Exhibitions Out of the Box: Rise of Sneaker Culture
Sneakers have long been loved as a staple of casual fashion, transcending gender, age, and socioeconomic categories to become the footwear of choice for millions across the globe. Out of the Box: The Rise of Sneaker Culture tells the sneaker’s complex and fascinating story through approximately 150 pairs drawn from the collections of the Bata Shoe Museum; the Northampton Museums and Art Gallery; the archives of Adidas, Converse, Nike, and PUMA; and private collectors such as Dee Wells of Obsessive Sneaker Disorder and legendary hip–hop group Run–D.M.C.
Organized into five sections, Out of the Box includes iconic sneakers ranging from an 1860 spiked running shoe, the replica track shoes worn by Olympian Jesse Owens in 1936, the Air Jordan series, and the original Air Force 1 and early Adidas Superstars, to contemporary examples designed by such prominent figures as Damien Hirst, Christian Louboutin, Kanye West, and Nike sneaker design legend Tinker Hatfield.
From its historical origins in the recreational pastimes of the elite and the increasing importance of physical fitness to its role today at the vanguard of athletic performance and urban style, the sneaker has been a pivotal component of dress for more than 150 years. Out of the Box examines how the sneaker’s ever-evolving cultural significance offers insights into the world in which we live, work, and play.
Venues
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Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn, NY July 10–October 4, 2015 -
Toledo Museum of Art
Toledo, OH: December 3, 2015–February 28, 2016 -
High Museum of Art
Atlanta, GA: June 12–August 14, 2016 -
Speed Art Museum
Louisville, KY: September 10–November 27, 2016 -
Oakland Museum of California
Oakland, CA: December 22–April 2, 2017 -
Art Gallery of Western Australia
Perth, Australia: May 13–September 4, 2017
Publications
Out of the Box:
The Rise of Sneaker Culture
- Authors
- Publishers
- ISBN
- Price
- Elizabeth Semmelhack, Bobbito Garcia, Tinker Hatfield, Emmanuele Lepri & Pauline Willis
- American Federation of Arts & Skira
- 978–0–8478–4660–3
- $45
In Out of the Box: The Rise of Sneaker Culture the selection of sneakers that make up the exhibition is richly contextualized with interviews and essays by design innovators, sneaker collectors, and cultural historians, creating a backdrop of the technical innvation, fashion trends, social history, and marketing campaigns that shaped sneakers over the past two centuries.
The book features an introduction by Bobbito Garcia, an in-depth essay on the history of sneaker culture and annotated exhibition checklist by exhibition curator Elizabeth Semmelhack, Senior Curator of the Bata Shoe Museum, a discussion of sneaker preservation by Ada Hopkins, Conservator of the Bata Shoe Museum, an interview between Dee Wells of Obsessive Sneaker Disorder and Nike designers Tinker Hatfield and Eric Avar, and contributions by sneaker experts including Cey Adams, James Bond, Darryl DMC McDaniels, Marc Eck, D’Wayne Edwards, Walt Clyde Frazier, Adam Ad Rock Horovitz, Christian Louboutin, Hiroki Nakamura, Tom Sachs, Jeremy Scott, and Stan Smith, among others.
For more information visit www.riseofsneakerculture.org.
Curator
Elizabeth Semmelhack is the Senior Curator of the Bata Shoe Museum.
Credit
Out of the Box: The Rise of Sneaker Culture is organized by the American Federation of Arts and the Bata Shoe Museum. The exhibition is curated by Elizabeth Semmelhack, Senior Curator of the Bata Shoe Museum.
Generous support for the national tour of the exhibition is provided by Macy’s.
