How Football and Grime Music Inspired the UK's Sneaker Culture I Sole Origins

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terrace culture

it's about wearing

something that is expensive something

that

you can't really put a title on

it's an unwritten rule

it was around about 2000 to 2003 and we

were looking for vintage adidas shoes

and somebody in copenhagen seemed to

have a nice stash i get on the plane i

get to copenhagen maybe 11 o'clock at

night

and maybe one o'clock i find the shop

and on the shelf there is a pair of

adidas cortica these shoes are just

ridiculously rare i had not seen a power

for 20 odd years today i value them at

one of the highest prices of any terrace

culture shoes

the lights on in the back room and i can

see there's a guy in the office at the

back so i'm banging on the window he

looks at me and sees me goes what do you

want i said i've got 3 000 pounds in my

pocket says come back tomorrow with an

estate car and with all your money and

we'll all drive to where i get them from

so the next day we drive four hours

north over bridges and bridges and

bridges

he takes me to this store he said right

you can't come upstairs we'll bring down

what you can buy

and then i bought 30 pairs

brought them back to manchester put them

in the shop and within like two days i

sold every single pair

it's only cool when nobody knows what it

is and everybody knows what it is

it ain't cool anymore

there's still the mindset in the north

that if london does it we'll do the

opposite that whole low profile gum

souls three-strike traditional adidas

identity it's almost like it's in the

water here

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the whole difference between london and

the north of england is london has so

much more diversity you walk around the

streets you walk around the hood you

walk around the ghettos of london and

you will see everyone's wearing air

maxes if you're living and breathing in

london there's no getting away from it

the uk has really established itself as

one of the most culturally significant

countries in sneaker culture and when an

entire culture is defined by their love

of a shoe it also speaks to how

important shoes are in general

what is it about shoes

it's all about being unique and looking

unique

in the trainer scene in the uk trainers

were seen as valuable as i would say

jewelry

london is exposed to different cultures

coming over and bringing over different

vibes

and london purposely became the hub of

experimentation from brands they were

like okay let's drop this in london

let's see if there's a taste for it and

then we'll take it elsewhere generally

we didn't work anywhere else but in

london

when we first opened up sns sneakers and

stuff it looked very very different to

how you see it now we've had

a couple of refurbishments just to

uplift the space and make it look a lot

more modern i think the hottest thing on

the rack for me right now is probably

the

react element 87. in paris fashion week

it was previewed on the catwalk and it

literally broke the internet everyone

was sharing it everyone was talking

about it and like it was a shoe that i

wanted to pop my foot straight away i

mean modern day comfort and it's just

completely new and completely different

back in the early 70s i would say london

was like anywhere else in england but

gradually as you move on throughout the

80s and the 90s it started creating its

own identity they started diversifying

their tastes being first on a trend

first on the latest trainers that were

coming out but if you look at the

uk as a as a whole there is definitely a

north and south divide and the birth of

sneaker culture in the uk if you really

want to go back it was probably from the

terraces of football

there's going to consistently be a

difference when you look at northern

england particularly because the primary

thing that matters is football

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when i was growing up all we really did

was hang around on street corners and

play football

or soccer as you americans like to call

it

and a lot of the fashion and style that

i grew up with was all experiential it

was stuff that you saw at the local

disco it was stuff that you saw at the

local football match

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you would see 15 year old kids wearing a

