The mania for sneakers, which Iannacci once defined as “tennis shoes” and worn by the marginalized and the less well-off, is everywhere. Today, on the other hand, we feel connected with others and more sporty to always bring them to the point of becoming a real phenomenon of mass costume if not really cultural, a market that is worth 80 billion dollars a year globally, so much so that from the streets sports shoes have even arrived in museums. The Design Museum in London in an exhibition entitled «Sneakers Unboxed: Studio to Street» until 24 October exhibits over two hundred models in the «Style and Performance» sections, now cult objects originally designed for the Olympic tracks before they became collectibles. Among others, you will see the New Balance Trackster of 1960 with the “ripple sole” (corrugated sole) and the Asics Gel-Lyte III of 1990 with the sole in three densities and no longer in double, together with the sketches and experimental prototypes. . Until now, similar exhibits could only be found in specialized runner shops where the successful historical models that had led to the latest evolution of the model were exhibited but it was unsuspected that they became objects for museum exhibits or that the latest innovations were introduced to create and test shoes.
Hyper-technological shoes
In the London museum, in order to make the experience of virtually wearing a pair of latest model shoes possible, the «Snap» technology is shown to the public, and the «Futurecraft» robotic system can also be observed and understood with a video. Strung »that it will produce on the spot for Adidas the first shoe made entirely based on data and feedback from runners. The first Strung model will be released in the first part of 2022 based on the experience of athletes identified as significant for a specific type and running pace in order to develop the model created after motion capture sessions. Technology has always been a plus of Adidas since the Eighties with the innovation of the Micropacer model, the first smart model thanks to a microcomputer in the tongue. There will also be the opportunity to discover lesser-known brands such as Satoshi Studio that has begun to create the blockchain, that of cryptocurrency, applied in the sports shoes sector. Or biologically active shoe models that adapt to the person wearing them and improve their athletic performance, thanks to the presence of microorganisms. It is not science fiction but biodesign, the discipline that uses living organic materials, such as algae or bacteria, to produce new, more sustainable materials, obtained from the collaboration between the Design Lab of MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Puma.
The shoes for the marathon
The exhibition explores the history of sneakers also in relation to underground cultures from all over the world, such as that expressed by the skaters of the American West Coast. Ligaya Salazar, curator of the exhibition, specified: «The exhibition also offers a behind-the-scenes vision of the new upcycling practices (a practice of creative reuse other than recycling, ed) and sustainable design, with prototypes never shown to the public “. There will also be some of the most expensive and fastest shoes such as those made by Samuel Ross for Converse, a historic basketball brand recently relaunched to repeat the global success of the ‘Chuck Taylor All Star’ in the 1950s and there will also be the ‘Nike Alpha NEXT% »Of the same generation as those used by Eliud Kipchoge to run the marathon in 1:59:40 in 2019, when he wore a prototype of« Nike Air Zoom Alphafly NEXT% ».
June 1, 2021 (change June 1, 2021 | 17:24)
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