By Amanda Gonzalez Garcia
Sneakers have easily become the single fashion staple for many to competitively trade and bid over these past decades.
The Barry Buccaneer surveyed 130 students on campus and gathered this list of the top four favorite sneakers here at Barry, in order.
#1 Nike
Founded in 1964, Nike’s headquarters reside in Oregon. The brand was founded by track and field runner Phil Knight and coach Bill Bowerman at the University of Oregon. Nike has gotten endorsements from all-stars like Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Mia Hamm, and more.
This brand was once named Blue Ribbon Sports, but not for long.
"Blue Ribbon Sports’s performance-oriented product innovations and mastery of low-cost production translated into shoes athletes wanted to wear and could afford. Knight and Bowerman’s track connections got the shoes onto the feet of real runners. And then jogging emerged as a new national pastime,” wrote the Harvard Business Review.
“Air” is a film that was released on April 5, highlighting the beginnings of the Nike brand. More than that, this movie is meant to illustrate the evolution of Michael Jordan in this venture and the success that would become of Air Jordan.
Some stars you can expect to see are Viola Davis as the NBA phenom’s mother, Deloris Jordan, Matt Damon, Chris Tucker and Jason Bateman as execs at Nike, Ben Affleck who plays Nike co-founder and former CEO Phil Knight and Davis’s real-life husband, Julius Tennon who plays Jordan’s dad.
Senior communications major, Kevin Holliday, is himself a fan of the Nike brand.
“[My] favorite pair of shoes right now is Nike AF1 All White. And the reason being is because a city that wears literally nothing but AF1 [is] Chicago. Also, it's an all-around shoe. I can match it with almost anything,” he said.
#2 Converse
This brand launched in 1908 by Marquis Mills as Converse Rubber Shoe Company, known to specialize in rubber-soled footwear for anyone. In 1915, the company switched focus to creating athletic shoes.
But it was not until 1921 that athlete-salesman Chuck Taylor came into focus and the importance was put on creating shoes that were comfortable and avoided sore feet. And basketball players all over began wearing the well-known “All Stars” on their feet.
Converse took a hiatus from the game for about a decade but in 2019 reintroduced itself back into the basketball landscape. They company released a performance basketball shoe called the All Star Pro BB.
“Combining decades worth of experience on the court with current basketball footwear technological advancements, this latest development promises peak performance and brand-new design style,” said the Converse website.
#3 Adidas
Founded in 1949, in the small town of Bavaria in Germany, Adi Dassler had no idea how iconic these three stripes would become. Sports was at the core in the creation and success of Adidas.
Dassler met with athletes and gathered their raw, personal experiences on the field into the shoe.
According to Adidas, athletes from the Argentinean national team to the outdoor icon Reinhold Messner who climbed mountains in Adidas shoes to the gymnast Nadia Comaneci the scored a perfect 10 repeatedly have donned the Adidas shoe.
Today, Gucci, Prada, Disney, BAPE, Yeezy, and Bad Bunny are just some of the top names who collaborate with the brand.
#4 New Balance
William J. Riley is the founder for the kicks known as New Balance. An Irish immigrant, Riley wanted to create a shoe that would support the feet.
It was 1938 that New Balance created its first running shoe in favor ot their local running club called the Boston Brown Bag Harriers.
Then, the company began to design specialist footwear for sports like baseball, boxing, and tennis, expanding to make a name for itself, according to The Fresh Press by Finish Line.
From the first pair of sneakers called Plimsolls, invented by Wait Webster in the 19th century, to its creative impact in contemporary movies, sports, music, fashion, and racial and gender campaigns, sneakers have created their own sense of community and creative freedom for society.
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