Kicks : the great American story of sneakers / by Nicholas Smith.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Smith, Nicholas (Nicholas K.), author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sneakers--United States.

Sneakers.

Sneakers--Social aspects--United States.

Social aspects.

United States.

Genre:

Nonfiction.

Physical Description:

x, 308 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 22 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Crown, [2018]

Summary:

"When the athletic shoe graduated from the beaches and croquet courts of the wealthy elite to streetwear ubiquity, its journey through the heart of American life was just getting started. In this rollicking narrative, Nicholas K. Smith carries us through the long twentieth century as sneakers became the totem of subcultures from California skateboarders to New York rappers, the cause of gang violence and riots, the heart of a global economic controversy, the lynchpin in a quest to turn big sports into big business, and the muse of high fashion. Studded with larger-than-life mavericks and unexpected visionaries--from genius rubber inventor, Charles Goodyear, to road-warrior huckster Chuck Taylor, to the feuding brothers who founded Adidas and Puma, to the track coach who changed the sport by pouring rubber in his wife's waffle iron--Kicks introduces us to the sneaker's surprisingly influential, enduring, and evolving legacy."--Amazon.com.

Contents:

Prologue

The father of invention

Peach baskets and tennis sets

Johnny Basketballseed

War and brothers

Builderman

Swoosh

Courting style

Everyone is doing it

Meanwhile, on the West Coast

Let's get physical

Style and flow

His Airness

Mars and Mike

Battle of the brands

Sneaker crime and punishment

I, Sneakerhead

Back at it again

Epilogue.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780451498113

0451498119

9780451498120

0451498127

OCLC:

1000251158