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| Sunday, 28 August 2005 |
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SNEAKERama
Shoe Purchasing Advice
by Rikaza Hassan
Sneakers are made of flexible material and typically feature a sole made out of rubber. Originally designed as sporting apparel, today sneakers are worn much more widely as casual footwear. They are most popular with the younger generation with the popular brands such as Nike, Adidas, Reebok, Puma, Converse and Fila spending millions on heavy advertising to just retain their share of the market. Irish-American Humphrey O' Sullivan patented the first rubber heel for shoes on January 24, 1899 which outmoded the leather heel then in use. However the first rubber soled shoes called plimsolls were developed as early as the late 1800s and with the invention of the process of vulcanisation - rubber is melded to cloth or other rubber components for a sturdier and more permanent bond. In 1916, the U.S. Rubber Company chose the name of 'Keds' - they had to chose between 'Keds' or 'Veds' as their initial choice of 'Peds' was already in use - to market their entire range of rubber soled shoes. Keds were mass-marketed in 1917 as canvas-top 'sneakers'. The word 'sneaker' itself was coined by a Henry Nelson McKinney, an advertising agent because the rubber soles made the shoes stealthy and quiet letting you sneak up on someone. However the very first sneaker itself was invented in 1893. It was turned out of canvas and made in order that boaters would not have to wear dress shoes while on deck. In Sri Lanka, sneakers are seen on the feet of most of the school-going guys and gals alike. "Trainers are very comfortable and so very easy on your feet. I borrow my brother's pairs and wear them to school everyday," says Nilupul, an O/L student. Mishan says that he wears them nearly all the time because of all the "rutty roads and crowded buses. Sneakers protect your precious feet from the travails of daily travelling." "Sneakers are very very cool. I only wear Nike, Reebok or Adidas shoes and the chicks absolutely dig them. I work for a company that requires its employees to dress formally to work. I wear my designer sneakers together with the tie and pin and the rest of the works and it looks great," says Sahan with a huge grin across his face. Sneakers have long since become a part and parcel of everyday life. Nowadays they are seen adorning feet at nearly every occasion; they are now even worn to opera performances. Throughout its over hundred year history both its role and significance have changed considerably. Sneakers have also broken down barriers and been pivotal in bringing about social change that they are now worn by people from virtually every walk of life. *** The small plastic or fibre tube that binds the end of a shoelace to prevent fraying and to allow the lace to be passed through an eyelet or other opening is called an aglet. This comes from the Latin word for 'needle'. The shoestring (string plus eyelets) was first invented in england in 1790 (first recorded date of March 27). Before shoestrings, shoes were commonly fastened with buckles. *** Bowerman was the unparalleled coach of the University of Oregon in the mid nineties. He brought jogging to the U.S., built an unrivalled track and field programme at the university and taught his athletes to seek the competitive edge in their bodies, their gear and their passion. Phil Knight was an accounting student at the university as well as a middle-distance runner under Bowerman. In 1962 Knight had the crazy idea of bringing low-priced, high-tech athletic shoes from Japan to dislodge the German domination of the U.S. athletic footwear industry. That very year Bowerman and Knight formed a partnership: they each contributed half of the capital, shook hands on it and started importing. Soon Japanese shoes began showing up on American feet, brought into the country by a company named Blue Ribbon Sports. In 1965, Jeff Johnson, a former track rival of Knight joined the company as its first full-time employee, selling shoes out of the back of his van at high school track meets. The team however was not satisfied. Bowerman began looking for ways to improve the design of the shoes and Knight could not stand the thought of creating business and money for someone else. Steve Prefontaine, another University of Oregon runner joined the threesome and in 1966 Johnson opened the company's first retail outlet in California. Now some thirty years later, the company has been renamed Nike and is the largest sports and fitness company in the world. |
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| Politics | Produced by Lake House |
A 'sneaker' is an individual hired to break into
places in order to test their security. 'Sneaker' was a band that played
in the seventies and who released an album called 'sneaker'. 'Sneakers'
was a film in 1992, 'sneaker' is a character from a comic and 'sneakers'
is a video game for Xbox. A 'sneaker' is also a form of footwear; athletic
shoes also known as trainers that we will be concerned with in this little
piece. 
