FashBlog.com

By Simon Woodhouse

In case you hadn't realized, men and women are different. They look different, and according to societies 'norms', they're supposed to behave differently too - men like cars, beer and sport, whilst women are supposed to go for clothes, dieting and emotions. It is all part of the Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus claptrap. I don't support that theory, to me, we're all the same. Women get excited about cars, just in the same way men like fashion. But there is a limit to how far the crossover will go. Women might like cars, but they'll very rarely want to get under the hood and change the air filter. Men like clothes, but they'd be reluctant to admit they have an extensive wardrobe, with one exception - sneakers. Women like shoes, but men love sneakers.

It's easy to see why blokes and sneakers go together like politics and corruption. Men are supposed to like sport, and sneakers are a sporty thing. When you wear a pair of sneakers it's like sportyness by association, and not association with a subdued sport like golf. Sneakers are the lovechild of action sports - basketball, tennis, contests that involve lots of sweating and grunting.

The history of the sneaker goes to show when a basic design is right, it's right. One of the most iconoclastic pieces of footwear today, the Converse All Star, hasn't changed much since 1917. Another giant in the sneaker world, adidas (you're not supposed to spell it with a capital A), has also been around for nearly eighty years. But it's generally reckoned sneakers came of age as a fashion statement in the mid 80s. Celebrity endorsement is the name of the game if an everyday item wants to crossover into superstardom, but it has to be the right sort of celebrity, and one who'll appeal to the right sort of audience. Rap group Run DMC were already wearing adidas Shell Toe sneakers before the footwear giant started paying them to do so. However, who wouldn't want to be paid to wear clothes you already love? Sporting unlaced sneakers in all their 80s videos, Run DMC connected adidas with street-cool and a marketing match made in heaven was born. The band even wrote a song called My adidas

At around about the same sort of time, another behemoth in the world of sporting goods, Nike, teamed up with a rookie basketball player called Michael Jordan. This combination produced the legendary Air Jordan shoe. Now the world of sneakers had aligned itself with the bad boy image of rap, and the uber-athleticism of championship basketball. This two-pronged assault propelled the sneaker to the level of 'must have' accessory. These celebrity endorsements, though costly (Jordan received $47m over five years) are well worth it in an industry with a $13 billion annual turn over. In fact Nike has become such a massive brand, it no longer needs its name on its products, just the little curvy tick thing.

Some of this colossal sum of money comes from Sneakerheads, guys who've just lost it over sports shoes. These are the people who don't own one or two pairs, but forty plus. There are even magazines like Sole Collector and Complex, that are dedicated to nothing but collecting sneakers. Not happy with merely having celebrity endorsements as a means to push the brand, manufacturers now do what is called 'quick strikes'. This involves a small number of a limited edition shoe being delivered to a store at short notice. What follows is usually a feeding frenzy, in which ravenous Sneakerheads camp outside overnight and then almost beg the store to take their money. But these people aren't as daft as they seem, because like most in-demand, hard-to-come-by products, limited edition sneakers (as long as they're unworn) have a healthy resale mark up. Point in case being the release of Nike Pigeon Dunks back in early 2005. Twenty pairs were made available to a store in New York, but seventy people turned up wanting to buy them. This led to twenty satisfied customers, fifty not so happy shoppers, and the police being deployed riot-control style in order to make sure things didn't get out of hand. Later the same day a pair of the Pigeon Dunks sold for $2000 on eBay.

Exclusivity isn't the only thing new in the world of sneakers. Nike has just teamed up with Apple to produce the Nike+ iPod Sport Kit. Buy any pair of Nike+ sneakers and you'll find a little pocket built into the sole. Now buy the Sport Kit, and you'll get a tiny electronic do-hicky to shove in the pocket. The kit also comes with a small attachment that fits into the bottom of your iPod Nano. Start running and the sneakers will transmit information to the Nano, turning it into a hi-tech pedometer. But there's more. When you get home you can plug your Nano into your compy, and upload your exercise stats to a Nike website that'll even let you challenge other runners to a virtual race. Last but not least (and this is my favorite feature), as you're jogging your Nano will be monitoring your pace, if you start to flag a pre-determined 'power tune' will kick in and give you that much needed boost of enthusiasm. So don't be surprised, if you're out walking the dog in the near future and a weary jogger goes past, only to suddenly speed up and start singing Eye of the Tiger from Rocky III.