Sneakers Trivia
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97 free Sneakers trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
The word sneaker predates Nike by decades, the Swoosh cost $35, and a feud between two German brothers produced both Adidas and Puma. This sneakers trivia runs from the first canvas basketball shoes through Air Jordans, Yeezys and the self-lacing Nike Mag. Every answer is sourced, with a short explanation so you learn something even when you miss.
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Q 01The name "sneaker" originally referred to what quality of the shoe?
Its quiet rubber sole
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.
Q 02What do British speakers commonly call sneakers?
Trainers
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.
Q 03Whose 1839 discovery of vulcanized rubber made the modern sneaker possible?
Charles Goodyear
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.
Q 04The British plimsoll got its nickname from a line on what?
A ship's hull
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.
Q 05Which filmmaker played Mars Blackmon, the motor-mouthed fan in Nike's Air Jordan commercials?
Spike Lee
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.'
Q 06Which teenager's Nike deal of about $90 million in 2003 dwarfed Michael Jordan's $2.5 million of 1984?
LeBron James
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.
Q 07Which children's TV host swapped his dress shoes for sneakers at the start of every episode?
Mister Rogers
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.
Q 08What about Michael Jordan's new Nikes broke NBA rules in 1984, inspiring the 'Banned' ad?
Their colors
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.
Q 09The Jumpman logo came from a photo shoot for which magazine?
Life
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.
Q 10Which NBA star left Nike for Under Armour in 2013 after a pitch that got his first name wrong?
Stephen Curry
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.
Q 11What is the small plastic or metal tip on the end of a shoelace called?
Aglet
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.
Q 12Whose signature has appeared on the Converse All Star ankle patch since 1932?
Chuck Taylor
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.
Q 13In which film does a boy lace up PF Flyers to outrun a huge dog called the Beast?
The Sandlot
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.
Q 21Bill Bowerman ruined which kitchen appliance inventing a new sole?
A waffle iron
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.
Q 22Nike's founders renamed their Aztec running shoe after which historical figure?
Hernán Cortés
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.
Q 23Which Nike shoe was the first to use visible Air cushioning?
Air Max 1
Q 14Which tennis champion became an investor in the running-shoe brand On in 2019?
Roger Federer
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.
Q 15Which tech founder made gray New Balance sneakers part of his daily uniform?
Steve Jobs
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.
Q 16What was Nike originally called when it was founded in 1964?
Blue Ribbon Sports
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.
Q 17Nike is named after the Greek goddess of what?
Victory
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.
Q 18Which Japanese shoemaker did Nike's founders originally distribute for?
Onitsuka Tiger
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.
Q 19How much was Carolyn Davidson paid for designing the Swoosh in 1971?
$35
$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.
Q 20Which famous slogan did ad man Dan Wieden say he adapted from a condemned murderer's last words?
Just Do It
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.
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.
Q 24Frank Rudy, who sold Nike on air-cushioned soles in 1977, had first worked in which industry?
Aerospace
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.
Q 25Which Nike sneaker earned the nickname 'Uptowns' because so many people in Harlem wore it?
Air Force 1
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.
Q 26Tinker Hatfield earned his degree from the University of Oregon in which field?
Architecture
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.
Q 27The Nike Mag replicates a self-lacing shoe from which film?
Back to the Future Part II
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.
Q 28Which band sued Nike over a 1987 running-shoe commercial that used its original recording?
The Beatles
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.
Q 29In which German town are both Adidas and Puma headquartered?
Herzogenaurach
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.
Q 30Which Olympic sprinter wore handmade spikes from Adi Dassler's workshop, before the Dassler brothers split?
Jesse Owens
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.