Out of the Box: The Rise of Sneaker Culture - Hardcover

"A web of historical and cultural connections, Out of the Box draws people from all corners of the creative industry . . . [It] is a complex, incisive account of the sneaker's reinvention over two centuries of technology, marketing, fashion and social trends." -ISSUE MAGAZINE "For those devotees . . . 'Out of the Box: The Rise of Sneaker Culture' will be something akin to a holy text. The book tracks the rise of sneakers from athletic necessity to icon of American casual wear, and features interviews with designers, curators, and collectors, plus hundreds of photos of the most grail-status kicks of all time." -REFINERY29.COM "[Out of the Box] is thoughtful, highly educational, and covers many bases from interviews with prominent design innnovators to the marketing campaigns that came to define modern day sneaker culture." -HYPEBEAST.COM

Out of the Box: The Rise of Sneaker Culture showcases breakthrough sneaker's from the mid-nineteenth century for sports performance to present day cultural icon. Drawn from collections including Adidas, Nike, Reebok, PUMA, and Converse archives, as well as private collectors such as those of hip-hop legend Run DMC, sneaker guru Bobbito Garcia, and Dee Wells of Obsessive Sneaker Disorder. This selection is richly contextualized with interviews and essays by design innovators, sneaker collectors, and cultural historians, creating a backdrop of the technical innovation, fashion trends, social history, and marketing campaigns that shaped the form over the past two centuries. Out of the Box includes iconic sneakers ranging from an 1860 spiked running shoe, the replica track shoes worn by Olympian Jesse Owens in Converse in 1936, the Air Jordan series, and the original Air Force 1 and early Adidas Superstars to contemporary examples designed by such prominent figures as Damien Hirst, Christian Louboutin, and Kanye West, making this the definitive illustrated history of sneaker culture