Кроссовки: история мирового безумия

by Howie Kahn, Rodrigo Corral, Alex French

Абсолютный must-have для любителей кроссовок и тех, кто интересуется дизайном, творческим процессом, уличной культурой, брендингом, предпринимательством, историей искусства и психологией массовой культуры. В числе героев книги не только бренды и спортсмены, но и музыканты, актеры и режиссеры, а также обычные люди, которые не представляют свою жизнь без дерзких, модных, бессмертных кроссовок.

Genres: Fashion, Nonfiction

300 pages, Hardcover

First published October 24, 2017

Reviews

[Christian Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is everything I’d hoped it would be. This is for the sneakerhead who wants to move from casually following blogs and Instagram feeds to understanding, and being a part of, the bigger picture. This book is about all the major sneaker figureheads nowadays. It includes designers, founders, retail store owners, athletes, ceos, djs, and even engineers. It thankfully includes a handful of women, which was a breath of fresh air.

It gives a great, in-depth overview of the key players in the sneaker community. The chapters so cleverly build upon each other and the order was chosen with intention. It’s telling a story. We all know names like Jon Wexler, Tinker Hatfield, and Virgil Abloh. They’re icons nowadays but i was fascinated reading the interviews with the designers and boutique owners. I’m obsessed with collaborations and this book has stories about Patta, Extra Butter, Concepts, KITH, and Undercover (to name a few). It also has a chapter on my personal favorite shoe, Tom Sach’s Mars Yard. I love and appreciated the engineering side of the book. It included people like Tiffany Beers and Mark Smith and consequently rounded out the story well.

It’s not exhaustive, mind you. I mean how can you fully encompass the world of shoes? But I made it a point to google every shoe people mentioned that influenced them. In each chapter most people talk about the shoes they loved growing up so I got basically a book and a half’s worth of knowledge by doing my side research about old pairs and seeing the trajectory shoe design and technology has taken.

I won’t keep going on. I hope you enjoy this HALF as much as I did and you continue to fall in love with sneakers JUST as much as I am.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I first bought the book I thought it was going to be a book of testimonies from sneakerheads, and a bunch of pictures of old and current grails. I was hoping it was going to be a timeline of images of some most known sneakers, that have changed over the years. It did have a lot of pictures of sneakers, but most of them are not known to the newer sneakerheads. The people interviewed all come from different backgrounds and demographics. The book did have some people that I recognized, but mostly the people are behind the scenes that made most of the iconic sneakers possible. It is a good read for someone who is a sneakerhead, and wants to get into the sneaker creating process.

[Caden]

In the bock Sneakers, by Alex French, it described all kinds of thing about shoes. It talked about Sneakerheads now vs back then, it explained the rise and falls of multi-billion dollar corporations, and the hard work, and endless hours that some people have to dedicate to something that goes on your feet.

In the book, it talked a lot about how just people turned a dream and a passion into reality. From the suburbs of Chicago to downtown Beijing it showed all of the places that determination comes from. Also, the book inspires you to be like all of the gods and goddesses of the sneaker industry. It really just shows you how little you really know about all of the people you thought you knew inside and out.

I thought this was a very good book, probably mostly because it’s something that I really love. It was a very informative book with lots of information about shoes, and clothes. It kind of had this effect when you set it down after reading about some amazing persons come up, where you would think about what it would be like to be in their shoes, literally. The only thing about the book is that they had too many people with too little information. I think if they would have focused on ten to fifteen people and made very descriptive life stories about them it would have been a lot better. I think that the author did a good job piercing as much information as he did with so many people, but I think he could have gotten a lot more.

I would give this book a 9 out of 10 for being on topic and solely about what you think it was going to be about. I would recommend this book to anyone that likes clothing, and shoes, and would like to go into a career dealing with that.

[Alicia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Clearly full of endearing conversation, reminiscing, pop culture, and history, the book highlights people, places, and the style but in an awkward jagged narrative that does a disservice to the topic.

Pictures could have been better laid out among the stories and frames too.

[BELLETRIST · Rating 5 out of 5]

So excited to announce our December Amuse Book — the Sneaker Book — we are longtime fans of the incredible graphic designer/book cover guru Rodrigo Corral, who is responsible for the design of this book. It is not only a book for sneaker heads, but anyone who appreciates a great art book and good stories. The book focuses on the stories behind the sneakers: the people who make them, wear them, customize them and collect them. share your sneaker stories if you have one with #itsthestoriesthatmatter

[AskNezka · Rating 2 out of 5]

Visually the catalogue of sneakers is interesting but it's more of a contemporary pastiche of collectors and designers expressing their love of the form most of all than a history of the shoe. However, out of like 50 or so designers profiled, only 5 are women. Even for 2017, this seems slim.

[Andy Chu · Rating 4 out of 5]

A couple of good anecdotes; nice visuals; good coffee table book for sneaker lovers

[Ruslan Kopylov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great stories!

[Lindsey.parks · Rating 5 out of 5]

My sneaker knowledge went from a solid 4 to about 953 after reading this.

[Enzo Amma · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book bring a lot of different perspectives into the sneaker world, if you’re really interested in design, stories and sneakers it’s a must

[R · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great insights. But tough to give 5 stars to a book about design and attention to detail that has so many typos in it.

[Suvane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is really great.

[Lindsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sneakers is an interesting delve into a very specific subset of pop culture. It includes a wide variety of well over 60 interviews, including people that I was and was not familiar with. The presentation on page is outstanding; the graphic design and collection of images were great (credit to designer Rodrigo Corral).

These interviews discuss the sneakerhead's obsession, the processes of both creation and design, and really, just what a shoe means to someone. I loved the tiny thread across that so many of those interviewed mentioned Kanye as an inspiration. Though he is extremely problematic politically now in the last quarter of 2018, he has been an inspiration throughout my own life.

Overall, I feel like this creative endeavor is both super current and timeless, and I loved the discussion among those interviewed (athletes, designers, buyers, creatives, legends, and so on) of what it takes to bring their creative spark to life, or what brand/release meant the most to them over their lifetime. There is an overarching theme that streetstyle drives what the industry creates, as well as discussion of the symbiosis between streetstyle and "the industry" as trends shift and come back around.

(December 2017 Belletrist amuse-bouche)