Background History
Background
Types
Uses
In the late 18th century, people wore rubber soled shoes called plimsolls. As more families took weekend holiday trips to the seaside, demand for special footwear designed for leisure and the beach increased. Early leisure shoes had a cotton canvas structure with a leather sole - a design that was flimsy and not durable. In the 1830s, the Liverpool Rubber Company developed reliable and comfortable beachwear with a canvas upper and a rubber sole, with a rubber band wrapped around the shoe to give the footwear a strong structure. Plimsolls were widely worn by vacationers and also began to be worn by sportsmen on the tennis and croquet courts for their comfort.
There are four types of sneakers: • Low-Tops - Below the ankle • Mid-Tops - on the ankle • High-Tops - above the ankle • Sneaker Boots - extends to the calf
Emily Lodge
Athletic shoe is a generic name for the footwear primarily designed for sports or other forms of physical exercise but in recent years has come to be used for casual everyday activities. They are also known as trainers, sandshoes, gym boots, joggers, running shoes, runners, gutties, sneakers, tennis shoes, gym shoes, tennies, sports shoes, sneaks, tackies, rubber shoes or canver.
While the original design was basic, manufacturers have since tailored athletic shoes for the different purposes that they can be used for. • Racing • Track Sports • Rugby • Football • Basketball • Wrestling • Climbing • Hiking/Approach • Skating • Astro-turf • Casual
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Brands & Packaging Brands
While there are a huge number of brands which sell sneakers, there are a few who are bigger than the rest. • Keds • Adidas • Nike • Converse All Star • Vans • Puma • Reebok
Packaging
In the sports shoe industry, the boxes and packaging has become as important as the shoes themselves. These packages are what the companies use to try differentiate themselves from competition in similar shoe designs. With some trainers coming in at such expensive prices, the companies put these custom boxes/packaging for specific shoes to try make them more individual and seem of more value than the competitors. Companies are also starting to make the boxes as much the product as the shoe is, integrating the two to draw the customers in.
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Celebrity Endorsements Adidas
Adidas are well known for investing a lot of money in celebrity endorsements with the biggest stars in sports. They currently hold the largest endorsement deal ever with basketball player Derrick Rose. On top of that they hold the 3rd largest endorsement deal with David Beckham. They have recently moved onto popular culture in a bid to get a younger audience interested, using stars such as Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez & Katy Perry.
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Converse
Keds
Converse started the trend of celebrity endorsements way back in the 1920’s, their first being Chuck Taylor. Taylor has become a prominent part of converse. Initially it started as Taylor’s name on one pair of shoes he was endorsing, but it became a permanent fixture of the logo very quickly, and has stayed that way since. Instead of just endorsing famous figures, they collaborate in creating limited edition designed sneakers.
With Keds being the original sneaker company, they needed something to really bring them to modern day and keep up with the countless endorsement deals that are done by big brands. To do this they signed Taylor Swift to endorse the product, which features a ad campaign, centred around Taylor and her life. What they have also done is created a section on their website which is ‘Taylor Swift for Keds Collection’ - a collection of patterns/designs created on collaboration between Keds and Taylor.
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Nike
Nike is very well known for having a lot of big endorsement deals with the biggest stars in a variety of sports. These include basketball players: Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant & LeBron James. Golf players: Tiger Woods & Rory McIlroy. Tennis player Maria Sharapova. Recently they have ventured out from sport and started using people in popular culture such as Kanye West.
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Customisation Overview
The customisation of sneakers has slowly become a big trend among some of the bigger brands in the industry. It is a way of getting more customers who might like the look of a shoe, but not necessarily the material/colours/ styles used on it. With technology developing quickly within the past few years, big brands have invested in making internet applications specifically for the customisation of sneakers. These applications allow the user to change a sneaker to how they want it to be, order it and have it made from scratch and delivered within around four to six weeks.
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Sneakers available with application Nike ID • Female: 159 pairs • Male: 94 pairs Adidas mi • Female: 138 pairs • Male: 198 pairs Puma Factory • Unisex: 3 pairs Converse All Star • Unisex: 13 pairs Vans • Female: 6 pairs • Male: 5 pairs Reebok • Female: 16 pairs • Male: 20 pairs
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Design Inspiration Overview
As part of this research I looked into the designs that were already out there that were for sneakers or incorporated sneakers/sneaker brands into creating other media. These included advertisements, packaging, interior space design and publications.
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