowns' because so many people in Harlem wore it?

Air Force 1, a 1982 design by Bruce Kilgore, was nearly a short-lived shoe. Nike dropped it after two years, and it survived because a few Baltimore stores kept ordering it in special editions.

Tinker Hatfield earned his degree from the University of Oregon in which field?

Architecture was his first career: Hatfield practiced as an architect in Eugene, and when he joined Nike in 1981 he started out designing its stores. He only switched to shoes four years later.

The Nike Mag replicates a self-lacing shoe from which film?

Back to the Future Part II sent Marty McFly to 2015, and Nike kept the date: that October it showed a working pair and gave the first to Michael J. Fox. Only 89 pairs were released the next year.

Which band sued Nike over a 1987 running-shoe commercial that used its original recording?

The Beatles were not part of the deal for 'Revolution': Nike paid their record label and the owner of the song's publishing rights. Their own company sued, and the dispute was settled out of court in 1989.

In which German town are both Adidas and Puma headquartered?

Herzogenaurach took sides when the Dassler brothers split their shoe firm in 1948. It became known as 'the town of bent necks', because people looked down to see which brand a stranger was wearing.

Which Olympic sprinter wore handmade spikes from Adi Dassler's workshop, before the Dassler brothers split?

Jesse Owens is said to have been handed the shoes by Dassler himself at the 1936 Berlin Games. His four gold medals there brought the brothers' Bavarian shoe factory worldwide attention.

Which singer did Puma hire as a creative director in 2014?

Rihanna's first shoe for the brand, a suede sneaker on a thick 'creeper' platform, sold out online within three hours of its 2015 pre-sale. She said a later batch was gone in 35 minutes.

Before settling on Puma, Rudolf Dassler briefly named his company what, echoing his brother's Adidas?

Ruda took two letters from each of his names, Rudolf and Dassler, just as his brother Adi Dassler had built Adidas. Within a few months he dropped it for the big cat.

The Adidas Trefoil logo launched just in time for which Olympics?

Munich 1972 was a home Games for the German firm. Its older mark was bought in: in 1952 Adidas paid Finland's Karhu the equivalent of 1,600 euros and two bottles of whiskey for the three stripes.

Which Adidas shoe is nicknamed the "shell toe"?

Superstar wears a rubber cap over the toes, added to protect basketball players' feet. Within four years of its 1969 launch it was reportedly on more than three-quarters of NBA players.

Which hip-hop group won a sneaker deal after Adidas shoes were held aloft at their concert?

Run-DMC had recorded 'My Adidas' with no deal in place. A man from Adidas was in the crowd that night, and what he saw led the company to sign the group.

Which Adidas tennis shoe carried Frenchman Robert Haillet's name until an American champion's replaced it in 1978?

Stan Smith signed with Adidas in 1973, and for five years the shoe carried his portrait with Haillet's name printed above it. About 22 million pairs had been sold by 1988.

Which athletes carried Puma Suedes to the podium in the 1968 Black Power salute?

Tommie Smith and John Carlos stood in black socks to represent Black poverty, their shoes set down on the podium beside them. Under pressure from the Olympic president, both were expelled from the Games.

In 1970, Adidas and Puma agreed that neither would sign which footballer, a truce Puma quickly broke?

Pelé was too costly to fight over, the two firms reasoned. Puma signed him anyway and paid him to stop the referee and tie his laces just before a World Cup kickoff, with the cameras on his boots.

Vans' motto 'Off the Wall' was slang from riders in empty swimming pools in which sport?

Skateboarding in drained pools gave Vans the phrase in 1976. Ten years earlier its first shop, in Anaheim, had so little change on opening day that customers took shoes home and came back the next day to pay.

Which 1982 film put Vans checkerboard slip-ons on a national stage?

Sean Penn wore them as Jeff Spicoli; the pattern was copied from skaters doodling on their shoes.

The name Reebok comes from a South African word for what kind of animal?

An antelope: the grey rhebok of southern Africa. The brothers who started the firm in Bolton, England, in 1958 picked the word out of a dictionary.

Reebok's 1982 Freestyle was designed and marketed for which group of buyers?

Women taking up aerobics were the market, and the fitness instructor Denise Austin was among the first to promote the shoe. By 1984 it accounted for more than half of Reebok's sales.

Which Reebok technology debuted in 1989 and was worn by Shaquille O'Neal?

