Sneakers The Complete Collectors’ Guide

• MADE ON: --/05
• CREATED BY: UNORTHODOX STYLES
• PUBLISHED BY: THAMES & HUDSON
• ISBN: 978-0-500-51215-9

Sneakers. What’s the big deal all about anyway? Why are teenagers as well as full-grown adults going nuts over sports shoes? When did this all begin, how long has this been going on for, and where in the world do these people keep all their pairs? Beyond that, is this so-called sneaker scene even penetrable to the average Joe who simply wants a fresh pair of runners or a functional basketball shoe?

Meet Unorthdox Styles (aka U-DOX, aka UDOX). In 2000 a crew of sneaker lovers passionate for the craft came together to form their own design agency and free themselves of boring web firm work. At this time, Chris Law (aka C-LAW or CLAW) was still part of the team and together with Chris Aylen, Jeff Metal, Ross Turner, and Steve Bryden they tackled this massive project of assembling what was to be the most complete collector’s guide out there.

There’s one catch though: this book ain’t just for the die-hard’s, the ultra serious, the ego-maniacs, and the sole-addicted. It’s for the regular consumers or lightweight trainer lovers too, the people who don’t have a room full of cardboard boxes and or change their shoes daily.

So, in an ambitious attempt to answer the above-posed questions, Unorthodox Styles put pen to paper and wrote up a storm of a book that makes the worldwide sneaker culture and history available to just about anyone. Including one hundred and eighty sneakers – complete with original release dates, info on remakes, and tips to understand the contextual importance of each pair – the book allows its readers to sample this wildly growing culture. They have, however, taken that extra effort required to pump in the technical details and historical facts that the serious lot of us really get off on.

Split up into brand-based sections that each detail their own long list of silhouettes, the information presented is massive altogether. Given in small doses though, it’s quite digestible and an infinite pleasure to read. Within twenty minutes of browsing I had already learned a handful of facts I never knew to be true about both PUMA and adidas.

Once you’ve made it through the brand sections, timeline, collector’s guide, resources and outlets, and finally the acknowledgements and index, you’ll discover a blurb across the back of the book’s hard cover, summarizing the trip you’ve just taken. I found it particularly funny how this text mentions “the humble sports shoe’s rise to global domination” because, in my opinion many vintage sports shoes weren’t actually always so humble, and thus, at least for me, this sentence plays towards the humble nature of the authors instead.

From our standpoint here at eatmoreshoes, Sneakers The Complete Collectors’ Guide is a perfect gift for any trainer head you might know, no matter how dedicated (or addicted) they currently are.

written by Dylan Cromwell

photography by errol