Sneak Peak
June 20, 2003 | 12:00am
On my first trip to the States as an adult, I went into a Foot Locker looking to buy some shoes. I went up to this huge black guy dressed in a referee’s uniform and told him I needed some rubber shoes. "Say what? You're looking to buy RUBBER shoes?" Needless to say, he and his co-workers were on the floor in seconds, hysterical at my request for prophylactic footwear. "You‘re looking for SNEAKERS," he corrected me as he wiped the tears from his eyes. Since that embarrassing epiphany, I‘ve learned some of the many names for this enduring obsession. The Brits identify them as trainers, the French refer to them as baskets and the Spanish call them tenis.
Looking back, I’ve had a lifelong fascination with sneakers. My earliest sneaker memory goes back to my preadolescent Keds and Pro-Keds. I clearly remember the frustration of learning how to tie my shoelaces. My mother would patiently teach me again and again the complexities of contorting those two strings into a bowed knot. But since I just couldn‘t figure it out, I learned how to squeeze my foot in and out of the shoe without tying and untying. I‘d then run over to my mother saying, "Look Mom! I tied my own shoes!" Whether or not she saw through that scam, and the many more that followed throughout my youth is highly debatable. One other brand that I remember from childhood was Kangaroos or Roos. I doubt that they were actually made of those marsupials but they had these little pockets on the side of the shoe that you could keep a coin in or some crib notes.
During the power decade of the ’80s, Reeboks came into fashion, with Wall Street types and their secretaries wearing them to work. Two other sneaker brands that you had to have were K Swiss and Tretorn. They were the perfect complements to faded Benetton denims and Esprit shirts. Of course you also had to have those sneaker/leather shoe variants like the espadrille (coño!) and the topsider (a predecessor of the dress shoe/sneaker hybrid). The late ’80s were the dark ages of my sneaker collection as I went into my full blown pinoyuppie phase. Back then, Cole-Haan was king and it was part of the whole Polo Ralph Lauren, Tag-Heuer, braided belt ensemble that was so much in vogue.
It wasn‘t until the mid-’90s that I came back to sneakerworld. At the time, almost all of my friends were wearing Tom Ford‘s revamped Gucci on their feet, so much so that they were referred to as the Gucci Crew. But the mid-’90s were also the height of the rave scene in Manila, and to really get your groove on the dance floor, you needed to be in Nikes. A friend of mine was hoarding all the Nike Air Maxes he could find in Manila to bring over to the States to sell on the black market.
The Nike Air Max 95 in my opinion was the ultimate in sneaker design. I first saw them on Alexander McQueen. He was in that uniform designers love to wear – black T-shirt, dark denims and ultra-cool sneaks. The fact that you had to go to the farthest reaches of the earth to score a pair of these made them even more desirable. My first acquisition was at Niketown in New York, and I eventually amassed four pairs in various colorways.
The new millennium heralded the rise of those German brands Adidas and Puma. Adidas was founded by Adi Dassler back in 1963, and his brother Rudi later went off on his own to establish Puma. In the late 90s, both brands capitalized on the whole retro fashion trend and began to churn out re-editions of their classic old school kicks. Adidas began with their Superstar shell tops and Puma came out with the GV special.
About two years ago I had a New York moment while sitting outside Café Gitane in Nolita. A woman was walking by and stopped dead in her tracks to scream at me, "Oh my God! Where did you get those Pumas?" I was wearing my new Puma Avanti V‘s in cream and chocolate with the Velcro fasteners. "Don‘t tell me, don‘t tell me, you got those in TOKYO right? Dammit!" and she stormed off before I could tell her that I had just bought them on the 4th floor of Barneys.
Even the marketing strategies for sneakers have changed radically. In Manhattan, there‘s a sneaker store in the Lower East Side called the Alife Rivington Club. There‘s no sign on the street front and you need to press a buzzer for them to let you in. Once you‘re inside, you discover a sneaker temple devoted to cult classics such as Nike Air Wovens, vintage Adidas and rare Asics Onitsuka Tigers. In LA, sneaker merchants on Melrose Avenue have waiting lists for the hottest kicks, with A-list celebrities getting first dibs. Nike has established stores called Kwadra in hip urban centers such as Barcelona, Tokyo and Berlin. Kwadra is solely dedicated to selling their limited edition cult items.
Perhaps the biggest compliment to the industry came when museums such as SFMOMA mounted an exhibition highlighting the evolution of athletic shoes. Although there are a number of museums around the world that are dedicated to exhibiting shoes, this was the first show entirely devoted to the sneaker. Shoe companies such as Acupuncture even commissioned artists to make one-off pieces for the show.
The huge trend of merging big brand sneaker companies with avant-garde fashion houses first began with Adidas’ collaboration with Yohji Yamamoto. But it was really Prada that pioneered fusing fashion and athletics with their groundbreaking Prada Sport line. The idea took the fashion world by storm and every big brand was racing to work with the sporting labels. Jil Sander began making trainers with Puma, and has since signed on several other designers such as Xuly Bet and Mihara. Paul Smith has a cooperative venture with Reebok and Agnes B. designs sneakers for Le Coq Sportif. Adidas has just upped the ante yet again by launching a full line of sportswear called Y3, designed exclusively by Yohji Yamamoto.
The merger of sport and fashion just means there are more sneakers to lust after. A night on the town is no longer confined to slippery and uncomfortable dress shoes. Even bars and clubs have altered their dress code rules to accommodate hipsters in their trainers. But in old world places like Madrid and Mexico City, they still make a fuss even if you’re wearing $300 Pumas. If you‘re a creative type you might even get away with wearing sneakers to work. The only problem left is where to keep that burgeoning shoe collection. There‘s no way all my shoes will fit in my closet, so now my bedroom is lined with a formidable sneaker armada. I‘ve given up many uselessly pleasurable things in life such as cigarettes and coffee, but sneakers are one habit I‘m just not willing to kick.