really expensive sweater with a pair of

jeans that were kind of semi-flared at

the bottom with a pair of flat gum sole

suede added ass trainers

it's street fashion in the truest sense

of the word it wasn't celebrity-led it

wasn't music-led it was genuinely coming

from

the very bottom end of society

gary aston one of the biggest collectors

of adidas one of the most knowledgeable

people about adidas as a brand

he's a rarity

he's kind of like the godfather of

adidas in the uk

he finally got his own line adidas

spaziow which was based off of the

history and the archives and his

personal collection

and if the brand's going to give the

reins to anyone to tell a story for this

segment of the population he's the guy

to do it

the idea of special was i wanted to

create a range that had a very

traditional adidas identity

and when they gave me the green light to

do it i went away and i thought what

does that even mean

and i thought about where i grew up how

i grew up and i found this kind of odd

relationship between a very conservative

german sportswear brand being adopted by

these very abrasive and edgy british

youth cultures

and when you're talking about football

style in the 1970s

it was all about the black leather with

the three white stripes

you could say that you love adidas and

that's great

but if you only love easy it's time to

learn a little bit more about the range

i meet people all the time and they go

yeah man i was there back in the day i

was rocking my superstars and i'm like

not if you were growing up in the uk you

weren't

in the uk our superstar was the gazelle

in the 80s when this style really came

into its own and became this huge

movement within the uk

people that went to football stood on

terraces to watch the game and that's

where the term terrorist culture

originates from

it was kids who were dressing with

extreme attention to detail the way they

put their claws together the brands they

wore but it turned on its head because

people wanted to look like tennis

superstars

going to the football match so terry's

called to really change quickly from one

thing to the next

i first met nigel lawson about 20 years

ago at ipolloi i got to know him when

they were first starting out

oipoloy is a derogatory term used by the

upper classes about the lower classes it

means the masses

the humdrum the workers but the working

classes really are the ones who invented

terrace culture

it was almost like it was working class

style it was something subversive it was

taking

things that were not meant for kids like

us

and

reappropriating that

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well here it is the

best-selling adidas shoe in history

it just changed the game because when i

was a kid people were wearing samba then

all of a sudden everybody started

wearing this white shoe without any

stripes with perforation with the green

heel tap this pure white tennis shoe

when you walk the streets of england you

will probably see more stan smiths than

any other individual's shoe on feet this

was such an iconic shoe to me as a kid i

loved wearing it i love the shape of it

to me as a kid in stockport in 1978 i

didn't know who the hell stan smith was

but i certainly knew what this shoe was

i mean these clothes were made for

millionaires to play tennis in malibu

they weren't meant for kids off the

estate from the north west of england

the only way they could get it was by

stealing it the older guys would travel

to switzerland and austria and germany

where there was very little security in

the shops and they would come back with

all dolls full of expensive designer

clothing

it's these symbols of aspiration worn in

the context of quite a hard existence

it's clean living on the difficult

conditions that's the definition of mod

culture

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it felt subversive to be wearing

