The running shoes that run the world.

This weekend, a rare (and beautiful) Mandarin duck – dubbed by the internet as “Hot Duck” – was spotted in Central Park. One fashion commentator was quick to tweet: “who will design a sneaker that looks like the Hot Duck?” Everything seems to be about sneakers in 2018.

Ms Vanessa Friedman of The New York Times called sneakers the Dutch Tulips of today, and there is nary a fashion designer alive who hasn’t turned their hand to sporty, rubber-soled footwear in the past few years. But how did we get here? How did their popularity accelerate into the mainstream so suddenly?

To find out, we’ve delved into The Ultimate Sneaker Book!, an anvil of a tome charting 100 years of sneaker history. It is a painstakingly detailed document of landmark collaborations, ad campaigns and brand wars, dealing with what it calls the “otaku-level minutiae” of sneaker culture. As you may expect, there’s a lot to work through, but we’ve picked out the most important moments in sneaker culture in the past 10 years…

Let’s start with Mr Kanye West. Say what you will about the meltdown-prone rap star, but arguably nobody has done more to bring sneaker culture into the mainstream than Mr West. Before Mr West’s first collaboration with Nike back in 2009, no hip-hop artist (bar perhaps Run-DMC and their 1986 single “My Adidas”) had ever associated themselves so heavily with a sneaker. The Nike Air Yeezy – featuring a Jordan III sole and hefty Velcro strap – quickly garnered a fair share of hype, and changed the game when it came to celebrities designing sneakers. It also helped shape Mr West’s current fashion career.

Some sneaker stories sound more the thing of myth than real life, and the Nike Mag is one of them. The futuristic sneaker was the shoe worn by Mr Michael J Fox in Back to the Future Part II, and in 2011 the brand announced it was releasing it to the public. Featuring electric, self-closing straps and light-up soles, the futuristic boot caused a firestorm among both the sneaker community and fans of the movie, meshing the worlds of film buffs and sneakerheads together. You can still buy the boot today, if you have a spare $26,000.

In the days before hype travelled like wildfire across the internet and brands ran the risk of peaking too soon due to overexposure, certain designers thrived on the measured exclusivity they were able to create. Nigo, the Japanese streetwear maverick who founded A Bathing Ape (BAPE) in 1993, managed to cast an aura of cultish elitism around his brand, imbuing it with the hum of Harajuku cool that was pullulating at the time. BAPE’s Bapesta sneakers were at the heart of this, and produced collaborations with Mr Kanye West, KAWS, and Daft Punk, which only bolstered BAPE’s clout. Until it didn’t any more, and the fruit-coloured bling-heavy look popularised by rappers such as Mr Pharrell Williams became the victim of overhype. The variegated super-kawaii aesthetic might have burned out quickly, but it did so brightly at the time.

It seems almost unbelievable today, but there was once a time when the worlds of high fashion and sneakers didn’t mix. There are a few players to blame for that – we’re looking at your Stan Smiths, Ms Phoebe Philo – but the heart of the connection lies with Mr Yohji Yamamoto. Y-3, the Japanese designer’s collaboration brand with adidas (Y for Yohji, 3 for the stripes), released an influential line of sneakers in 2013 called the Qasa. Mr Yamamoto’s innovative and original collection mixed black neoprene scuba-style uppers with contrasting white rubber soles, and their unusual appearance charmed everyone from early-day influencers to health goths. Referred to in The Ultimate Sneaker Book as “essentially a ninja sock on ’roids”, the Qasa sealed the bond between sneakerhead obsessives and fashion editors, and cemented Mr Yamamoto’s reputation as a polymathic genius.

The dad shoe: where sneakers, fashion and irony collide. A sneaker characterised by its dorky, ungainly appearance, the dad shoe, also known as the ugly sneaker, is something that Mr Larry David might wear, appropriated for the fashion set. Examples include Mr Raf Simons’ Ozweegos and New Balance’s 990s, but the most recognisable (and mainstream) iteration is perhaps down to Balenciaga. When the fashion house’s Triple S sneaker clomped its way down Mr Demna Gvasalia’s runway in Paris, everybody lost their minds. With its souped-up super soles and Frankenstein mix of colourful mesh mixed with dirty suede and leather, the Triple S was audacious – even arrogant – in its ugliness, and quickly became one of the most coveted and divisive sneakers ever made. Whether it horrifies or enamours is irrelevant at this point, because the dad shoe kicked sneakers into 2018. The only question now is, where do we go from here?

Sneaker Freaker: The Ultimate Sneaker Book (Taschen) by Mr Simon Wood is out now

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