Kicks: The Great American Story of Sneakers Audiobook (Free)

A cultural background of sneakers, tracing the footprint of 1 of our most iconic fashions across sports, business, pop culture, and American identity

When the athletic shoe graduated in the beach locations and croquet courts of the wealthy elite to streetwear ubiquity, its journey through the heart of American life was simply getting started. In this rollicking narrative, Nicholas K. Smith carries us through the long twentieth century as tennis shoes became the totem of subcultures from California skateboarders to New York rappers, the cause of gang violence and riots, the center of a worldwide financial controversy, the lynchpin inside a quest to turn big sports activities into big business, and the muse of high fashion. Studded with larger-than-life mavericks and unforeseen visionaries-from genius plastic inventor, Charles Goodyear, to road-warrior huckster Chuck Taylor, towards the feuding brothers who founded Adidas and Puma, to the track coach who changed the activity by pouring rubber in his wife’s waffle iron-Kicks introduces us to the sneaker’s surprisingly important, enduring, and evolving legacy.