DUSSELDORF — If there’s one thing you can rely on, it’s that German people are uncomfortable with the inner workings of capitalism. When the “Sneakers” exhibition opened at the NRW-Forum in Dusseldorf, Germany (running until 26 May), there was a certain degree of scepticism among the invited journalists.
Do sneakers really belong in a museum? And wouldn’t this exhibition just feed the consumerism of young people? Curator Alina Fuchs dismissed that concern with a smile, saying that if the sneaker market were to get a boost from her exhibition, that would be quite the achievement.
Every year, 20 billion shoes are produced worldwide, of which 5 billion are sneakers or sports shoes. Even a wildly successful exhibition would struggle to make an impact on those figures. Sneakers are a worldwide phenomenon: they can be worn anywhere, are a big earner for the fashion and luxury industries and come in endless variations, as the exhibition in Dusseldorf demonstrates.
It features the iconic Nike Mags from the 1989 film Back to the Future 2 (as well as the 2015 limited edition release), sneaker parodies by the New York collective MSCHF, ingenious collaborations (such as Adidas’s Lego sneakers and Nike’s limited edition sneakers with Tiffany), as well as a 3D-printed shoe by New York designer Colm Dillane, whose brand Kidsuper has been making waves for some years now.
And yet the basic idea and shape of a pair of sneakers is simple, comparable to a T-shirt or a pair of jeans. And they are a typically American fashion item.
Collectors’ items
That was not lost on Donald Trump, who recently released his own brand of sneakers. At the announcement, he said that he’d had the idea 12 or 13 years ago, as he held up a gold high-top for the cameras. The sole is red, like his cap, there is a T stamped onto the sides and a stylized American flag wrapped around the ankle, although with only five white stars on a blue background.
The shoe is called “Never surrender,” which is a somewhat confusing message; it’s surprisingly defensive, when you consider the Republican candidate’s poll numbers in the race for the White House.
Then there is the fact that only 1,000 pairs were produced. That’s not even enough for the family members he plans to give jobs to, and the truck drivers who are now planning to boycott New York because a court there has fined the former U.S. president 0 million for financial fraud.
Six pairs worn by Michael Jordan in the NBA finals in the 1990s recently sold for million.
The price of Trump’s sneakers is also surprising. At 0, it seems like the opinionated populist is uncharacteristically hedging his bets. More expensive than a classic like the Air Jordan 1 High OG “Satin Bred” (which costs 94.99 euros) but significantly cheaper than designer shoes like Balenciaga’s Cargo Sneaker (1,100 euros). So it’s not entirely clear which buyers Trump is targeting.
However, the sneakers quickly sold out on gettrumpsneakers.com, which also sells two other designs, as well as a cologne with a screw top in the shape of Trump’s head. And because they are a limited edition, the resale price is expected to be high.
In the past few years, the resale market has become an important economy in itself, with the rise of online trade platforms such as StockX and Stadium Goods. Very rare shoes sell for stunning prices at auction. Recently six pairs worn by Michael Jordan in the NBA finals in the 1990s were auctioned by Sotheby’s, fetching million.
The Dusseldorf exhibition features shoes with a market price of six figures. But even for visitors who are not interested in these records, the exhibition is a vibrant journey through pop and consumer culture in the last few decades. Of course, there is a pair of Adidas High Tops worn by Run DMC in the 1980s — the hip hop trio even dedicated a song to their favourite sneakers and were the first band to sign an endorsement deal with a sportswear company.
Michael Jordan’s bet
And there are countless varieties of Air Jordan 1s, which were launched in 1985, marking the start of an unrivalled success story. The young basketball player Michael Jordan was well on his way to becoming a global star and was being courted by sportswear companies.
At first he wasn’t interested in working with Nike, as he thought the brand had a bad image and was associated with running shoes. But with the help of his mother, a historic contract was negotiated: the athlete still gets a percentage of the revenue from the products that are sold under his name. It was a bet in which there were no losers.
Today, Jordan is its own company — still a subsidiary of Nike — and the ex-basketballer has become very, very rich. The story has become a legend and was recently explored in a Netflix series and a 2023 film, in which Ben Affleck plays Nike boss Philip Knight and Matt Damon plays marketing executive Sonny Vaccaro, who bet everything on a young man who – fortunately for everyone involved – went on to become the greatest basketball player of all time.
Exploring the exhibition or flipping through the recently published authoritative book Sneaker Obsession gives a clear sense that the cultural history of sneakers is very male-dominated – from early rap stars to designers who have set the tone in recent years, such as Kanye West and Virgil Abloh.
Berlin’s Sneakerqueen
One exception is Berlin-based photographer Julia Schoierer, who since 2007 has been writing a blog under the name Sneakerqueen. The Dusseldorf exhibition features 20 pairs from her collection of around 1,000 pairs, some of which are kept in rented storage.
Schoierer is old-fashioned in some ways. She doesn’t see sneakers as investments and doesn’t get involved in the booming resale market. She has almost exclusively bought shoes that fit her and that she can wear, and she has a detailed and passionate knowledge of the sector.
“I have a weakness for the lesser-known designs.” When asked about Tinker Hatfield’s Air Jordan 1 or the Air Max Light, where the soles have already almost been worn out, she says: “Over time, the polyurethane soles of the 1990s take on a crumbly texture. Every collector knows about this effect.”
“In the early days I kept my sneaker collection secret.”
She says she had a lot of friends in the graffiti scene, where sneakers were an important status symbol (she later wrote her thesis on the question of “Why graffiti artists collect sneakers”). “I preferred climbing over fences to going shopping. In the early days I kept my sneaker collection secret. People would have said I was addicted to shopping.”
That has changed over time, and sneakers are now recognised as pieces of design and collectors’ items. Schoierer, however, distinguishes between socio-cultural backgrounds that make a sneaker interesting and artificially created hype.
Adidas’s Equipment series came onto the market around the time the Berlin Wall came down — which is why, Schoierer says, the shoes were especially popular in East Berlin.
By contrast, the recently released Jordan 1 Lost & Found (also on show in Dusseldorf) has been artificially aged; it is meant to look like it has been languishing on the shelves in a small store for years, waiting to be discovered. To complete the nostalgic effect, it is delivered with a hand-written receipt. “The irony was that at the same time, Nike was pushing out these so-called Mom-and-Pop stores and driving them to bankruptcy,” says Schoierer.
But even in the cutthroat world of sneakers, there is sometimes justice. When the shoe first came onto the market in November 2022, the Sneakerqueen tells us, everyone wanted one and the resale prices were astronomical. Today, Lost & Founds can be bought for the original retail price.
