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Sneakerhead: Created by Gillian Roger Park. With Hugo Chegwin, Alexa Davies, Lucia Keskin, Francesca Mills. Sitcom set in Sports Depot, a fictional sports shop in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire following the antics of Russell, a confirmed sneakerhead, and his fellow long-suffering employees.
- (185)
- 2022-07-13
- Comedy
- 40
Superkicks offers a wide range of premium sneakers and shoes from Nike, Adidas, Puma, Jordan, and more. Browse the new arrivals, recommendations, and exclusive collections of branded shoes, apparel, and accessories online in India.
Carrying every brand name on the market, Flight Club has evolved from a one-stop sneaker destination, to a cultural hub for sneaker enthusiasts and novices alike.From Air Jordans to Nike to Adidas and more, we have it all. Learn More.
- Overview
- Air Jordans and the rise of sneaker culture
- Sneakers become status symbols
- What is real sneakerhead culture?
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As depicted in the new Ben Affleck film Air, here’s how Michael Jordan and Nike’s iconic Air Jordans transformed the sneakerhead subculture into a $79 billion industry.
Sneakers worn by basketball legend Michael Jordan are displayed for auction at Christie's in New York City. Sneaker obsessives pay big money for rare shoes like these—a phenomenon that began when Jordan and Nike launched their revolutionary Air Jordans in the 1980s.
Sneakers have come a long way from when they were first invented in 1860s England for the upper-class playing croquet and tennis.
Long worn for function rather than fashion, today sneakers are an entire culture—both a form of self-expression and a high art found in museum exhibits and designer auction houses where a single pair can fetch millions of dollars.
Most sneakerheads credit the advent of their subculture to the rise of athlete-endorsed shoes in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. Converse’s Chuck Taylor All-Stars had dominated the basketball courts for decades—and brands like Puma and Adidas started to get in on the action.
“What was happening in New York was an intertwining of basketball, hip-hop, and [break dancing],” says Elizabeth Semmelhack, director and senior curator of the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, which in 2013 became the first North American museum to devote an exhibit to the history of sneakers.
Left: Members of the iconic rap group Run-D.M.C.—from left to right, Joe "Run" Simmons, Darryl "DMC" McDaniels and Jason "Jam Master Jay" Mizell—launched Adidas Superstar shoes as a cultural icon with their 1986 single My Adidas.
Photograph by John T. Barr, Getty Images
Right: Michael Jordan wears his distinctive Air Jordan 1s while playing the Washington Bullets in January 1985. The revolutionary shoes boasted bold colors, defying league rules that players' shoes be mostly white.
Photograph by John Iacono, Sports Illustrated/Getty Images
As sneakers became increasingly coveted, footwear companies turned to generating even more hype by collaborating with celebrities and luxury brands, as well as releasing small batches of limited-edition shoes with eye-popping designs.
Rare sneakers became sought-after among collectors, and the sneaker reseller market flourished. “I have Air Jordan 1, 2, 3, and 5, so I better find 4,” Semmelhack says of the mentality that drove the rise of collectors. As resellers began to mark those shoes up at incredible costs, she adds, it only reinforced how special they were.
Pivotal artists like Rihanna, Travis Scott, and Kanye West defined the shoe game for nearly a decade with their iconic collaborations with brands. And then came the Kardashians.
(A mecca for rap has emerged in the birthplace of jazz and blues.)
“The Kardashian era had a huge impact on the culture,” says Jazerai Allen-Lord, a ground-breaking sneaker strategist, designer, and writer. After reality TV star Kim Kardashian married rapper-turned-fashion-designer Kanye West, she and her sisters started to wear his designs, which “helped target a whole new demographic of people to experience sneaker culture. It was a blending of high and low fashion, which the shoe industry never really seen before.”
By the mid-2010s, sneakers had become solid gold status symbols—literally, in the case of hip-hop artist Drake, who in 2016 commissioned a one-of-a-kind pair of Air Jordans wrapped in 24-carat solid gold. The estimated $2.1 million sneakers weighed 50 pounds each.
For Xzaiver Griffin, 29, a Florida-based digital marketing manager who has around a hundred pairs of sneakers, collecting has brought him “a true community.”
“I’ve met true friends through sneakers. Whether it was camping out all night for a release back in the day or looking out for one another on release day to get a sneaker you really want, that’s what the sneakerhead culture is to me,” he says, adding that his friends have a group chat called Sneakerhead Alphas named for their fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha.
Sneakers are also how people express their beliefs—for instance, when NBA player Dwyane Wade wore his custom-designed, limited-edition “Black Lives Matter” Li-Nings or NFL placekicker Blair Walsh wore anti-bullying cleats covered in the words “Speak Out.”
(She founded Black Lives Matter. Here's why she's so hopeful for the future.)
“It’s like art,” says Akio Evans, a Baltimore creative who specializes in turning shoes into wearable artwork. “Even though it is a sneaker that is on the shelves or inside of a box inside a store, the very first thing you are doing is admiring what you see. You look at all the pieces and decide which one resonates with you.”
Photographer Courtney Salmon's project Please Don't Touch celebrates Black British heritage by examining parallels between sneaker culture and "front rooms"—a room typically found in the homes of Caribbean migrants to the U.K, where everything is kept in pristine condition.
Learn how sneakers evolved from functional footwear to fashion statements and status symbols, and how sneakerheads collect and resell them. Explore the impact of Michael Jordan, hip-hop, celebrities, and more on the $79 billion industry.
Jul 14, 2022 · Sneakerhead — release date, cast interview, plot, first looks and all about the trainer shop comedy. By Nicholas Cannon. published 14 July 2022. Sneakerhead stars People Just Do Nothing's Hugo Chegwin as this new Dave comedy follows the long-suffering, overworked staff at a trainer store.
A person involved in sneaker collecting is sometimes called a sneakerhead. Sneaker collecting came to prominence in the 1980s in New York City and can be attributed to two major sources: basketball, specifically the emergence of Michael Jordan and his eponymous Air Jordan line of shoes released in 1985, and the growth of hip hop music.
Sneakerhead is a British comedy series that follows the lives of young employees at a sports shop in Peterborough. The show features a cast of comedians and explores the themes of work, friendship and sneakers.