The Pump went on show at the NBA's 1991 All-Star weekend: Dee Brown bent down and inflated his pair in front of a national audience, then won the night's showpiece contest.

What was New Balance's 1960 Trackster the first running shoe to offer?

The company had sold mainly arch supports for its first half-century.

The Asics name is an acronym of a Latin phrase meaning what?

A sound mind in a sound body is how the company renders 'anima sana in corpore sano'. The Roman poet Juvenal actually wrote 'mens sana', and swapping in anima is what gives the brand its initials.

Which sneaker brand did U.S. Rubber create in 1916 by merging 30 of its shoe lines under one name?

Keds was the second choice. The company is said to have wanted 'Peds', from the Latin for feet, but found that name was already trademarked.

Which rapper took his sneaker line from Nike to Adidas in 2013?

Kanye West's Yeezy line grew at Adidas to nearly $1.7 billion in yearly sales. The company ended the partnership in October 2022 after his antisemitic remarks.

Adidas bought its three-stripe trademark from Finland's Karhu in the early 1950s for cash and two bottles of what?

Whiskey sweetened the deal: Karhu had been using three stripes first, and sold the mark to a then little-known German rival for the equivalent of about 1,600 euros plus the two bottles.

New Balance founder William Riley kept the three-pronged foot of which bird on his desk to explain balance?

Chicken feet were his sales pitch: three prongs, he told customers, gave perfect balance. Watching the birds in his yard is believed to have inspired the company's name too.

Foot Locker, whose staff dress like referees, was launched by a subsidiary of which five-and-dime giant?

Woolworth owned Kinney Shoes, which opened the first Foot Locker in 1974. The sneaker chain outlasted the dime stores, and the parent company renamed itself Foot Locker in 2001.

UK and US shoe sizes rise in steps of a third of an inch, an old unit named after which grain?

Barley gives the unit its name: the barleycorn, an old English measure of a third of an inch, is still the gap between one full shoe size and the next.

Jack Purcell, whose 1930s signature sneaker Converse still sells, was a world champion in which sport?

Badminton made him famous: he was declared world champion in 1933, and the low-cut canvas shoe he designed for the court is still manufactured.

Which actor played Sonny Vaccaro, the Nike scout chasing Michael Jordan's signature, in the 2023 film Air?

Matt Damon played Vaccaro, while his old friend Ben Affleck directed the film and cast himself as Nike boss Phil Knight.

Which rapper's 2021 'Satan Shoes', modified Nikes said to contain a drop of human blood, drew a Nike lawsuit?

Lil Nas X made 666 pairs with the art collective MSCHF. Nike sued the collective, not the rapper, and the settlement let any buyer send the shoes back for a refund.

Heelys, the American shoes that became a 2000s fad among children, hide what in each heel?

A wheel sits in each heel, so the wearer can walk or run as normal and then roll by shifting their weight backwards. The wheels are removable, which turns Heelys back into ordinary shoes.

L.A. Gear's hit children's sneakers of 1992 did what each time the wearer's heel struck the ground?

Lit up, thanks to red LEDs in the heel that flashed with every step. L.A. Gear was selling more than five million pairs of its light-up children's shoes a year during the 1990s.

The Adidas Samba, now a streetwear staple, was designed in 1949 so footballers could train on what surface?

Icy pitches were the brief: the Samba's gum sole was built to grip hard, frozen ground. It went on to sell more than 35 million pairs.

Which Off-White founder redesigned ten of Nike's best-selling sneakers for a 2017 collection called 'The Ten'?

Virgil Abloh's Air Jordan 1 from the collection was named Shoe of the Year for 2017. He split the ten shoes into two groups, which he called Revealing and Ghosting.

Jeff Staple's 2005 Nike Dunk, whose New York release ended in a riot, is nicknamed after which bird?

Pigeon is the name: the 'NYC Pigeon' Dunk came from Staple Design, and the riot at its release put a sneaker launch in the headlines of the New York Post.

Which ice cream maker partnered with Nike in 2020 on the 'Chunky Dunky', a Dunk that sold out almost at once?

Ben & Jerry's sells a flavour called Chunky Monkey, hence the name. The shoe copied the brand's tubs, with blue sky, green hills and patches of cow hide.

In sneaker-collecting slang, what does it mean when a pair of shoes is described as 'deadstock'?

Never been worn is only the start: to purists a deadstock pair has not even been tried on or re-laced, so it reaches the buyer exactly as it left the factory.

