They are known as athletic shoes, trainers, sandshoes, gym boots, joggers, running shoes, runners, gutties, sneakers, tennis shoes, gym shoes, tennies, sports shoes, sneaks, tackies, rubber shoes, and canvers. They have evolved from a sports only shoe to a ubiquitous fashion mainstay.
The idea for a sneaker-style shoe did not happen until American inventor Charles 
Goodyear patented the process for the vulcanization of rubber in 1844.
By the early 1900s, sneakers were being produced by small rubber companies that specialized in manufacturing bicycle tires. Spalding Company began producing shoes for basketball in 1907. U.S. Rubber introduced Keds in 1916, about the same time that Converse was marketing its All Star. Other companies, including B.F. Goodrich and Spalding Co. began producing tennis shoes, and smaller family-owned companies were manufacturing the first cleated shoes.
ENDORSEMENTS PROPEL POPULARITY
At first the market for sneakers was very small, but after World War I, the U.S. turned to sports and athletes as a way to demonstrate moral fiber and patriotism. The U.S. market for sneakers grew steadily as popular sports figures began endorsing particular brands. Athletes’ endorsements for sneakers were common after 1920. Chuck Taylor, whose signature was added to the Converse All Star in 1923, had directed basketball clinics for Converse and had been on the Akron Firestones basketball team. Nor
thwestern University coach “Dutch” Lonborg lent his name to the 1932 Montgomery Ward basketball shoe. Jim Thorpe endorsed B. F. Goodrich’s “Chief Long Lance” brand sneakers. Female endorsers in the 1970s included Chris Evert for Converse and Virginia Wade for ProKeds. Endorsements, however, created mixed loyalties in the 1970s and 1980s. Some athletes wore favorite shoes with the logo of their endorser hiding the brand they wore. Others changed shoes during the course of a game, giving multiple endorsers equal time. In the 1990s, endorsements by athletes like Michael Jordan for Nike propelled manufacturers into hero-selling machines.
FROM SPORTS SHOE TO MAINSTREAM
During the 1920s and 1930s, companies added traction, and also started marketing them for different sports. A huge breakthrough of this time was the separation of designs for men and women. At this time, sneakers were used strictly for athletic events. The revived Olympics attracted more fans not only to sports, but to sneakers as well.
The 1950s gave American families more leisure time, and as the baby boom started, more families chose to dress their youth in sneakers as school dress codes relaxed. Sneaker sales in the United States soared to 600 million pairs a year in 1957, which led leather shoe makers to 
claim that “sneakers are bad for children’s feet” to which sneaker producers replied “sneakers cure the syndrome of Inhibited Feet.”
In the 1970s, sneakers led their own way as jogging quickly became popular and so did the necessity to have a pair of shoes for the occasion. Until this time, factories had been concerned with high production, but now the companies started to market their products as a lifestyle purpose. Soon there were shoes for football, jogging, basketball, running—every sport had its own shoe. This was made possible by podiatrist development of athletic shoe technology.
By the 1980s, sneakers were everywhere: Woody Allen wore them to the ballet, Led Zeppelin wore them in their 1976 documentary, and Dustin Hoffman wore them while playing reporter Carl Bernstein in the movie All the President’s Men.
The shoes originally developed for sports have become the mainstay for most people.
Editor Phil Robertson is an award-wining journalist and graphic designer. With a degree from the University of Florida’s School of Journalism, his career in journalism and publishing spans over 30 years, and includes positions as editor and publisher for several newspapers and magazines. During his career he has received a first-place award for investigative journalism from the Society of Newspaper Editors, and five ADDY awards for advertising design.
