What is the smartest thing in the future to review shoes? Shoe book reviews, we say.
What if you have a passing interest in the shoe industry? He regularly devours facts about the latest shoe releases and understands the essential history of his favorite shoe brands. And scrutinizes religiously crafted shoe reviews.
But given his high level of interest, he acknowledges that this reading regimen is simply not enough.
If you have been reading our reviews frequently. You will have noticed that we often talk about the history of a selected model, technology, or trend. Whenever you explore an exhilarating reality on this website. Understand that most of it come from SoleReview’s library of footwear-related literature.
We have Runnersworld shoe guides from 1990. Chaparral rooster sports wrote Order guides. Magazine ad clippings, loads of dealer sales catalogs from the 90s in the United States of America, and a set of various books on footwear. Some of the pre-internet guide area units are extremely helpful in spotting shoes that are not digitally archived.
But hey, not most of them are out there collecting vintage shoe literature. What someone needs to do is compile a list of recommended books on footwear. that someone should check because we haven’t seen anyone else sleep with him.
Here is our recommended list of shoe books, leaning towards the clothing industry normally. This guide divided into 2 parts; books #1 to #5 cover the history of shoes and brands. Books 6 through 13 go a little deeper and cover advanced topics like shoe biomechanics and sports promotion.
Table of Contents
Best Books For Your Shoe Brand: A History From Sandals To Sneakers
Riello and Mcneil, 400+ Pages
If we had to select just two books from the full list. Then this would be one of them all (the different ones being Sneaker Wars). This book is not about the historical evolution of footwear. It is also a criticism of the cultural importance of the latter. From the symbolic price of footwear in the classical Hellenic Republic to its place in Chinese and Japanese culture. The book examines footwear from a myriad of viewpoints.
There is only one chapter dedicated to sports shoes, But you will still be interested in reading how War I inspired modern sports shoes.
During that time. Footwear not only evolved from being a commercial product produced by the bungalow industry to an associated industrial product but innovations such as Munson’s latest set the inspiration for the work of modern athletic footwear.
This book is also packed with gorgeous images taken largely from the collections of the Bata Shoe Museum.
Sneakers Wars
Barbara Smit, 384 Pages
Today, the Greek deity is the complete largest clothing, but it was not always so. Long before Nike’s rise, two German brands vied for a share of the apparel market: Adidas and Cougar.
It’s worth noting that Sneaker Wars is the only book that covers the entire timeline from the associated business perspective. From the humble beginnings of the Dassler brothers in the 1920s to recent events like the 2008 National Capital Athletics contest, Sneaker Wars chronicles the evolution of the modern apparel industry like no other book.
If you had to buy just 1 book to find out how this trade came to be today, then this may be the place. Brands like Greek Deity and Reebok also build their style, so understand that Sneaker Wars isn’t about Adidas and Cougar.
There is another book by an identical author called “Pitch Invasion.” It’s a paperback (and earlier) version of Sneaker Wars because it tells the same story in a slightly different tone.
The method we usually see is Sneakers Wars, an associate degree upgraded version of Pitch Invasion. Get the latter if you want the convenience of a compact paperback.
Shoe Dog
Phil Knight, 386 Pages
Until recently, there were only two books that told the story of the Greek deities well. One is Strasser/Becklund’s ‘Swoosh’, and therefore the alternative is Donald Katz’s ‘Just Jazz.’ Each of these books was printed around the same time (1993/94). we tend to like the swosh because of its higher navigation.
This year saw the release of a political memoir by Phil Knight, the co-founder of the Greek deity. If he has flipped through the ‘Swoosh’ book, then the plot may feel familiar. However, there are large variations between the two.
Shoe Dog is (mostly) a first-person narrative that is most of Phil Knight’s story because he is about a Greek deity. The ‘Swoosh’ uses a third-person narrative fashion, drawing on anecdotes and personal experiences of Rob Strasser (former Nike employee).
The swosh also spans an extended timeline (until 1991) in the brand’s history, while the Shoe Dog story ends just as the Greek deity went public in the 1980s.
It would be ideal for ‘Shoe Dog’ to own Nike’s history to the present day or to the time when Phil Knight was the Greek deity’s last CEO.
Some images within the book would also be nice. The ‘Swoosh’ book contains some images and adds a lot of weight to the narrative.
What Shoe Dog lacks in footage or timeline, it makes up for in the good genre of it. The book is an interesting associate degree pursuit, no matter your level of interest in the shoe business.