Which Detroit sneaker resale marketplace was co-founded in 2015 by Dan Gilbert and Josh Luber?

StockX grew out of Campless, Luber's website of sneaker price data, and it publishes the price history of every shoe much as an exchange does for shares.

Which musician and producer launched the Adidas NMD 'Human Race' sneaker collection in the summer of 2016?

Pharrell Williams had signed a long-term partnership with Adidas in 2014, and in 2017 he followed the Human Race shoes with a 1,000-euro sneaker made with Chanel.

Which rapper's Golf le Fleur sneakers first went on sale in 2017 as a light blue Converse One Star?

Tyler, the Creator took his Golf Wang label to Converse after a three-year partnership with Vans ended. The first shoe's pale blue colour was named Clearwater.

Which New York rapper became the first non-athlete to get a signature sneaker from Reebok?

Jay-Z put his real surname on it: the S. Carter became the fastest-selling shoe in Reebok's history, and a G-Unit line with 50 Cent soon followed.

Which auction house sold a pair of Nike's early 'Moon Shoes', made for Olympic trials runners, for $437,500 in 2019?

Sotheby's sold the pair in July 2019. The Moon Shoe got its name because its tread was said to leave prints like the footprints astronauts left on the Moon.

Which Houston rapper has designed 'Cactus Jack' versions of the Air Jordan 1, Air Jordan 4 and Air Jordan 6?

Travis Scott shares the Cactus Jack name with his record label, which he founded in 2017, the same year he first worked with Nike on a sneaker.

Reebok was founded in 1958 by brothers Joe and Jeff Foster, grandsons of a spiked-shoe maker, in which country?

England is where it began, in the Lancashire town of Bolton. The brothers found the brand's name in a dictionary that Joe had won in a sprint race as a boy.

Nike moved its world headquarters in 1990 to a campus beside which Oregon city, which now surrounds it?

Beaverton surrounds the campus without owning it: the land is unincorporated county territory, and after the city tried to annex it, a 2005 state law barred it from doing so for 35 years.

New Balance, founded in 1906 by Irish immigrant William Riley, is headquartered in which US city?

Boston became a centre of the 1970s running boom, which turned a firm of six people making 30 pairs of shoes a day into a fast-growing national brand.

Paul Van Doren and his partners opened the first Vans store in 1966 in which Southern California city?

Anaheim was where the Van Doren Rubber Company both manufactured its shoes and sold them directly to the public. Twelve customers bought pairs on the day it opened.

Fila, now a South Korean brand based in Seoul, was founded in 1911 by two brothers in which country?

Italy's Fila brothers started out at a wool mill in Piedmont. Fila Korea, once only a licensee of the name, bought the entire brand in 2007.

French sneaker brand Veja has made its shoes since 2005 in which country, the source of its wild rubber?

Brazil supplies Veja's wild rubber, bought directly from cooperatives of tappers in the Amazon, and most of its organic cotton, grown by family farmers in the north-east.

Running brand Hoka, founded in the French Alpine town of Annecy in 2009, takes its name from which language?

Māori gave Hoka its name, from a term meaning to fly. Its founders wanted a shoe for faster downhill running, so they built one with an oversized, heavily cushioned sole.

Which running-shoe brand became part of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway in 2006?

Brooks reached Warren Buffett's company indirectly: Fruit of the Loom, a Berkshire subsidiary, bought Russell Athletic, which had owned the shoemaker since 2004.

Chinese sportswear brand Li-Ning was founded in 1990 by an Olympic gold medallist in which sport?

Gymnastics made Li Ning a star with three golds at the 1984 Games. At Beijing 2008 he lit the cauldron after being hoisted on cables to run around the stadium's rim.

In which Brooklyn-set film does Buggin' Out confront a Celtics fan for scuffing his new Air Jordans?

Do the Right Thing made a scuffed sneaker a famous movie moment: a 2008 music video parodied the scene, and an Air Jordan named after the character Radio Raheem was released in 2016.

Will Smith wears a pair of Converse All Stars as a Chicago police detective in which film set in 2035?

I, Robot imagines a world served by humanoid robots, and the canvas sneakers were one of several product placements in the film, alongside FedEx and JVC.

Reebok designed custom sneakers for Sigourney Weaver to wear as Ripley in which James Cameron film?

Aliens put Ripley in the Alien Stomper, made laceless so that it could slide off her foot in the finale. Reebok gave it a general release only in 2016, thirty years on.

