How trainers took over the world: from niche footwear to £81 billion business

How the humble athletic shoe conquered the world

The global trainers market has seen explosive growth over the years, with data from consulting firm Grand View Research estimating its current value at a jaw-dropping $110 billion (£81.1bn).

No longer just for sport, kicks are pop culture icons that can be found everywhere from basketball courts to catwalks. But how did a style of shoe once known as "felonies" conquer the world?

Click or scroll on to discover the fascinating history of the trainer industry, including its major breakthrough moments, mind-blowing numbers, and the most expensive pairs of all time. 

All dollar amounts in US dollars

1865: the first trainers make their debut

The oldest running shoes in existence, these bespoke beauties by Dutton & Thorowgood of Brighton in the UK date back to around 1865.

They were found in a museum in Northampton and are thought to have belonged to Princess Diana's ancestor, the 5th Earl Spencer.

The trailblazing kicks feature supportive straps and studs for extra traction, but beyond that, they aren't too different from the classic dress shoes of the era. And given that their soles were made from rigid leather, running in these prototype trainers would probably have been pretty uncomfortable.

1868: the first rubber-soled trainers debut

Vulcanised rubber was invented in 1839 by Charles Goodyear and the first soft rubber-soled shoes were made by Connecticut's L. Candee Shoe Factory in the 1840s. However, rubber-soled sports footwear didn't debut until 1868.

Marketed at wealthy croquet players, they were dubbed "felonies" because they were silent to walk in compared to other shoes, presumably helping the wearer to get away with all sorts of nefarious deeds, should they need to.

This new style of athletic shoe retailed at $6 a pair – around $141 (£105) in today's money – which made them far too expensive for the typical 19th-century American.

1870s: the term "plimsolls" coined

Though still very niche, rubber-soled athletic shoes started to gain popularity during the 1870s. The Industrial Revolution had freed up leisure time, modern sports were being codified, and organisations like the UK's Rational Dress Society were advocating for more practical clothing and footwear.

In the UK, the new rubber-soled "sand shoes" with canvas uppers were nicknamed "plimsolls" because the coloured band that joined the sole to the upper resembled the Plimsoll Line on a ship's hull. This nautical detail, in turn, was named in honour of its inventor, the politician Samuel Plimsoll.

The term "trainers" reportedly wasn't coined until 1968 by the sports brand Gola.

1880s: the term "sneakers" coined

Across the pond, athletic shoes were apparently being called "sneakers" by 1887, when the Boston Journal of Education referenced the term as "the name boys give to tennis shoes".

Much like the "felonies" nickname, the moniker referenced the fact that the shoes made minimal sound, meaning the wearer could "sneak" about in them.

1892: the first commercialised basketball shoes launch

Basketball was invented by James Naismith in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1891. Naismith turned to Connecticut's Colchester Rubber Co. (a precursor of the Keds brand) to design a shoe specifically for the sport, and the firm launched the first high-top basketball trainers in 1892.

A pair of the original shoes was discovered in 2004 at an estate sale in California, and the style has since been revived by the US Rubber Co.

1895: the first commercialised running shoes launch

In the late 1890s, teen cobbler Joseph William Foster from Bolton, England created the world's first commercialised running shoes. Like the bespoke Earl Spencer pair years before, Foster's design featured studs for extra traction.

The precursor to the globally renowned Reebok, his eponymous company J. W. Foster & Sons became the go-to for elite athletes of the early 20th century. Customers included the 1924 Paris Olympic champions Harold Abrahams (pictured) and Eric Liddell, who inspired the 1981 hit film Chariots of Fire.

1919: the precursor to Adidas and Puma is established

In 1919, brothers Adolf and Rudolf Dassler founded Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik (or "Geda" for short) out of their mother's laundry room in Herzogenaurach, Germany. The company was the precursor to two major brands: Adidas and Puma.

The firm moved into its first factory in 1924 and swiftly began to dominate the domestic market, so much so that the majority of German athletes chose Geda footwear for the 1928 Summer Olympic Games in Amsterdam.

1922: Converse introduces the first celebrity-endorsed trainers

Massachusetts-based firm Converse was established in 1908 and started producing basketball shoes, nicknamed "Non-Skids", in 1917. Five years later, it launched the Chuck Taylor All-Stars, the world's first celebrity-endorsed trainers.

Former basketball player Chuck Taylor had joined Converse as a salesman and worked closely with the brand to improve the design of the Non-Skids. He toured America promoting the trainers, which featured his signature as a design detail from 1932 onwards.

