Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Sneakers
Sneakers (US) or trainers (UK), also known by a wide variety of other names, are shoes primarily designed for sports or other forms of physical exercise, but are also widely used for everyday casual wear.
They were popularized by companies such as Converse, Nike and Spalding in the mid 20th century. Like other parts of the global clothing industry, shoe manufacturing is heavily concentrated in Asia with nine in ten shoes produced there.
Sneakers have gone by a variety of names, depending on geography and changing over the decades. The broader category inclusive of sneakers is athletic shoes. The term 'athletic shoes' is typically used for shoes utilized for jogging or road running and indoor sports such as basketball, but tends to exclude shoes for sports played on grass such as association football and rugby football, which are generally known in North America as "cleats" and in British English as "boots" or "studs".
The word "sneaker" is often attributed to American Henry Nelson McKinney, who was an advertising agent for N. W. Ayer & Son. In 1917, he used the term because the rubber sole made the shoe's wearer stealthy. The word was already in use at least as early as 1887, when the Boston Journal made reference to "sneakers" as "the name boys give to tennis shoes." The name "sneakers" originally referred to how quiet the rubber soles were on the ground, in contrast to noisy standard hard leather sole dress shoes. Someone wearing sneakers could "sneak up", while someone wearing standards could not. Earlier, the name "sneaks" had been used by prison inmates to refer to warders (guards) because of the rubber-soled shoes they wore. The term "sneakers" is most commonly used in Northeastern United States, Central and South Florida, Australia, New Zealand, and parts of Canada. However, in Australian, Canadian, and Scottish English, running shoes and runners are synonymous terms used to refer to sneakers, with the latter term also used in Hiberno-English. Tennis shoes and kicks are other terms used in Australian and North American English.
The British English equivalent of sneaker in its modern form is divided into two separate types:[dubious – discuss] predominantly outdoor and fashionable trainers, training shoes or quality 'basketball shoes' and in contrast cheap rubber-soled, low cut and canvas-topped plimsolls, daps, or flats. In Geordie English, sneakers may also be called sandshoes, gym boots, or joggers.
Several terms for sneakers exist in South Africa, including gym shoes, sports shoes and takkies. Other names for sneakers includes rubber shoes in Philippine English, track shoes in Singapore English, canvas shoes in Nigerian English,[dubious – discuss] camboo ("camp boot") in Ghana English, and sportex in Greece.[clarification needed]
In Latvia, any sneakers are still called botas after the Czech footwear company Botas, whose produce was one of the few foreign brands of sneakers available during the Soviet occupation.
These shoes acquired the nickname 'plimsoll' in the 1870s, derived according to Nicholette Jones' book The Plimsoll Sensation, from the colored horizontal band joining the upper to the sole, which resembled the Plimsoll line on a ship's hull. Alternatively, just like the Plimsoll line on a ship, if water got above the line of the rubber sole, the wearer would get wet.
Hub AI
Sneakers AI simulator
(@Sneakers_simulator)
Sneakers
Sneakers (US) or trainers (UK), also known by a wide variety of other names, are shoes primarily designed for sports or other forms of physical exercise, but are also widely used for everyday casual wear.
They were popularized by companies such as Converse, Nike and Spalding in the mid 20th century. Like other parts of the global clothing industry, shoe manufacturing is heavily concentrated in Asia with nine in ten shoes produced there.
Sneakers have gone by a variety of names, depending on geography and changing over the decades. The broader category inclusive of sneakers is athletic shoes. The term 'athletic shoes' is typically used for shoes utilized for jogging or road running and indoor sports such as basketball, but tends to exclude shoes for sports played on grass such as association football and rugby football, which are generally known in North America as "cleats" and in British English as "boots" or "studs".
The word "sneaker" is often attributed to American Henry Nelson McKinney, who was an advertising agent for N. W. Ayer & Son. In 1917, he used the term because the rubber sole made the shoe's wearer stealthy. The word was already in use at least as early as 1887, when the Boston Journal made reference to "sneakers" as "the name boys give to tennis shoes." The name "sneakers" originally referred to how quiet the rubber soles were on the ground, in contrast to noisy standard hard leather sole dress shoes. Someone wearing sneakers could "sneak up", while someone wearing standards could not. Earlier, the name "sneaks" had been used by prison inmates to refer to warders (guards) because of the rubber-soled shoes they wore. The term "sneakers" is most commonly used in Northeastern United States, Central and South Florida, Australia, New Zealand, and parts of Canada. However, in Australian, Canadian, and Scottish English, running shoes and runners are synonymous terms used to refer to sneakers, with the latter term also used in Hiberno-English. Tennis shoes and kicks are other terms used in Australian and North American English.
The British English equivalent of sneaker in its modern form is divided into two separate types:[dubious – discuss] predominantly outdoor and fashionable trainers, training shoes or quality 'basketball shoes' and in contrast cheap rubber-soled, low cut and canvas-topped plimsolls, daps, or flats. In Geordie English, sneakers may also be called sandshoes, gym boots, or joggers.
Several terms for sneakers exist in South Africa, including gym shoes, sports shoes and takkies. Other names for sneakers includes rubber shoes in Philippine English, track shoes in Singapore English, canvas shoes in Nigerian English,[dubious – discuss] camboo ("camp boot") in Ghana English, and sportex in Greece.[clarification needed]
In Latvia, any sneakers are still called botas after the Czech footwear company Botas, whose produce was one of the few foreign brands of sneakers available during the Soviet occupation.
These shoes acquired the nickname 'plimsoll' in the 1870s, derived according to Nicholette Jones' book The Plimsoll Sensation, from the colored horizontal band joining the upper to the sole, which resembled the Plimsoll line on a ship's hull. Alternatively, just like the Plimsoll line on a ship, if water got above the line of the rubber sole, the wearer would get wet.