It can be noted that the growth of sneaker culture can be attributed to basketball and the emergence of globalisation and Michael Jordan. However, there has also been a large influence that rivals the likes of basketball when it comes to sneaker culture.
We take a look at the influence hip hop has had on sneaker culture and how it has contributed to the growth of sneaker culture itself.
In this issue of CrepTalk, we take a look at the influence hip hop has had on sneaker culture and how it has contributed to the growth of sneaker culture itself.
Though hip hop and sneakers have been paired together since hip hops inception. With hip hop, it was common to see the old school tracksuits and vintage jeans paired with athletic sneakers. This came to light with the global emergence of the legendary hip hop group Run DMC, and the likes of LL Cool J.
During the mid-1980’s the barriers between sneakers and hip hop was breaking down, as in LL Cool J’s debut album he was wearing the new Jordan 1 bred colourway, this was fitting, as it mirrored well with hip hops newest rapper in the game and the NBA’s newest rising star Michael Jordan, was coming up in the game of basketball.
In the mid-80s Run DMC was on top of the hip hop world and was one of the faces of hip hop. The group was unique in their style and clothes they wore. Run DMC was largely associated with their iconic Adidas original superstars and their three stripped adidas tracksuits. Their style garnered a large following as thousands of their fans were seen to wear the classical Adidas superstar shelltoes along with their three stripped tracksuits. This was because athletic wear was never really seen to be worn or promoted outside of athletics and sport. Soon enough, with the increasing popularity of Run DMC came with the attention of Adidas Executives themselves. As an Adidas Executive visited the group’s concert, there he saw the thousands of fans waving their adidas shoes and apparel, from there on he knew that Hip Hop had untapped potential in the sneaker game.
Following the concert, the executive offered Run DMC a $1 million endorsement deal ($2,583,159.85 today). This move was so powerful by Adidas that during the tight battle between Nike and Adidas, it was Run DMC’s contribution to that kept Adidas in the race at the time.
Adidas recognised that rappers influenced the youth and went all in on the potential rappers had within the sneakers industry. This partnership between sneakers and rappers broke the barriers between athletic wear and street wear as it encapsulated how people could now dress.
Controversy
During the 90s hip hop was met with controversy, as West, and East Cost hip hop artists such as NWA, Public enemy and Snopp Dogg had started to garner attention and controversy. Track titles such as ‘Cop Killer’ and ‘F##k tha Police’ garnered enough attention and controversy for companies and corporations to loosen the ties with hip hop as artist collaborations and endorsements became more of a rarity with sneaker companies becoming less associated to hip hop artists.
Fast forward to the early 2000’s, with Michael Jordan finally retiring, and hip still dominating, this left rappers some space for them to grab an extra plate at the sneaker cookout, as rappers such as Jay Z and P-Diddy started clothing lines. LL Cool J wore FUBU and mentioned GAP, which gave noticeable attention without any specific marketing.
To be very honest rappers and entertainers have always been the main guys to lead fashion, if you look at the mid 80’s rappers primarily lead the trends in clothing and style, even the way we speak.
It’s no secret that a rapper is more recognisable amongst younger generations than a politician. When it comes to fashion, whatever the rappers are wearing its most likely going to set a trend amongst younger people, we look at many examples, like right now you got guys wearing specific balaclava's because of Pooh Shiesty, or guys wearing True Religion because of Chief Keef, what an era.
Regardless, we fast forward to modern day sneaker culture, we can definitely see that Hip Hop and Rap has had a tremendous influence on sneaker culture, look at Dave’s track ‘Clash’ the very first lyrics are “Jordan 4s or Jordan 1s” just by that Jordan 4s and Jordan 1s demand tripled, similar to the effect of the Run DMC's, 'My Adidas' classical track.
Hip Hop has been an incremental figure in sneaker culture, oftentimes dictating what the next hottest creps to get. I cant lie the way its looking rappers might have a bigger influence in sneaker culture than athletes themselves, but that’s low-key another discussion in itself.
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