The style is perennially popular and has remained largely unchanged since its launch more than a century ago.

1936: the precursor to Adidas and Puma goes global

Back in Germany, meanwhile, the Dassler brothers enjoyed remarkable success throughout the 1930s. In 1936, Geda scored a major coup when American athlete Jesse Owens won four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics while wearing the company's spiked trainers.

Owens' stunning performance in the Games garnered Geda international recognition. With demand for its wares skyrocketing, the company shifted 200,000 units annually in the years leading up to World War II.

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1948: Geda splits into Adidas and Ruda (later Puma)

However, the Dassler brothers' relationship turned sour during World War II, and by the end of the conflict the pair were engaged in a feud of their own.

With no hope of a reconciliation between the siblings, Geda officially split in 1948.

Adolf named his business Adidas, a portmanteau formed from his nickname, Adi, and the first three letters of his surname. Rudolf did something similar, calling his company Ruda, but later changed the name to Puma after the big cat.

1952: Adidas buys its three stripes logo with two bottles of whisky

In 1952, Adolf Dassler persuaded Finnish sportswear company Karhu Sports to sell him its three-stripes logo. The Adidas boss clearly drove a hard bargain since the logo is said to have cost him the modern-day equivalent of just $1,700 (£1.25k), with two bottles of whisky thrown in for good measure.

Adidas sales boomed during the 1950s. In 1954, the West German football team won the FIFA World Cup wearing Adidas boots with screw-in studs. In the same year, the firm sold 450,000 pairs of trainers.

1963: Adidas launches the Stan Smith

In 1963, Adidas debuted what would later become known as the Stan Smith tennis trainer. In 1965, it was christened the Robert Haillet after the French tennis player, before rebranding to the Adidas Stan Smith in 1978.

The minimal low-top classic went on to become Adidas's best-selling design, passing 50 million pairs sold in 2015.

1964: the precursor to Nike debuts

Many now-iconic American trainer brands started out in the 1960s, including Vans, K-Swiss, and Nike.

Nike launched in 1964 under the name Blue Ribbon Sports. The company was founded by varsity track athlete Phil Knight and his coach Bill Bowerman, who established the brand in Eugene, Oregon with the original purpose of distributing Japanese Onitsuka Tiger running shoes. (Incidentally, Onitsuka Tiger would later go on to become Asics).

Nike initially operated out of the boot of Bowerman's car. The firm made $8,000 in its first year, around $86,000 (£63k) in today's money, and more than doubled its revenues in 1965.

1966: Adidas football boots are worn by 75% of FIFA World Cup players

By 1966, Adidas had cornered the football boots market. The company's studded footwear was worn by 75% of the players participating in that year's FIFA World Cup, including Geoff Hurst and Bobby Charlton of England, who went on to win the tournament.

That said, the tournament's top striker, Portuguese player Eusébio, sported Puma Wembley trainers. That same year, Adidas launched the Gazelle, its first suede trainer style.

1972: Nike debuts the Cortez, the first street-style trainer

In 1971, Blue Ribbon Sports changed its name to Nike, inspired by the Greek goddess of victory. It also adopted its famous "swoosh" logo, which was designed by Portland State University student Carolyn Davidson.

Davidson was originally paid $35, the equivalent of around $288 (£212) today, though she confirmed in 2016 that she was later given a diamond ring "in the shape of a swoosh" and some shares in the company.

The following year, Nike launched the Cortez running shoe, its first to feature the swoosh. The design's popularity among US athletes at the 1972 Olympics in Munich soon translated to bumper sales. Unlike earlier trainer designs, the Cortez was embraced as a street-style staple in Los Angeles and beyond, marking a shift from trainers being worn purely for sport.

That year, Nike pulled in revenues of just under $2 million, less than $16 million (£11.8m) in today's money. By 1981, its annual sales had hit $458 million, or $1.68 billion (£1.24bn) today.

1977: the first high-end designer trainers launch

As trainers became ever more ubiquitous, high-end fashion houses wanted in on the action. Gucci put its best foot forward in 1977 with the launch of its first tennis shoe, which was revived in 2020.

Chanel was next, debuting a two-tone trainer in 1984. According to AnOther Magazine, the statement shoe was inspired by the footwear worn by racing drivers and a 1966 design by Coco Chanel herself.

1980s: trainers go fully mainstream

Trainers went mainstream during the 1980s. They were in favour with everyone from breakdancers and rappers to office workers, who started to sport the comfy shoes on their commutes and for "casual Fridays".

