The evolution sports shoes

Posted by LauraDerb on December 18th, 2020

Athletic shoes are as popular now as ever. For a long time, they overlap from the sports field to the consumer market. A huge industry worth billions around the world, athletic footwear shows no signs of abating.

So what is the history of sports shoes? How did they come about and why are they so popular?

It all started (as a lot seems to have happened) in Victorian times. By the middle of the 19th century, the UK was getting smaller. Transportation was developing and so was industry. The class divide has never been so great. The need for leisure was increasing. The beach seemed closer than ever. The sport was taking off with croquet, tennis, golf, cricket, rugby and soccer was soon taking shape. These were exciting times. But all this could not be achieved with the traditional hard black shoe.

Enter the Liverpool Rubber Company, which developed footwear specifically for beach wear in comfort. They basically had a rubber sole and a canvas upper. Known as sand shoes, these would become what we know as canvas shoes and begin the journey of modern sports or training รีวิวรองเท้ากีฬา.

In the early 20th century, grooves were designed in the soles of shoes to help them grip surfaces even better. Athletic shoes were integrated into the Army, overseas exploration and physical education lessons across the country. At the 1924 Paris Olympics, the British team had state-of-the-art footwear, produced by J.W. Foster and Sons. With success on the track and field, ideas for a new athletic shoe crossed the seas to the United States.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the first basketball shoe was produced, and as sports grew in popularity after World War I, the public wanted a piece of shoe fashion, as worn by its sports heroes. By World War II, sports shoes were selling very well. With the help of a successful 1936 Olympics, there was no going back.

As each decade passed, the sports shoes or trainer worn in the UK became a must-have item. Large sports shoe companies emerged in Germany, the United States and Great Britain. They began to take over the market for conventional leather footwear of yesteryear. A fashion statement among young people, coaches have spread beyond the sports world and ingrained in our culture forever.