designer brands when you were signing on

the door

you come through the 80s which have been

a time of recession and gloom you're

talking about conservative government

under mrs thatcher you're talking about

factories closing down and then all of a

sudden acid house came along

and bang

in the late 80s casuals and football

hooligans had become ravers and we're

going out to all night parties and all

that energy was kind of put into this

very exciting time

i was a b-boy i was a breakdancer from

83 until about 86. you're talking about

a trainer you wanted to go out and

dancing all night

zx series were perfect

they had these incredible pastel

colourways

and the second zx series used a

technology called torsion and that was

the go-to shoe for acid house

it was one of those happy accidents

adidas could never have been thinking

about what was going to be happening on

the m25 with warehouse parties

if you're part of the terrace culture

it's a multi-generational deal people

love the shoes

they know when something is one

millimeter off

it's not just about the way somebody

dresses it's about the mindset that

accompanies that

there was little money and there was a

lot of boredom so claws

music and football

became everything

the birth of sneaker culture in the uk

it was all about identity it was all

about being a part of a movement

but it was a different kind of culture

london

is a lot more experimental and it

started separating itself from the

northern parts of the uk you see this

broader consumer here downstairs right

now people are lining up for a pata

jordan 7

and there's just diversity in the people

i grew up in some would say the hood in

an area called brixton back in the late

80s early 90s

lots of immigrants lived there and we

were a part of that cauldron of

personalities

we lived in a two-bedroom apartment and

there was like four kids and every time

i came home with a new pair of shoes

my mom was kicking off but the thing is

i started working when i was quite young

i did my part for the family but then i

saved up to go get my sneakers

growing up i was definitely a lot more

obsessive of what i wanted to have on my

feet versus a lot of my friends

everyone's getting the same stuff from

the jd sports from the foot lockers from

these chain stores

i want something different and that's

where my obsession

really exploded

first shoe i probably fell in love with

was jordan fours

i had a friend in primary school

who got to visit america every single

year he came back after the summer time

wearing jordan force and my mind was

blown

in 1989 jordan had become the biggest

athlete on the planet and jordan 4 has

consistently come up in london as one of

the first shoes that really kind of

crossed over

this is the colorway that really

started this obsession and yeah it's an

obsession

this one with no swoosh and the mesh and

the colors

just nothing like it man the minute you

had that shoe on your foot everyone was

looking

steve brydon he's one of the original

crooked tongues members he knows a lot

about shoes

one of the guys that i really looked up

to when i was younger because he was

wearing some crazy stuff

even when i was at college i used to buy

and sell shoes before there was a

reselling thing i've always been

fascinating what's new and what's coming

and that's always been a passion kind of

nerdy a little bit i would say it was

the time when the internet was booming

as well so i spend a lot of my time on

these new sneaker websites night talk

and sneaker.com we used to see sneakers

on the website you right click and save

just have like discs full of pictures of

sneakers that you'll never ever see nice

to write little articles about them just

keep them you know keep them saved on

floppy disk or wherever

and my friend chris who i knew around

the way knew i was into trainers a whole

crew was basically into shoes

he was like we're going to start this

website got sneakers called crooked

tongues i'm trying to be involved i was

like you guys are nuts

you're going to spend time and money to

the website about

no sneakers i was like well we should

try it you know it started off very

small but then we noticed hits were just

insane and it became one of the you know

the biggest things on the internet

the same way that americans view

something like nike talk for the

european crowd crooked tongues really

was that like meeting place where people

first went on the internet and talk

about all these limited edition stuff

and trade shoes and trade ideas and

learn more about sneakers

i started searching the internet i

started joining forums so i was a part

of the crooked tongues forum i was like

wearing wovens i was wearing dunkis bees

and people were like where are you

getting these how are you getting these

what are you doing to get these all

these questions started coming up and i

was just like what do you want me to say

the internet that's your best friend at

the time when we first started crooked

titans i would say sneaker collecting

was more about vintage finding the shoes

that you wanted when you were younger or

shoes you didn't have access to for us

it was about trying to find holy grails

they call down

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the nike dunk glow espy london the

