Sneakers Unboxed: Studio to Street; Conversations on Sneaker Design

In a conversation initiated by a 2021 exhibition at the Design Museum in London, more than 40 iconic designers respond to questions about the sneaker industry. Concise essays provide a history of the sneaker phenomenon and introduce each section, where contributors voice thoughts and opinions on “Style and Culture,” “People and Process,” and “Innovation and the Future.” Of particular interest here are the contributors’ comments on collaboration, innovations that challenged the status quo, and moving the $80-billion-per-year global sneaker industry toward sustainability. (As one designer commented, sneaker production is “one of the worst polluting industries in the world.”) While not the oversize exhibition catalogue that some readers might be expecting, this pocket-size book covers lots of ground. There are plenty of images, from color fashion photographs to fuzzy black-and-white product shots, as well as sketches, pictures of coveted styles and brands, and early advertisements.