Sports shoes are now a part of mainstream fashion and have been widely adopted as streetwear. The Converse All Star, Adidas Stan Smith, Reebok Classic or Nike Air Jordan are nowadays considered everyday footwear and have lost much of their sporting connection. Lost in the transition from sports shoe to fashion are the fascinating histories and sporting origins of our shoes and the way they played a significant role in some of the most important events in the development of sport. Golden Kicks will reveal these extraordinary stories, many of which have never been told before.
Join us on a global journey that begins in the early 1900s and ends in the present day, charting the development of sports shoes and sport itself through the ages. Through lavish photography and archive images we travel from the spikes made by Adidas founder Adi Dassler in which Jessie Owens destroyed Hitler's vision of Aryan supremacy, to the gold Puma Complete Theseus shoes in which Usain Bolt destroyed world records. Both sports fans and sneakerheads will discover the amazing stories behind the shoes, the people who made them and the athletes who wore them.