Adding to the boom, fitness culture really took off in the 1980s. Gym-going became more popular, and exercise videos such as Jane Fonda's Workout and Jazzercise sparked a craze for home aerobics. Needless to say, trainers were flying (or should that be running?) off the shelves...

1985: the Nike Air Jordan I launches and sparks the sneakerhead phenomenon

Up-and-coming NBA star Michael Jordan signed an unprecedented multimillion-dollar endorsement deal with Nike in 1984.

The following year, the company dropped the Air Jordan 1 high-top trainer. Resplendent in red, black, and white, the shoe caused quite a stir because it broke the NBA rule that stated that footwear should be predominantly white. Naturally, this standout trainer became a sales sensation.

As noted by CNN Style and National Geographic, the Air Jordan 1 is widely regarded as the catalyst for the 'sneakerhead' phenomenon, which sees avid enthusiasts collect and trade limited edition, rare, and discontinued athletic shoes.

While clearly American, the term 'sneakerhead' has since been widely adopted in the UK.

1986: the first collaboration between a trainer brand and musical act debuts

In 1986, hip-hop pioneers Run-DMC released My Adidas, an ode to their favourite footwear brand.

Identifying the potential profitability of a tie-in with the rap group, Adidas wasted no time in inking a plum endorsement deal with the hip-hop group, centred around the shell toe Superstar trainer. This audacious move went down a storm and paved the way for future collaborations between trainer brands and music artists.

Mid-1980s: Reebok becomes the world's leading trainer brand

As we've mentioned, Reebok emerged from the UK's J. W. Foster & Son. Named after the South African rhebok antelope, the brand was founded by Foster's grandsons Jeff and Joe Foster in 1958 as a companion company, although it quickly eclipsed the original brand.

A 1979 licensing deal led to huge success in the USA, and Reebok's Freestyle trainer became an icon of the 1980s. By the middle of the decade, Reebok was under US ownership and had overtaken Nike as the number one athletics brand.

Annual sales reached $1.82 billion (£1.34bn) in 1989 against Nike's $1.71 billion (£1.26bn), although Reebok's time at the top was fleeting. A number of strategic mistakes saw Nike reclaim the top spot in the 1990s as Reebok floundered, and the brand was acquired by Adidas in 2006.

1996: Prada introduces the first "fashion" high-end trainer

In 1996, Prada dropped the PS0906 America's Cup trainer.

Ostensibly a yachting shoe for the Luna Rossa team, it's now regarded as the first high-end "fashion" trainer that, according to CNN Style, "openly prioritized aesthetics over athletics".

This was in contrast to the earlier luxury label offerings, which were intended to be worn for sports-related activities rather than just for the sake of being fashionable.

1998: the first high-end trainer collaboration, Puma x Jil Sander, debuts

Marking the very first collaboration between a trainer brand and a high-end fashion label, Puma teamed up with Jil Sander in 1998 to launch a collection co-designed with the minimalist German fashion brand.

At the time, many in the fashion industry saw it as a risky move, with insiders expressing concerns that the luxury brand could be cheapened.

Nevertheless, the collaboration was a resounding success and was swiftly followed by the first Nike/Comme des Garçons collaboration in 1999. Several years later, Adidas launched collections designed by Yohji Yamamoto and Jeremy Scott.

2007: the world's most expensive customised trainers drop

Unauthorised custom trainers took off in the noughties, thanks to the growth of e-commerce sites such as Etsy and the trend for indie designers to add their unique stamp to mass-produced styles.

In 2007, fashion label Ju$t Another Rich Kid scored a Guinness World Record for the most expensive trainers when it created a pair of high-top Nike Dunks dipped in 18-carat gold for a New York Fashion Week show. Only five pairs were made, with each costing $4,053 (£3,167).

More recently, rapper Lil Nas X drew the ire of Nike with his controversial unofficial custom $1,018 (£751) Nike Air Satan shoes, which were created in collaboration with Big Apple art collective MSCHF. Precisely 666 pairs of the shoes were made, with each grotesquely containing one drop of human blood.

2012: the world's largest trainer collection is recognised

In 2012, Guinness World Records recognised the world's largest personal collection of trainers, comprising an impressive 2,388 pairs.

The collection, which is stored in a Las Vegas warehouse dubbed the "ShoeZeum" and worth more than $1 million (£738m), is owned by sneakerhead extraordinaire Jordy Geller (pictured).

