Q 01/05

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

A) Its quiet rubber sole

B) Its low price tag

C) Its canvas upper

D) Its flat laces

Answer · why

A) 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 'sn...

Q 02/05

What do British speakers commonly call sneakers?

A) Takkies

B) Trainers

C) Tennis shoes

D) Kicks

Answer · why

B) 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 plimsol...

Q 03/05

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

A) Charles Goodyear

B) John Dunlop

C) Harvey Firestone

D) Charles Macintosh

Answer · why

A) 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 ...

Q 04/05

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

A) A cricket pitch

B) A tennis court

C) A railway map

D) A ship's hull

Answer · why

D) 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 ...

Q 05/05

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

A) John Singleton

B) Robert Townsend

C) Spike Lee

D) Keenen Ivory Wayans

Answer · why

C) 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 ...