Trainers
Neal Heard, 400 Pages
This one is for sneaker lovers. While several shoe guides exist, ‘Trainer’ is unique in very few ways. First of all, the author Neal spotted is British, hence the name ‘Trainers’ instead of ‘Sneakers.’ Meaning that the book covers sneaker culture from a British and American point of view. For example, casual football/soccer culture has invariably been a UK/European development and completely neglected within us.
As a result, the book includes commentary supporting the twin cultural influences of European soccer and North American hip-hop. Most books and documentaries overlook this and tend to look at sneaker culture solely from the perspective of an American country.
Additionally, ‘Trainers’ has interviews with sneaker collectors and has over 600 native images covering over three hundred different sneaker models.
I’m not sure if the style of the book has been changed (ours is vintage 2003). However, the shape can be a bit awkward to navigate. The sneaker collector interviews square measurements written in an extremely vertical format, suggesting you’ll flip the book to navigate.
Those little niggles aside, Neal Heard’s ‘Coaches’ may be a book that has just the right amount of detail. It covers a large number of sneaker models, thus in a compact, easy-to-read style.
Made For Skate – The Illustrated History Of Skateboard Footwear
Blumlein, Schmid & Vogel. 400 Pages
Within the clothing trade, there are four classes where the merchandise (footwear) and, thus, the underlying culture are inextricably intertwined. You have racing and basketball, of course. Football could be a separate subculture. Skating isn’t usually a thoughtful topic of discussion, however, the history of athletic footwear isn’t complete until it is.
From a historical perspective, skate shoes have continually been tangential to the rest of the trade. While the evolution of the different classes featured current brands like Adidas, Nike, Puma, and Reebok, the skate shoe trade has been continuously served by various niche players.
It has been notoriously hard for different brands to discontinue this class. Even after six decades of skating, only one complete, Vans dominates the class. the different players are few and far between, existing only on the margins. adidas, Converse, and Nike are persistent in their attempts to capture market share. However, their efforts have so far met with limited success.
The title of the book contains the word ‘illustrated’ for an honest reason. The extensive images combined with the text make the book easy and pleasant to navigate. Four hundred pages of high-quality content cover the journey of skateboarding as a culture and, thus, the role of footwear in it.
The book begins with the earliest roots of skating, a movement that grew out of water sports to thought. The narrative fashion used in this book is quite striking: footwear is used as a historical placeholder.
More
As the book progresses through the timeline of the written record, skate shoes often represent age. As an example, the section that covers the 60s the most refers to the genesis of skateboarding because it is from Vans. The late ’70s saw the transformation of the Nike jacket (and later Dunks Associate’s Nursingd Jordan 1) into an accidental skate shoe. Then go ahead.
Also included are wacky footwear stories, such as how Harley Davidson once made skate shoes. (no kidding, this)
Even if you don’t have any interest in skating, “Made for Skate” is generally recommended reading for people asking to learn about sneaker culture. And whether one realizes it or not, skate-inspired footwear has long been a part of mental consumption. Do you want proof? Vans can cost $2 billion today, and the current price for the Nike Dunk SB ‘NYC Pigeon’ is $6,000 a pair.
Swoosh – the Unauthorized Story of Nike and the Men Who Played There
Strasser and Becklund, 556 Pages
Until the ‘Shoe Dog’ came along, ‘Swoosh’ was the book to flip through if you wanted to know the history of Nike’s origins. The fact that each of the books (Shoe Dog Associate at Nursingd Swosh) shares several common stories could be a testament to the fact that the Swoosh is an authentic chronicle of Nike history, licensed or not.
There are a handful of variations between the 2 books. The swosh contains photos, while Shoe Dog does not, and ‘Swoosh’ spans an extended timeline. Shoe Dog could be a memoir, which suggests that it contains a lot more personal details about Phil Knight than the swoosh.
For the simplest of each world, explore each Shoe, Dog, and swosh in this order.
Making a Difference – Adidas
Adidas-Salomon Ag, 240 Pages
This book was privately printed, meaning it was intended for internal Adida use and distribution. it is written in a cocktail table book format and covers the history of Adidas with pages and pages of beautiful images. Given the origins of the book, the exclusive images measure squares from the Adidas archives.
Whether it’s images of a young Kobe Bryant from the ’90s or what sneakers sounded like in the ’30s, the book is a fabric treasure. Adidas is much more fictional in the athletic footwear industry as we know it, so getting a pictorial tour of its evolution would be a treat.
Naturally, the fact that this is an accompanying publication implies that the book incorporates a public relations tone of voice. That said, you will come across objective comment sections.