2015: Kanye West's Yeezy Adidas collaboration launches

Kanye West and Adidas launched the ultimate celebrity trainer collaboration in 2015 with the birth of Yeezy. 

By 2019, the wildly successful collaboration had generated $1.3 billion (£959m) in annual sales and was lauded by Forbes in 2020 as "one of the great retail stories of the century".

In 2022, however, it all came crashing down after the hip-hop artist made a series of antisemitic comments. Adidas pulled the line and was left with an enormous amount of unsold stock, although it recently announced plans to sell off the remaining Yeezy shoes for "at least the price it cost to make them", according to BBC News.

2016: trainers overtake heels in the UK

The popularity of the trainer continued to grow spectacularly during the 2010s, buoyed by the athleisure trend and millennials' preference for relaxed dressing.

In 2016, research from Mintel found that trainers were outselling heels in the UK for the first time, with almost half of women aged 35 to 44 purchasing trainers that year, compared to 30% who had bought heels.

2019: the world's most expensive unworn trainers sell at auction

As confirmed by Guinness World Records, the most expensive unworn pair of trainers went under the hammer at Sotheby's New York in 2019.

Put up for auction by the world's premier sneakerhead, the aforementioned Jordy Geller, the unworn pair of ultra-rare 1972 Nike Waffle Racing Flat "Moon Shoe" trainers fetched $437,500 (£323k).

2020: trainers outsell "fashion" footwear in the US

According to research company NPD, "sport leisure" trainers became the largest footwear category in the US for the first time in 2020, officially eclipsing "fashion" footwear, which covers dress shoes, boots, sandals, and slippers.

While formal footwear has been enjoying a post-pandemic resurgence, trainers still lead the way and continue to generate the biggest sales.

2020: the most expensive retail Nike shoe ever produced debuts

Nike launched the last word in high-end trainer collaborations in 2020 with the release of its Dior x Air Jordan 1, co-designed by the French fashion house's menswear creative director Kim Jones.

Officially Nike's most expensive retail shoe, the Dior x Air Jordan 1 high-top was limited to 8,500 pairs, priced at $2,000 (£1,470) each.

If you hope to get your hands on a pair one day, avoid buying them in Oslo, Norway. According to Guinness World Records, it's the priciest city in the world to buy big-brand trainers.

2020: trainer sustainability concerns come to the fore

Concerns over the environmental impact of the world's obsession with trainers have been raised in recent years.

In 2020, The Guardian drew attention to the so-called "trainer mountain", highlighting that the vast majority of unwanted kicks end up in landfill and can take centuries to biodegrade.

2021: global trainer sales almost double within a decade

Those concerns appear to have fallen on deaf ears, and the demand for trainers shows no signs of abating.

In 2021, around 1.2 billion pairs of trainers were sold globally, almost double the amount sold in 2012. While this was great news for manufacturers, it doesn't bode well for the planet.

2021: the world's most expensive secondary market trainer private sale takes place

In 2021, a pair of Nike Air Yeezy sample trainers worn by Kanye West at the 2008 Grammy Awards were acquired via auction for $1.8 million (£1.3m), earning a spot in Guinness World Records.

The US size 12 prototypes, initially valued at a million dollars, were snagged by trainer investing platform RARES.

2023: the world's most expensive used trainers sell at auction

Obliterating the record for the most expensive trainers sold at auction, a prized pair of Nike Air Jordan XIIIs sported by Michael Jordan during Game 2 of the 1998 NBA Finals went under the hammer at Sotheby's New York in 2023 for an astronomical $2.2 million (£1.6m).

In 2024, Sotheby's auctioned off a set of six trainers worn by the basketball legend, known as the Dynasty Collection, raking in $8 million (£6.3m).

2024: Donald Trump launches $399 MAGA trainers

Donald Trump unveiled his Never Surrender High-Tops at SneakerCon Philadelphia in 2024. "Bold, gold and tough" and wrapped with an American flag, the kicks are "for true patriots", according to the official website.

Priced at $399 (£294) a pop, the line was limited to 1,000 pairs and quickly sold out.

2026: the global trainer market goes from strength to strength

The global trainer market is now worth a staggering $110 billion (£1.1bn), according to Grand View Research, and is forecast to reach $137 billion (£101.1bn) by 2033.

Nike and Adidas currently reign supreme as the global market leaders, dominating around 30% and 20% of the pie, respectively. 

The volume of the segment is predicted to reach a staggering 1.38 billion pairs by 2028 – quite the legacy for a sector that originally served well-heeled croquet players...

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