KICKING & REDEEMING

The comfortable, controversial and occasionally very costly history of the sneaker, from vulcanization to Kanye West, is chronicled in a new exhibition at the Bata Shoe Museum

Street style sneaks into the Bata Shoe Museum,

The difference between a pair of $1,500 statement heels from Christian Louboutin and a pair of illuminated Back to the Future- themed $9,000 Nike Mag shoes is more than just $7,500.

While both are coveted by deeppocketed celebrities, the sneakers are comfier, cooler and far more likely to inspire collectors across all ages and demographics.

That’s the idea behind Out of the Box: The Rise of Sneaker Culture, a new exhibition at the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto. The footwear gallery, traditionally more likely to focus on high fashion than high tops, goes deep on the meaning and import of rubber-soled shoes in the show.

The exhibition features more than 130 early, rare and contemporary sneakers and chronicles the birth and triumph of rubber footwear. Rare samples from the Reebok, Converse and Adidas archives are on display, including a signed pair of Anniversary Superstars from RUN-D.M.C., as well as sneaker aficionado Bobbito Garcia’s Bata x Wilson x John Wooden shoes from 1977 alongside hand-picked originals by Eric Avar, Mark Smith and renowned Nike designers Tobie and Tinker Hatfield (the brothers behind the brand’s Air Jordan).

“It is the most democratic form of footwear that is out there,” says Elizabeth Semmelhack, the Bata’s senior curator. “No matter where you go, people all around the world are wearing sneakers. But despite the fact that it is so democratic in that manner, one’s choice of sneaker is a minefield of social meaning. One’s individual choice of sneaker says a lot about who you are, what image you are trying to promote and what your interests are.”

Despite the hype in the collectible market (and similarly rising price tag), Semmelhack points out that sneakers have a very humble history that arises “from a confluence of two co-dependent shifts in the 19th century.” After the sap of the rubber tree was discovered by the English in the 17th century, it was used by European cobblers to create overshoes. Although it offered great elasticity and bounce, the primitive material was not terribly functional: it cracked in the cold and melted in the heat. It was not until Charles Goodyear added sulphur to the stuff in 1839 by that the material was finally stabilized.

By the middle of the 20th century, it was not uncommon to see people wearing plimsoll sneakers like the Converse Gripper while out performing errands.

“The middle class becomes the first market for these new things such as tennis sneakers, and bicycling shoes,” Semmelhack continues, adding that the first generation of sneakers served multiple purposes and were also aspirational, as items linked to “leisure culture were associated with privilege.”

Semmelhack says the globalization of the sneakers began in the 1970s athletic stars and the rise of hip-hop culture: “You not only have the fashion’s being set within urban centres such as NYC, but it begins to impact outlining cities as well.”

As author of the best-selling book, Where’d You Get Those?: New York City’s Sneaker Culture 1960-1987 and director of the new documentary Doin’ it in the Park: Pickup Basketball, NYC, Bobbito Garcia has seen many of the major shifts in sneaker culture. Garcia was part of one of the first generations to sport canvas sneakers regularly, and says that one thing that older sneaker heads understand is the simple appreciation for a comfortable pair of shoes.

“We went from wearing canvas sneakers without cushioning to wearing leather sneakers with really amazing functionality and cushioning,” he says. “But there are huge advances now — you’ve got lunar wire shoes that

Sneakers, I feel, began to unlace that rigid construction of masculinity

are super lightweight. So, they [the new generation] are seeing leaps and bounds as well, but I think our leaps and bounds were a lot greater.”

Semmelhack and Garcia point to two pivotal shifts in contemporary sneaker culture: Michael Jordan signing his Nike contract in 1985 and RUN-D.M.C., becoming the first hip-hop artists to sign a sneaker contract in 1986, which locked in their Adidas loyalty and made sneaker culture central to the burgeoning musical genre. Since the history of sneakers tends to skew more masculine, Semmelhack says the popularity of the sneaker in the ’80s also revitalized men’s fashion, allowing more individuality in style.

“There were very few accessories men had access to express individuality,” she says. “Sneakers, I feel, began to unlace that rigid construction of masculinity.”

Dion Walcott began his sneaker collection in the late 1990s and has seen fads come and go. Now, he says the culture is all about customization. With online communities such as sneakerreport.com, sneakernews.com and the Canadian favourite, deadstock.ca, fans can draw from thousands of new releases for design inspiration before they create their customized kicks.

“I am no longer the guy who is necessarily looking for the $500 pair of sneakers,” Walcott says. “I am really big into customizing, so if I am going to spend $500, I want it to look exactly as I want, versus buying it off the rack.”

Walcott has taken that further with Toronto Loves Kicks, an collective that aims to use love of sneakers to promote cultural dialogue through events like their annual sneaker design competition, where aspiring talents are given 20 minutes to decorate a new shoe with Sharpie markers. (He’s also programming a series of talks and film screenings around the Bata show.) But the ability to custom make just about any sort of shoe won’t replace the lifeblood of any collectables market: scarcity.

“It’s like you build your community of people who will find weird sneakers and it’s easier that way then to travel and beat the pavement in NYC,” he says. “Because once you have your community of people, it’s almost guaranteed that you will find something that no one else has, and I think that’s where the sneaker culture has gone to. Now it’s about how rare they are.”