Kicks, Nicholas Smith
Kicks, Nicholas Smith
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Kicks
The Great American Story of Sneakers

Author: Nicholas Smith

Narrator: Christopher J. Grove

Unabridged: 8 hr 57 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/01/2018

Synopsis

A cultural history of sneakers, tracing the footprint of one of our most iconic fashions across sports, business, pop culture, and American identity

When the athletic shoe graduated from the beaches and croquet courts of the wealthy elite to streetwear ubiquity, its journey through the heart of American life was just getting started. In this rollicking narrative, Nicholas K. Smith carries us through the long twentieth century as sneakers became the totem of subcultures from California skateboarders to New York rappers, the cause of gang violence and riots, the heart of a global economic controversy, the lynchpin in a quest to turn big sports into big business, and the muse of high fashion. Studded with larger-than-life mavericks and unexpected visionaries—from genius rubber inventor, Charles Goodyear, to road-warrior huckster Chuck Taylor, to the feuding brothers who founded Adidas and Puma, to the track coach who changed the sport by pouring rubber in his wife's waffle iron—Kicks introduces us to the sneaker's surprisingly influential, enduring, and evolving legacy.

About Nicholas Smith

Nicholas K. Smith has worked as a reporter for the past ten years, covering a range of topics including stolen WWII art, melting glaciers, Austrian indie gamers, and the New York City mayoral election. He is a 2014 graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism, where he was awarded the Lynton Fellowship in Book Writing. A native of Arizona, Nick now lives in Vienna, Austria with his wife and two children.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Kathleen on April 10, 2018

This was an interesting cultural history of sneakers. I'm not a sneaker connoisseur, the Adidas Superstar has been my favorite sneaker as long as I can remember (gotta have the shell toe!) I expect that the book might be slightly redundant for someone who is super into sneakers and can list brands a......more

Goodreads review by Joyce on October 22, 2018

What's not to like in this delightful, fact-filled micro-history covering the sneaker, from Goodyear's creation of vulcanized rubber which revolutionized the industry to today's trendiest shoes. Lots of history and facts here--the German sneaker manufacturers, the Dassler brothers, argued so much ab......more

Goodreads review by Trevor on April 20, 2022

I honestly never thought a book about the history of the sneaker could be so interesting and engaging, but boy howdy was this a good book. "Kicks: The Great American Story of Sneakers," by Nicholas Smith, is a very engaging, fascinating, and well-written look at the history of that most basic of Ame......more

Goodreads review by Ezio on May 21, 2020

As sneakerhead myself, I knew already some of the stories in the book but also I discovered new ones, I found it entertaining and I guess it should be also for a non sneakerhead that ventures in a reading of this topic. Along the contents, I enjoyed the writing style, a light tone full of curiositie......more

Goodreads review by Nada on June 23, 2018

Who would have thought that someone would write a book about sneakers? Who would have thought I would choose to read it? Who would have thought that I would really like it? Kicks: The Great American Story of Sneakers by Nicholas Smith is a fascinating look at how a pair of shoes turns into a stateme......more

Quotes

“A lively, engaging cultural history . . . Smith’s tale teems with freebooting DIY tinkerers [and] traverses the sociocultural trend lines of our time. . . . Fascinating.”—The Oregonian
 
“Readers of sports history, popular culture, and business will be fascinated by Smith’s exciting, informative, and multifaceted narrative of the major roles the sneaker has played in U.S. branding, perceptions, and culture.”—Booklist
 
“A history that goes way beyond sports and into the streets of the youth culture . . . a cornucopia of factoids and fun asides bursting with a wealth of in-depth information on every aspect of sneakers, from their birth to their current and continuing explosive popularity.”—Kirkus Reviews

“An offbeat history of the athletic shoe world with cameo biographies of those who built it, Kicks is a sneakerhead's dream . . . Fascinating.”—Shelf Awareness

“A fast, smooth run through the social, financial, and athletic history of the shoes that goosed the sports boom. New slogan: It’s gotta be the book!”—Robert Lipsyte, author of Sportsworld: An American Dreamland
 
“Kicks is a history of great, forgotten stories. I highly recommend that anyone who’s into sneakers and its culture read it and add it to their library.”—Dee Wells, Obsessive Sneaker Disorder
 
“A refreshing full-court run through two centuries via the sneakers we were inventing or wearing all along. From Daniel Webster to ‘Damn, Daniel,’ an entertaining account with something to say about culture, politics, and ankle support. An always fascinating book and easier to keep clean than Air Force 1s.”—Mark Chiusano, author of Marine Park

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