Sneakers from the USSR back

A few enthusiasts decided to resume production of sneakers popular in the USSR "Two goals".

The news sparked a flurry of discussion: how comfortable and practical shoes were Soviet, what are the advantages or disadvantages were before their Western competitors, and, finally, whether they are good from an aesthetic point of view or to blame nostalgia?

A bit of history

Sneakers abroad

One century ago, shoes were meant for athletes and were champions shoes. Their creators and could not imagine that such an invention would be an epoch-making phenomenon and the object of worship of many subcultures and ordinary people around the world.

The first ancestors of sneakers appeared already in the thirties of the XIX century: shoes designed for walking on the beach and was called sand shoes. The modern name appeared in 1916 due to the same brand Keds shoes.

The history of the brand has its roots in 1892, when nine small plants for the production of rubber products have united under the banner of U.S. Rubber Company. In an influential alliance including entered and the company Goodyear, which owned the patent for vulcanization and specialized in manufacturing with canvas uppers of rubber footwear.

Advertisement U.S. Rubber Company

Initially, their wares were called peds, according to one version, derived from the Latin "pes" - leg, on the other - from the fact that they were poor Americans, which in slang called pedy. The name had to be replaced, so similar already existed. Since the brand was working at a younger audience, the word "peds" crossed with the word "kid" - the teenager. And not without reason: otherwise we would all still went to pedah.

The boom began in 1917, when the American Marcus Converse released the first batch of sneakers designed for basketball professionals, - Converse All Star. Already in 1919 sneakers donned the legendary Chuck Taylor (the first athlete caught in the Basketball Hall of Fame), and became the face of the brand, which is then turned into Chuck Tayor All Star. Chuck himself stayed away - it will not only increase sales of sneakers, but also to improve them by adding the inside of the circular stripes to protect the ankle. Soon, the Converse All Star, even trained athletes. This led to the fact that in 1950 one third of professional NBA players to play a match in Converse. Today, these shoes are breaking all sales records in the segment - the history in Chaki was booted appearance about 800 million pairs of legs.

1. One of the first conversion. 2. Mr. Chuck Taylor, aka Mr. Basketball, he is chief evangelist ollstarov. 3. Converse with innovation (well, at the time) bone protection technology.

However, Converse and were difficult moments in history. When the US have connected their forces to the theater of military operations start of the 1940s, the entire textile industry of the country was thrown at ensuring the army, because of what kedov production stopped, returned to the onetime volume only in 1966. And then the brand has faced competition.

In 1951 in Japan - a country where tall people is rather an exception to the rule - there own basketball shoes. Kihachiro with Onitsuka Onitsuka Tiger (later Asics) released sneakers - OKBasketball. With typical Japanese thoroughness Kihachiro created a unique sole, whose design is borrowed principle of the octopus suckers, provides extra grip of sneakers with a platform. In the XXI century and the subsequent reprint this Onitsuka Tiger models became superuspeshnym commercial project.

Speaking of commercially successful projects, we should also mention the return of prominent in the 1950s in America, the brand sneakers PFFlyers: in 2001 the right to shoes, allow, the assurances of advertising, jump higher, I bought the company New Balance and now ucpeshno sells 20 million pairs retroked in the season.

In the 1980s, there is another shoe that is ideal for active pastime - slipony. Speaking of the Western tradition of using the term: there sliponami call almost any shoe without laces, whether foppish moccasins or stylish Loafer.

Slipony appeared in California through the efforts of Paul Van Doren, who founded the Vans brand and, according to rumors, not really Radel for its popularization. Everything changed in 1982 after the release of the movie "Easy times in the" Ridgemont High "," where Sean Penn in almost every scene appeared in Vans shoes. The film was popular among students, who in those years actively addicted to skateboarding. According to legend, the most popular model of the Vans - in black-and-white checkered - appeared with their own feed: Paul van Doren saw the boy's hand painted shoes in a pattern with a black marker, and go at them on occasion.

Sneakers USSR

In the 1950s, the popularity of sneakers perehlestnulas even after the Iron Curtain. In 1957, the Union held the Sixth World Festival of Youth and Students, which gathered juniors from all over the world ideologically free. While boys Illustrative families continued to wear patent leather shoes or sandals, and a newfangled Koedam addressed progressive and open-minded young people.

The product was sold in the USSR in the cyclopean scale. Standard on sneakers appeared soon after the festival: he was assigned number 9155-88 and stands for "Sport footwear Rubber and rubber."

GOST 9155-88

Additional batch of goods imported, but not from the liberal States. Soviet standards (perhaps from a political standpoint) perfectly match the Chinese and North Korean versions of sport shoes. Since 1968, it began importing shoes and Finns - shoes imported under the Nokia brand, known today in the mobile market. And the design of the logo from the 1960s has not undergone any changes.

The Soviets sneakers were not deficient. In 1960, they each wore a scholar. Buy a pair can always be in a nearby sporting goods store, so they do not hesitate to wear all day and night and summer and winter, especially since they turned out to be much more convenient cheshek outdated. Ten years after the Youth Festival shoes are already so entrenched in Soviet life that began its essential attribute, and each student in the physical education grew in line in them. In 1967, the country came to an American reporter Bill Eppridzh who shot here the famous reportage Soviet Youth, and showing that the majority of Soviet youth is already sneakers.

Photo Bill Eppridzha of reportage Soviet Youth, 1967

In 1979, the novel "It's me, Eddie," Eduard Limonov calls them in his own way "sneakers" and in this way gives them a place in Soviet literature. And Viktor Tsoi, also like sneakers, and will plant them in the musical culture of the country. Sneakers entered in the Soviet movies - boy android electronics, adventurers Petrov Vasechkin, Ball of "Buttermilk" and sprightly cartoon Wolf of "Just you wait!" - they are not portrayed kinoobraz glazed and ordinary guys in sneakers.

1. Syroezhkin sneakers. 2. The ball of "Buttermilk". Instead of useful things in the household bought sneakers and camera gun. 3. Wolf of "Just you wait!". 4. Viktor Tsoi in sneakers. 5. Students in fizre. 6. Classic Sports Soviet Onion. 7. Holders of "two goals" not part with them even on the beach. 8. The boys in the camp. 9. The Boy in Chinese sneakers "Two goals" flirts with a girl in a less prestigious Lithuanian sneakers Inkaras Kaunas. 10. Sneakers on outdoor grows. 11. Guys are playing streetball.

How did the Soviet sneakers

The Soviet shoes have a sole light or red shades with clearly defined seams, passes into the top of the textile is usually blue or black. Shoelaces were mostly white and have ferrules. Most Soviet models on the inner side in the ankle area could see the protective circular stripes, stylized ball.

have been the ultimate dream of Chinese-made shoes "Two goals", they were not in the Soviet example of quality, it was more difficult to get them, and coloring and design at the same time different from the common models, which made them the subject of a cult. Blue sneakers differed more solid sole green color and trim, toe and laces were white. On the inner side, in the bone area includes a round emblem with two balls - football and basketball. The most precious commodity was completely white sneakers "Two goals". They cost four rubles, and similar ones Warrior Chinese and Vietnamese Forward - three.