Skip to content

Record details

Shoe style Trainer
Style description

A trainer is a soft sports shoe often also worn as casual wear.

Shoe description Women's Aloha trainers. Nike. 1984.
Style example 1 Canvas Converse All Star High. 1940s.
Converse first produced the All Star training shoe in 1917 specifically for playing basketball. The iconic basketball player Chuck Taylor wore them and gave his name to them. As you can see the design has changed very little over the last hundred years.
Style example 2 Waffle trainers, Nike, 1977.
The Nike waffle was the most influential running shoe model of the 1970s. In 1971 Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman was having breakfast with his wife when it dawned on him that the grooves in the waffle iron she was using would make an excellent mould for a running shoe.
Style example 3 Adidas Forest Hills trainers. 1977.
Pre and post war saw the rise of the some of the biggest sports footwear companies including adidas established by German Adi Dassler. Focusing on innovation and tapping into high profile sports stars and athletes they created strikingly different footwear from the traditional canvas high tops or low lace up sneakers that had been seen before.