There’s this little problem of getting this book into your hands. We tend to get our copy hanging around Adidas offices in the late ’90s but don’t worry. We tend to do a quick search and find a couple of examples online. We tend to find one On Amazon, and there are one or two on Abebooks and eBay. Get yours before they are sold out – this book could be a collector’s item.
Sneakers – The Complete Collector’s Guide
Unorthodox Styles, 255 Pages
An ideal companion to “Trainers,” this book gets you up and running quickly. 100% of its content simply covers different models of sneakers, in the middle of a summary of every one of the footage. Again, this is often a British publication, so football casuals pick up on their approach.
Biomechanics of sports shoes
Benno M Nigg, 300 Pages
We have known Benno M Nigg since he printed his first book in 1986. Athletic shoes have been extensively researched. However, few authors have published and compiled findings in a kind of book.
This book will. Backed by Benno M Nigg’s four decades of analysis in this field, this book delves into the science behind athletic footwear. Covers topics such as impact forces, muscle standardization, insole/orthotic performance, alternative shoe options for joint movement, and many others.
However, be careful. The book is highly technical and is written in an instructive analysis fashion. At a minimum, you’d like to have a decent grasp of high school/K-12 calculus + science to create the most effective use of this book.
Being self-published, the web convenience of this book is restricted. So do what we tend to do: order it directly from Benno M Nigg’s science lab at the University of an inner city, Canada.
Biomechanics of Running Shoes
Benno M Nigg, 180 Pages
This 1986 book could be a precursor to Benno M Nigg’s last book (reviewed above). Running as a recreational development was simply thought of in the 1970s, and this book captures the research that existed at the time that brought the athletic footwear sphere to an end. It covers a broad set of topics ranging from impact forces to motion system loading and kinematic variables.
This book might be a good resource if you’re fascinated by understanding the origins of “pronation control” footwear. Once you explore the premise of appearance (injuries caused by poorly designed footwear back then), you’ll notice that modern “stability” or “pronation control” shoes are gratuitous anachronisms.
Again, K12 Science + Calculus skills are required for the most effective comprehension results. Better browse before the ‘Biomechanics of sports shoes’ if you propose to buy each. Common Market Frederick’s ‘Sports Shoes and Playing Surfaces‘ is another old book on the biomechanics of footwear.
Stories of Sole From Vans Originals
Doug Palladini, 200 Pages
Ok, its unit of area is part of the things you need to understand in this book. One written/curated by Doug Palladini, a current Vans employee. Two, the book is not just about shoes. The shoe gets around August 15, 1945, from dedicated print space; the rest could be a variety of interviews and insights into the business of action sports.
‘Stories of Sole’ reminded me of the Adidas book ‘Making a Difference. While there is an authoritative PR tone to Associate in Nursing, each of the books contains details found nowhere else. For example, the literary critic Steve (the son of the founder of Vans) still works at the company, and thus the book begins along with the transient interview with him. That was followed by conversations with Tony Alva, Steve Caballero, and various action sports greats.
Different sections draw attention, such as the origins of the crooked Tour or the creation of ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High’ from Vans’ perspective.
And the dust cover is sheer awesomeness; a Vans rubber tag on the game board material channels the wear and tear of Van’s game board.
Out of Nowhere – the Inside Story of How Nike Marketed the Culture of Running
Geoff Hollister, 327 Pages
This is another Associate in Nursing book written by a former Nike worker, Geoff Hollister. Yes indeed; this is often a completely different book than the other 2 Nike books on the list. Aside from a chapter on America’s Cup and, thus, the subsequent creation of the Nike Aquasock, the book is complete about competitive racing and Nike’s role in it.
Out of Darkness is packed with incredible granular detail from running culture. Note that this is not exactly an easy read; Get this book on the condition that you are interested in the sports promotion side of running.
Otherwise, you’re good to go with either of Nike’s other two recommended books.
Streetwear
Steven Vogel, 350 Pages
This is not a book entirely about sneakers, but rather addresses the style subculture that is generally classified as streetwear. This book helps to understand streetwear and what drives several of its independent creators.
Since there is no single definition of what constitutes streetwear, it is insightful to look at how different artists and brands interpret it.
For most people, the visible manifestation of streetwear has been in the form of sneaker and fashion collaborations. Detected regarding Stussy x Porter, Supreme x Agonist, undefeated x Casio G-Shock, or Hiroshi Fujiwara as in Nike HTM?
If you like any of that, then this book may work for an engaging read.
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