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Looking back, I’ve had a lifelong fascination with sneakers. My earliest sneaker memory goes back to my preadolescent Keds and Pro-Keds. I clearly remember the frustration of learning how to tie my shoelaces. My mother would patiently teach me again and again the complexities of contorting those two strings into a bowed knot. But since I just couldn‘t figure it out, I learned how to squeeze my foot in and out of the shoe without tying and untying. I‘d then run over to my mother saying, "Look Mom! I tied my own shoes!" Whether or not she saw through that scam, and the many more that followed throughout my youth is highly debatable. One other brand that I remember from childhood was Kangaroos or Roos. I doubt that they were actually made of those marsupials but they had these little pockets on the side of the shoe that you could keep a coin in or some crib notes.
During the power decade of the ’80s, Reeboks came into fashion, with Wall Street types and their secretaries wearing them to work. Two other sneaker brands that you had to have were K Swiss and Tretorn. They were the perfect complements to faded Benetton denims and Esprit shirts. Of course you also had to have those sneaker/leather shoe variants like the espadrille (coño!) and the topsider (a predecessor of the dress shoe/sneaker hybrid). The late ’80s were the dark ages of my sneaker collection as I went into my full blown pinoyuppie phase. Back then, Cole-Haan was king and it was part of the whole Polo Ralph Lauren, Tag-Heuer, braided belt ensemble that was so much in vogue.
It wasn‘t until the mid-’90s that I came back to sneakerworld. At the time, almost all of my friends were wearing Tom Ford‘s revamped Gucci on their feet, so much so that they were referred to as the Gucci Crew. But the mid-’90s were also the height of the rave scene in Manila, and to really get your groove on the dance floor, you needed to be in Nikes. A friend of mine was hoarding all the Nike Air Maxes he could find in Manila to bring over to the States to sell on the black market.
The Nike Air Max 95 in my opinion was the ultimate in sneaker design. I first saw them on Alexander McQueen. He was in that uniform designers love to wear – black T-shirt, dark denims and ultra-cool sneaks. The fact that you had to go to the farthest reaches of the earth to score a pair of these made them even more desirable. My first acquisition was at Niketown in New York, and I eventually amassed four pairs in various colorways.
The new millennium heralded the rise of those German brands Adidas and Puma. Adidas was founded by Adi Dassler back in 1963, and his brother Rudi later went off on his own to establish Puma. In the late 90s, both brands capitalized on the whole retro fashion trend and began to churn out re-editions of their classic old school kicks. Adidas began with their Superstar shell tops and Puma came out with the GV special.
About two years ago I had a New York moment while sitting outside Café Gitane in Nolita. A woman was walking by and stopped dead in her tracks to scream at me, "Oh my God! Where did you get those Pumas?" I was wearing my new Puma Avanti V‘s in cream and chocolate with the Velcro fasteners. "Don‘t tell me, don‘t tell me, you got those in TOKYO right? Dammit!" and she stormed off before I could tell her that I had just bought them on the 4th floor of Barneys.
Even the marketing strategies for sneakers have changed radically. In Manhattan, there‘s a sneaker store in the Lower East Side called the Alife Rivington Club. There‘s no sign on the street front and you need to press a buzzer for them to let you in. Once you‘re inside, you discover a sneaker temple devoted to cult classics such as Nike Air Wovens, vintage Adidas and rare Asics Onitsuka Tigers. In LA, sneaker merchants on Melrose Avenue have waiting lists for the hottest kicks, with A-list celebrities getting first dibs. Nike has established stores called Kwadra in hip urban centers such as Barcelona, Tokyo and Berlin. Kwadra is solely dedicated to selling their limited edition cult items.
Perhaps the biggest compliment to the industry came when museums such as SFMOMA mounted an exhibition highlighting the evolution of athletic shoes. Although there are a number of museums around the world that are dedicated to exhibiting shoes, this was the first show entirely devoted to the sneaker. Shoe companies such as Acupuncture even commissioned artists to make one-off pieces for the show.
The huge trend of merging big brand sneaker companies with avant-garde fashion houses first began with Adidas’ collaboration with Yohji Yamamoto. But it was really Prada that pioneered fusing fashion and athletics with their groundbreaking Prada Sport line. The idea took the fashion world by storm and every big brand was racing to work with the sporting labels. Jil Sander began making trainers with Puma, and has since signed on several other designers such as Xuly Bet and Mihara. Paul Smith has a cooperative venture with Reebok and Agnes B. designs sneakers for Le Coq Sportif. Adidas has just upped the ante yet again by launching a full line of sportswear called Y3, designed exclusively by Yohji Yamamoto.
The merger of sport and fashion just means there are more sneakers to lust after. A night on the town is no longer confined to slippery and uncomfortable dress shoes. Even bars and clubs have altered their dress code rules to accommodate hipsters in their trainers. But in old world places like Madrid and Mexico City, they still make a fuss even if you’re wearing $300 Pumas. If you‘re a creative type you might even get away with wearing sneakers to work. The only problem left is where to keep that burgeoning shoe collection. There‘s no way all my shoes will fit in my closet, so now my bedroom is lined with a formidable sneaker armada. I‘ve given up many uselessly pleasurable things in life such as cigarettes and coffee, but sneakers are one habit I‘m just not willing to kick.
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