History Of Sneakers Essay

Pre-Test Essay The beginning of sneakers started around 3,000 years ago with the Mayan, Olmec and Aztec civilizations. The first rubber soled “shoe” was in this age, made by sticking ones feet in them sap from a rubber tree. After the rubber had cooled, the rubber on the foot would be peeled off, and heated over a fire. This hardens the shoe making it flexible, and waterproof. From this point on sneakers started to develop into more of what we see sneakers as today. Modern sneakers were starting to be made in England in the year, 1830. These shoes were made from rubber and canvas. The uppers of the shoe were canvas, the sole was rubber, and the rubber was bonded to the canvas. Many people thought that line connecting the two looked like the safe-water line on ships’ hulls. Sneakers started out expensive but soon became the common leisure shoe for all; the time of this popularity boost was around 1868. The more people came to like sneakers, the more new sneakers were made. By the middle of the 20th century there were already high-top basketball shoes, All-Star high-tops, and shoes for track and field. From the 1900’s on is where the shoes really became advanced. The manufacturers …show more content…
Chuck Taylor was a basketball player born in 1901, and was hired by Converse at the age of 17 in 1922 to be an “All-Star” sales man. While he was travelling the country he was making suggestions and changes to shoes. He even got his signature around the label on the ankle, a fix the he added. After the explosion in popularity due to Chuck converses we referred as “Chucks”. Before 1971 Converse only came in black and white but from 1971 and on there were a variety of colors to choose from. To sum it up the reason sneakers became so popular were because of the sneaker heads, a man named Chuck Taylor and the adaptive minds of manufacturers. Though all the credit goes to the ancient civilians for coming up with the idea of rubber soled