Essay

question: What are the effects of shoe culture on society?

summary of topic: Chuck Taylor was the first basketball player to have a shoe named after him (in 1921). But he certainly would not be the last. During the 1980s and 1990s, basketball sneakers morphed from functional athletic gear to stylized fashion commodities. This, in large part, was due to endorsements from international sports superstars like Michael Jordan. Aside from the superstar name endorsements, advertising agencies capitalized on the rise of hip-hop culture, often featuring rappers and athletes side-by-side on TV ads. For many, these advertising campaigns marked the first acceptance of black cultural icons by mainstream media.

Over the years, the commodification of sneakers, basketball shoes in particular, has drawn the attention of economists across the world. These economists have labeled the sneaker’s rise in fashion trends as the rise of “Shoe Culture”—a culture in which a once functional athletic shoe has become an artifact of style and status. Simultaneously, “Shoe Culture” has caused no small amount of controversy. Many criticize the questionable ethics around the foreign labor that goes into producing these shoes. Other question shoe companies’ exploitation of the very consumers who buy into Shoe Culture.

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