london dunk arguably one of the grills

of london

it's one of the rare shoes in the world

i think it was a hundred pairs

it's probably the first london shoe that

we got of our own and the colour is very

london

gray miserable

it's got the river thames on the hill

legend has it that foot patrol didn't

even tell anybody that they were

releasing it you had to know someone at

foot patrol and quietly ask about it to

get access to the shoe

i got phone calls people were saying go

down to foot patrol today asap they've

just dropped the london dunk and i just

wanted to get as many as i could

for me it was all about having a kind of

unique perspective on what you wore on

your foot and wanting to stand out

everything was like a new sneaker

revolution a lot of storytelling that's

what it was back then

i think that's where sneaker culture was

really really born

brand started doing a lot more relevant

drops purpose built for the streets

rather than for performance

and then it mutated after that then it

started going to the ghettos

and the best way of expressing yourself

is through your footwear through your

clothing

and in london that's where the whole air

max culture came from

where there's poverty

people want to have the riches

people wanted to wear the latest and

greatest and you could only do that in

london

and rime is a soundtrack to the hood

grime music was

the result of

us as youths growing up listening to us

hip-hop

listening to music from our caribbean

cultures our african cultures throw in

some jungle music and uk garage and then

you've got this kind of mashup of

london's

version of hip-hop

it was a voice for the kids in in the

cities

it had a different sound it had a uk

sound it had a uk feel the mcs were

talking about uk

stuff uk slang

and it was the first time that uk rap

culture has really had its own identity

some of the most legendary grime artists

have all been through here at some stage

we'd have meetings here we decided

people were writing lyrics here it all

happened here right here

today we're seeing grime music getting

more and more popular globally you talk

about the scepters and the wilys and all

these guys are lyrically soul on point

but dizzy was the one that really kind

of bought it into the limelight for the

world

i'm the pioneer

yeah

facts

the deeper you dig the more you'll find

out

i'm from bow in east london i came up on

pirate radio emceeing over hard beats

and spitting at raves

i grew up in this building i had my dj

set up there my friends would come up

there i would dj there with mc then

eventually i would become an mc as well

i lived in this building

when i was like say when i made my first

album

if you see the front of my first album

i'm wearing air max that was like the

hood uniform

trainers were one of them things that i

was always into as a kid people always

like what training you got what training

you getting that was always always a

thing i don't know

a time when it wasn't

graham continues to influence a lot of

uk culture especially trainer culture

grime and trainer culture has always

walked hand in hand i've been collecting

since i was in school

we actually had to build a room in our

house for myself and my wife's trainer

collection

london's always had

a few trainers that have been like

signature like the air max

95s the air force ones when they came

that's the kind of trainers that people

wore in the areas where we come from

before graham was even thought of it

didn't come from the music it was the

other way around

if you keep talking to people today

everyone would tell you yeah air max

rules the scene

the love for air max here has never

waned it has been consistent since it

originally came out it's definitely an

inner city shoe we made this shoe famous

it wasn't the runners i didn't see

anyone in the marathon wearing them

but dizzy was really the first uk artist

to have a formal collaboration with nike

when i eventually got asked by nike if i

wanted to do a collaboration with me and

ben drewy it was a no brainer and then

we did the tongue and cheek which came

out with my album and that one was real

suave you know because the colors and

all that the pink tongue was a touch

that was a bit of genius they're little

things

subtle things you know i mean

when they came out i can't remember how

much they cost we only did like 200 or

something of them i just looked on ebay

now i was one gun for eight grand which

is mad because i didn't really keep any

i was just giving them away and i felt

like an idiot

styles have changed

over the years especially in london i

think comfort is becoming more key

but the north

stick to their guns a bit more

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davis is part of the fibre of culture

music culture and popular culture came

to adidas adidas didn't go to it

so there's this very natural association

with culture that no amount of marketing

spend can buy for you

so when we created the first special

collection we did the global launch in

manchester and it created quite a storm

people who would not ordinarily queue up

overnight

were queuing up overnight

gary brought a recognition of beautiful

simple classic shapes back to adidas it

hadn't been worn by these younger

generations

fact 51y3 the hacienda the hacienda was

a nightclub in manchester that was

opened in 1982 and it closed

in the mid-90s it was so much more than

a nightclub it was a hub for culture it

was a hub of acid house in the northwest

of england

so the shoe box here which looks kind of

like a misshapen coffin

is actually in the shape of the hacienda

dance floor

this is so incredibly thorough nobody

would have expected y3 at that time to

do a collaboration with the hacienda

it was taking something that was being

produced for sports and athletics and

putting that into a completely different

arena

these different pockets of culture are

taking this brand and grafting things

onto it and making it their own

brands are not what people were while

they're participating in culture

brands are actually part of culture

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you could ask me any question and i

could give you a story on how i got

those shoes

when i was cueing for shoes i remember

the people that were in front and behind

me

i remember the conversations i was

having with those people about the shoes

about what they were up to about what

was going on at that time

in the u.s cool will radically shift

from one year to another and it'll shift

by generation

but things that are cool in the uk

are forever cool

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you