Which actor's Tenth Doctor wore Converse All Stars with his pinstripe suits in Doctor Who?

David Tennant's Doctor changed his sneakers to match his outfit, with different coloured pairs for the brown pinstripe suit and the blue one.

Which University of Oregon distance runner, coached by Bill Bowerman, became Nike's first track endorser?

Steve Prefontaine was Bowerman's prized pupil. He set American records at every distance from 2,000 to 10,000 metres before dying in a car crash at 24.

Nike co-founder Phil Knight told the story of the company's early years in which best-selling 2016 memoir?

Shoe Dog follows Nike from its founding through its early struggles. Knight later released a young readers edition, and Netflix bought the film rights in 2018.

Which athlete, a professional in both baseball and American football, fronted Nike's 1989 cross-training adverts?

Bo Jackson's adverts showed him trying one sport after another, from tennis to ice hockey, and ended with him failing badly on guitar beside the bluesman Bo Diddley.

Which Kenyan ran the marathon distance in under two hours in Vienna in 2019, wearing prototype Nike shoes?

Eliud Kipchoge ran 1:59:40, a time that could not count as a world record because of his rotating pacemakers. His shoes were reported to be a bespoke model called the Alphafly.

Nike's Vaporfly racing shoes, which rival athletes complained about to officials, hide a plate of which material?

Carbon fibre is the trick: the plate sits in a chunky foam sole and is said to help propel the runner forward. The five fastest marathons of the time were all run in the shoes.

Which Nike sneaker, first released in 1973 as a basketball shoe, takes its name from Portland's NBA team?

Blazer is a nod to the Portland Trail Blazers, the brand's local NBA team. George Gervin, the scorer nicknamed the Iceman, made the shoe famous on court.

KangaROOS sneakers were designed in 1979 by a keen runner whose kit had nowhere to stash keys, so he added what?

A zipped pocket on the side of each shoe solved it, big enough for keys or loose change. Bob Gamm ran ten kilometres a day in light clothes that had no pockets.

Which brand agreed in 2012 to pay $40 million over adverts for its rocker-soled Shape-ups toning shoes?

Skechers settled a class action after US regulators complained that its adverts had misled customers about what the curved-bottom shoes could do.

Allbirds launched in 2016 with the Wool Runner, a sneaker made from the fleece of which breed of sheep?

Merino wool from New Zealand was the starting point: co-founder Tim Brown won a grant from the country's wool industry in 2014, at a time when demand for it was falling.

Which tech company teamed up with Nike in 2006 on a shoe sensor that sent running data to a music player?

Apple's iPod picked up the data from a small wireless sensor in the shoe, and later iPhones could receive the signal without a separate receiver plugged in.

Vibram founder Vitale Bramani developed his rubber lug sole after six friends died in 1935 while doing what?

Mountaineering in the Italian Alps cost Bramani six friends, and their deaths were partly blamed on inadequate footwear. The company's name is a blend of his own first name and surname.

PF Flyers, whose initials stand for 'Posture Foundation', were launched in 1937 by which tyre and rubber company?

B.F. Goodrich patented the Posture Foundation insole in 1933 and made the sneakers for 35 years, until it left the shoe industry and sold the brand to the parent of Converse.

Reebok's forerunner J.W. Foster made the running spikes worn by which 100m champion at the 1924 Paris Olympics?

Harold Abrahams, later a hero of the film Chariots of Fire, won his gold in spikes from Foster's small factory, which was named Olympic Works.

Which sliding metal tool for measuring feet, patented in the 1920s, improved on the wooden Ritz Stick?

The Brannock Device took its inventor two years to develop. He patented a first prototype in 1925, and ran the company that made it until he died in 1992, aged 89.

Which Japanese designer, known as a godfather of Harajuku streetwear, is the 'H' in Nike's limited-edition HTM line?

Hiroshi Fujiwara pioneered HTM, whose other two letters stand for Nike designer Tinker Hatfield and executive Mark Parker. His own label is called Fragment Design.

Adidas's Parley sneakers, first shown in 2015, are made with recycled plastic that might otherwise end up where?

The ocean is the point of the project: Adidas worked with the campaign group Parley for the Oceans, which collected plastic waste that was turned into thread for the shoes.

Feiyue canvas sneakers, first produced in 1920s Shanghai, became the standard shoe for which kind of training in China?

Martial arts practitioners prize the thin, lightly padded sole, and Feiyue became a staple for wushu athletes, Shaolin monks and kung fu masters alike.