Just for kicks

Think $23,000 is small change for a pair of pumps? Congratulations, you're among the world's sneaker obsessives..

July 14, 1916: The US Rubber Company introduce Keds, the world's first mass-produced trainers. Plain white, rubber-soled canvas shoes that inspired the now ubiquitous term 'sneakers' (so named because of how little noise they make when you walk or run), they're aimed at and largely bought by athletes and sports people.

February 22, 2005: Nike introduces the Pigeon Dunk, a New York-themed shoe created by design icon Jeff Staple. It's limited to just 150 pairs and a handful of trendy Manhattan boutiques; hip young things have been waiting in line, sleeping in tents, for up to four days beforehand.

Every pair sells out within 20 minutes - even those from the shops charging more than five times Nike's recommended retail price (anyone who misses out can pick up a pair on eBay that evening, but they won't see much change from $2,000) - and it's bedlam.

Each lucky buyer needs a police escort to get past the baseball bat and machete-wielding gangs waiting on every corner ready to relieve them of their purchase. The chaos makes the front page of the New Yorker the next day, and the world has had its first sneaker riot.

These days, trainers are a very big deal. Around $26 billion, in fact: that mind-boggling figure is what the global trainer market is estimated to be worth. Of that, only 20 per cent is accounted for by people buying them for sport. Everyone owns a pair - even those people whose idea of exercise doesn't go much further than brushing their teeth - and for some it's a way of life.

From Tokyo to Mexico City, ‘sneakerheads' will forego paying the rent or eating to own three identical pairs of the right colourway or rare-as-hen's-teeth style, bought from a cooler-than-cool shop where shoes are kept locked away in glass cases like jewellery.

They live on eBay, Hypebeast.com, Niketalk.com and (move over, MySpace) Sneakerplay.com, the social networking site created especially for trainer addicts. They talk sagely about 'tongue detail', 'high tops' and 'shell toes'. They own more pairs of trainers than there are days in the year.

But how exactly did the humble athletic show become possibly the cultural icon of the last 30 years? Neither its manufacturers nor its acolytes are entirely sure, although both would agree that one thing in particular has played a huge part: celebrity endorsement.

In 1973 New York Nicks star Walt 'Clyde' Frazier, known as much for his off-court mink coats and fedoras as his title-winning skills, approached Puma asking for a wider version of their basketball shoe. The eventual result was the Puma Clyde, a shoe that has become an all-time classic and is still a best-seller more than 30 years on.

The kids on New York's nascent hip-hop scene were among the first to pick up on the Clyde - no self-respecting breakdancer would be seen in anything else.

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