My Adidas on the east coast, Converse to the west, Nike everywhere
June 22, 2020 10:51 AM   Subscribe

Partnerships, or collabs, between rappers and sneaker and athletic companies are now common (Sole Collector, top 10), but it all started in the mid 1980s. Run-D.M.C.'s 'My Adidas' and the Birth of Hip Hop Sneaker Culture (Business of Fashion), and Sneakers That Defined 1980s Hip Hop (Sneaker Freaker). Taking it further, Grailed has An Abridged History of Hip-Hop’s Relationship with Sneaker Culture.

Sneaker Freaker also identifies some songs that hype specific shoes, but fails to link to audio. With that, here's that accompanying soundtrack: Also the West Coast, Footwear News highlights the styles worn:
Other popular styles among the members were the Adidas Campus, Nike Air Flight 90, the Nike Air Force STS, and of course, Converse Chuck Taylor All Stars.

“Black Chuck Taylors worked with that raw, hard-core street feel that N.W.A. wanted, even if some people were more into Jordans,” Ice Cube had told “Spin” Magazine.
posted by filthy light thief (5 comments total) 8 users marked this as a favorite
 
My Adidas on the east coast, Converse to the west,

Here I am,
Stuck in the Middle with Shoe...
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:58 AM on June 22, 2020 [4 favorites]


One my favorite Japanese musicians, Takehara Pistol, has a song called "My Adidas", and I guess this is where he took the title from. It's interesting how both songs use "My Adidas" to illustrate the singers' rise to success from humble roots, but in different ways. For Run-DMC, it's about how they and their Adidas shoes, just like any other ordinary guy you'd see on the street wearing Adidas, are good enough to belong on the world stage. On the other hand, Takehara Pistol's song is about hard-fought and hard-won success after a long period of struggling, and the significance of "My Adidas" is that his shoes are the only earthly possessions he really needs to get by. So, whereas Run-DMC emphasizes the brand to convey the message of representation, it's basically irrelevant for Takehara Pistol (there's even a lyric that goes, roughly, "First-rate fakes, knock out the real deal!").
posted by J.K. Seazer at 3:10 PM on June 22, 2020 [1 favorite]


For all of 2018 I worked at N**e on a site that shared a codebase with our site that launched multiple new sneaker models a day. The launches were ridiculously well followed up to the moment of release when Sneakerheads would flood the site to try to "win" a new model of shoes.

There are two different types of launches, there's a "line" and there's a "draw." A line involved queuing up. You registered for the launch and the purchase was FIFO. Draws were registering for the launch and then waiting for your order to be picked from a bowl. I don't remember for sure, but I think at least one of these required you to submit payment before you even knew that you would get the shoes.

I was constantly amazed by the popularity of the new launches and how quickly they sold out. My cow-orkers and I once looked for AJs for auction and found a pair whose starting bid was $23K. A woman who worked in the "cafeteria" told me she has a pair of shoes in her safe deposit box.

Walk This Way was definitely more ground-breaking than I understood at the time. I'm realizing that the focus on the shoes is a measurable, identifiable status symbol that's way more affordable than a new Tesla.
posted by bendy at 1:45 AM on June 23, 2020 [1 favorite]


Missing from the songs mentioned is Schoolly D's Put Your Fila's On which back in the day made me actually buy Fila's. As far as I remember also about the last time I bought stuff because it was mentioned in a song. ;-)
posted by Kosmob0t at 2:50 PM on June 23, 2020 [1 favorite]


I'm realizing that the focus on the shoes is a measurable, identifiable status symbol that's way more affordable than a new Tesla.

For some it may be that, but Darryl McDaniels (DMC) talked to Mtv about what the song meant to him, Run and Jam Master Jay:
"It was a song that was about our sneakers, but it was bigger than just talking about how many pairs of sneakers we had," DMC told MTV News. "It came from the place of people would look at the b-boys, the b-girls and go, 'Oh, those are the people that cause all the problems in here.' And, 'Those young people are nothing but troublemakers and those young people don't know nothing.' So they was judging the book by its cover, without seeing what was inside of it."

DMC continued, "So me, Run and [Jam Master] Jay was like, 'Yeah, we going to make a record about our Adidas.' Yeah, we wear Adidas [with] no laces, we got gold chains, we got Cazals and all of that, but I go to St. John's University. These Adidas stepped onstage at Live Aid. People gave and the poor got paid. It was about taking the image of the b-boy and b-girl and letting the world know we're a people of vision, we're inspiration, motivation, we're educated too. So it's kind of a kick in the face to the people that was hating on hip-hop."
I started looking at sneakerhead culture in part to laugh at the Air Max 97 "Unboxed" colorway, which "pays homage to the time-honored tradition of waiting for your latest pair to arrive on your doorstep. Featuring an upper with hues inspired by a cardboard box and callouts to Swoosh shipping labels on the outsole, this sneaker truly takes packaging to the next level."

But reading about early sneaker culture, then DMC's context to "My Adidas," it was less superficial than the sneaker companies make it.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:26 PM on June 23, 2020


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