Sneaker Book Club: Genealogy of Innovation

Welcome to the latest edition of ! Showcasing the greatest sneaker-related titles ever put to print, so far we’ve seen everything from promotional flipbooks, street culture retrospectives and the history of skate shoes! For this instalment however, it’s time to look at something from Sneaker Freaker’s own portfolio: Genealogy of Innovation.

During the 2014 FIFA World Cup, a pop-up space called Phenomenal House appeared in Paris, London and Berlin. Inside these spaces housed Nike’s Genealogy of Innovation exhibition, a retrospective of over 200 Swoosh silhouettes that mapped out 40-plus years of development. Who else better then, to write the accompanying eponymous book, than the world’s greatest sneaker magazine?

If deeply researched and articulate sneaker copy by the late, great Gary Warnett (RIP) wasn’t enough, long-form interviews with Nike designers and fanatics confirm the sneaker stories. Hear from and Martin Lotti amongst others on the design side, plus lifelong Swoosh heads Lindy Darrell and Gooey Wooey share their soles.

Here are just four out of over 200 models featured inside Genealogy of Innovation:

As always, if you have an interesting sneaker-related book that you think deserves some read time, earmark it in our DMs…