Sneaker Freaker

By the late-Eighties, Murder had been buying Hip-Hop LP’s and delving into the world of rap publications on a weekly basis, any disposable income at this point being spunked on his first love. Like kids across the UK, he’d be poring over the sleeve notes, artwork and any design minutia that pertained to any form of information on trainers. With the onslaught of blockbusters like Goonies, Back to the Future, Weird Science and even cult classics like Breakfast Club all featuring sneaker product placement heavily [if you looked carefully enough], it was only natural that a jones was gonna grow.

What you’ve got to understand is that while Mums and Dads were dragging us to see films like these, we were tuning into the sounds of now classic Rap albums like Run DMC’s ‘King of Rock’ [Profile Records 1985], drooling over the rear sleeve of Mantronix debut ‘The Album’ [Fresh Records 1985] and positively slavering over the heavily ‘shell-toed’ sleeve of ‘The Fat Boys are Back [Sutra Records 1985]. Some of us had been scrutinizing the inside sleeves, outer artwork, shots of home-boys and home-girls really, anything just to find even the most extraneous detail of a sneaker.

After a while, many records featured Rappers wearing ‘training shoes’ in one guise or another. Just-Ice’s magnum opus ‘Back to Old School’ [Fresh Records 1986] featured Filas, Guccis and New Balance shoes, all displaying the ubiquitous fat lacing of the period. The iconic photography on the Eric B & Rakim debut ‘Paid in Full’ [4th & Broadway 1987] featured adidas Attitudes and a host of other hot sneaker brands. The covers of dozens of Rap 12” displayed and even characterized the look of a particular style of sneaker for many years to come. Brands like Avia received recognition on Public Enemy’s masterpiece ‘Yo Bum rush the Show’ [Def Jam 1987], NWA featured Jordans, Flights, Converse Weapons and a plethora of brands on some of their releases.

As time went on, there were iconic shots of trainers in promo music videos. Even as way back as 1982, ours jaws dropped as we saw Shell-toes, Pro-Keds and Pumas featured on the feet of B-Boys from the New York City Breakers and the Rock-Steady Crew while we watched the music video for Malcolm McLaren’s ‘Buffalo Gals’. Boogie Down Production’s ‘My Philosophy’ [Jive 1988] presented the Jordan 3 in all it’s beauty. As well as the bum-rush crowd scene, KRS One nonchalantly leans on a jeep with his classic elephant print kicks on.