The Evolution of Gym Shoes

By Angel Granado & PJ Maloney

For our presentation, we have chosen to look at the evolution of gym shoes in American Culture. We chose the evolution of gym shoes because the shoe world is constantly growing, and constantly becoming more and more a part of our society. Everyone has a pair of gym shoes, and the cost of gym shoes is increasing every time a new shoe is released. Whether it is your Grandfather’s pair of New Balances, or the new pair of Jordans, people need shoes.

The shoe world, specifically the sneaker world, is huge. There are conventions, such as Sneaker Con, there are Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter handles for all major companies, and some shoes’ release dates are so anticipated that people lose sleep and skip work to make sure they have the newest, freshest pair of gym shoes.

This can also be added to our conversations in class. There are many arguments and stereotypes that can be made against shoe freaks; both positive and negative. You can argue that men who buy nothing but Jordans are dumb, and don’t need to purchase a $275 pair of shoes. You can also argue that having the newest Jordans gives the owner a sense of pride, or “clout” as the young folks say nowadays.

Also, we can talk about the age, race, and gender of the gym shoe owners. It is culturally unacceptable for a teenager to wear a pair of all white New Balance shoes. Otherwise referred to as “Grandpa shoes”. And it works vice versa as well. Older men aren’t supposed to wear Jordans. We can also get into what gym shoes men and women are culturally allowed to wear. When it comes to gym shoes, most shoes are the same for men and women. Sure the color scheme may be different on the shoes themselves, but the design and make of the shoe are the same. When it comes to Jordans, when the new models come out, the model is the same for men and women. So it is culturally acceptable to see the “cute couple” wearing matching shoes with their outfits. She’s not wearing men’s shoes and he’s not wearing women’s shoes: they are both wearing their respective gender’s shoes.

We can also add to our understanding of American Pop. Culture by understanding why we as Americans are buying such expensive shoes, and why certain age groups aren’t socially allowed to wear certain types of gym shoes. By doing this, we will have a better understanding of the consumer’s mindset, and their rational for choosing their respective shoes. We can begin to understand why consumers spend so much on their shoes by looking at supply and demand. Jordan, owned by Nike, understands that their shoe brand is very popular. By realizing that, they know that even if they price their shoes at, say, $250, people will still buy them because of the consumer’s demand for their oh so popular new shoe.

All in all, we chose this topic because it is one that can almost everyone can relate to, and because we see similarities between our topic and the topics we discuss in class. Gym shoes will always be a high demand in this modern society, so an analyzation into that world is necessary to further understand Pop. Culture. We also see the economic value that gym shoes have in this society, and their pull in the consumer industry. These reasons, among general knowledge in gym shoes and being very big fans of gym shoes, is the reason we chose gym shoes for our topic.