Today the technology of the trainer shoe is a far cry from previous years. There used to be very little when it came to a shoe the wearer could choose for comfort purposes. In a time when sporting events have become ever more competitive a need arose for, in particularly track running, a better shoe designed for comfort and performance in order to optimise the athlete’s performance. This led to manufacturers competing against each other to come up with the ultimate design to meet these ends.
Of course, now trainers are purchased simply for a brand name it has led to some inferior quality products on the market. The higher end brands have achieved to combine both of these things, making them the ultimate in designer footwear.
An advance in the early stages of development was spiked running shoes. These were developed by Reebok as the company wanted footwear that would significantly increase speed. Spiked running shoes were produced in several different formats depending upon the amount of speed you wanted from the shoe.
Before this point the only real running shoes were plimsolls. These had been able to be developed as the process of vulcanisation of rubber had been discovered. This made it possible to meld rubber and cloth together. Because of their nature in being very quiet when you walked in them, as opposed to traditional shoes which would make a ‘clipping’ sound, their name in the US quickly became coined as sneakers.
The modern trainer show as we now know it was developed by Adolf Dassler who specifically designed them for sporting events. He was the first to put an elasticated strip around the top of the shoe, leading to striped designs that are still in evidence today. During this initial surge of popularity well known sports stars were approached by the shoe making companies to wear their brand, a forerunner to today’s sponsorship.
Sport shoes are not specifically designed around the adult foot, an unusual method, but it is simpler for manufacturers to use an artificial model. This has led to constant redesigns to accommodate for small irregularities. Other popular brands currently on sale include Nike, who were late comers to this market. It wasn’t until the late 1970s that their products became massively popular, and this was through athletes wearing them for track running, which then led to them being particularly popular with tennis players.
The many types of running shoes now available include ones with support, for high impact sports they provide a cushion and support the foot more around the high impact areas. Motion control, which provide extra stability to counteract movement and discrepancies in an athlete’s foot from a normal perfect anatomical example, and lightweight trainers which are important to road and marathon runners which, as the name suggests, are light and provide better speeds for the runner.
