Sneaker Selection A Status Symbol

By: Connie Yan

Posted: 3/21/06

All of the Ugg boots, jelly sandals, ballet flats, cowboy boots, platform mary janes and Grecian sandals will come and go, but the sneaker is here to stay.

Although there are certain brands and styles of sneakers we care to forget, they are certainly a symbol of status, class, comfort, athleticism, taste and style. The sneaker is as American as Anna Nicole Smith and apple pie. In 1917, Keds made the first mass-marketed, canvas-topped, rubber soled sneakers. As for the world "sneaker," it was a product of advertising. Ad agent Henry Nelson McKinney called the shoes sneakers because the rubber sole made the shoe much quieter than all other shoes, according to about.com.

What started as a simple product of innovation has turned into one of the most disputed and controversial industries in the world. Standing up against unfair labor and sweatshops - Nike especially - has prompted the start of a new trend - boycotting. Blackspot is a line of shoes manufactured simply to usurp "the swoosh," and other footwear brands. The earth-friendly shoes are union-made with recycled tires for soles and "vegetarian" leathers on the upper.

Their main goal is to "rearrange the ugly face of megacorporate capitalism," according to Kalie Lasn, CEO of Blackspot Anti-Corporation.

Despite efforts of people like Lasn, the type of sneakers you wear is still an indicator of what kind of person you are. Although most types were originally designed for specific sports, they have meandered their way into casual wear.

Back in middle school Adidas Superstars were found on everyone's feet. A way of expressing yourself was by picking a unique color for the three stripes down the side, which of course had your mom driving you around from store to store to find.
When Nike came out with Shox, everyone wanted to get on top of those springy soles. There are now newer morphs of these gap-between-the-foot-and-the-ground-type sneakers. Adidas' newest line looks like a sneaker except for the plastic bubbles at the bottom. Nike has updated its lines with air-max shoes, which have a waffle plastic layer inside a bubble between the ground and foot.

The air-bubble sneaker trend is fairly universal among style groups. There are several types that only certain people would be wear, depending on the your type of style. The hip-hop world has taken the athletic shoe and made it a status symbol. Wearing them with suits to award ceremonies has become acceptable. One way of wearing them is to have the laces untied, which, aside from making a statement and creating a safety hazard, serves no purpose whatsoever. One way of sporting the laceless look is tying the bow underneath the tongue of the sneaker, which is tad safer and you get the same look. Having top-of-the-line kicks is an absolute necessity.

A recent advertising campaign by Nike featured football greats like Bo Jackson wearing their new and very expensive sneaker line. The ad campaign was aimed at the African-American market and was placed in African-American communities. As a result of the ads, the desire to own the $125 shoes increased to the point that parents put necessities aside to purchase them for children. Teenagers were shot and killed for their shoes.

The original Keds sold for about a dollar when they first appeared, but now they can run anywhere from $20 in to the hundreds of dollars, depending on the pair you desire.

Men alone spend about $8.7 billion on athletic footwear a year. If you're spending so much, no wonder you take such good care of them. Sneaker enthusiast web site sneaker-nation.com gives tips on how to clean them with cotton swabs, bleach, suede brushes and even toothpicks. Seems like an awful lot of work for shoes designed for trudging through the field.