A Small Historic Review of Trainers
This article presents a time-line for the invention and background of training shoes.
The difference between what we see today, for example the Lacoste womens trainer and the shoes we saw in the past is huge. However it has take a lot of time to arrive at where we are today.
Trainers are a physical activities shoe which are these days also worn as a fashion item. The term used to describe them can vary from country to country, e.g.
- The UK - trainers
- Australia - joggers
- Canada - gutties
- USA - sneakers
- South Africa - torkies
- Wales - daps
- England - plimsoll
The birth-date of the trainer can be tracked to 1850s and the emergence of vulcunised rubber. This in turn created the raw material used in the soul of the shoe.
The milestones during the history of the training shoe are as follows:
Late 1890s - Reebok was born in Britain.
1907 - Sports shoes developed for basketball teams by the Spalding company.
1917 - The development of the Converse All Stars Basketball shoe. German Adi Dassler forms Adidas after World War One.
1920s and 1930s - Post World War One mass marketing of sports and sporting goods including trainers.
1930 - 1939 - Tennis shoes with ventilation holes were developed by Spring Court, from France.
Post World War Two - Puma is formed by Rudi Dassler, the brother of Adidas founder Adi, after a family feud.
1960 - 1969 - Japanese sports sneakers are imported into the US by the Nike company founders. In 1964 the first all-leather tennis shoe was sold by Adidas. 1968 saw the arrival of the Puma suede trainer.
1970s - Lifestyle influences sneaker development and market focused designs first appear. The interest in of jogging helps this.
1980 - 1989 - Trainers are everywhere. The era of the world wide brands such as Reebok and Nike is born. Unique markets expand, lacoste kids trainers,
