From the Court to Art Studios, the Ascension of the Chucks and the Jordans
In the 70s, basketball shoes were mainly spotted on the basketball court worn by the likes of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Julius Erving, and Elvin Hayes. Suddenly the tables are turned about a decade later, the general populace started to rock basketball shoes outside of the courts. Many iconic sneakers; including the Chucks and the Jordans, were trampling the pavement around the world in the 80s. Fast forward to the 2000s, has been appearing on the streets regularly for the past few years, both the Chucks and the Jordans start to emerge on the runway of various fashion houses. Furthermore, the Chucks and the Jordans have also stepped into the world of contemporary art. Both the Chucks and the Jordans have undergone the same path from basketball court to art studios, their rich history can be traced back to the beginning of the 20th century.
In 1917, Converse released the first basketball shoes dubbed the “Non-Skid” as a response to the rising demand for shoes designed specifically for basketball. The name itself was taken from its slip-resistant diamond-patterned rubber outsole. Other than the diamond-patterned rubber outsole, the shoes feature a canvas upper that extends towards the ankle of its wearer, ensuring ease of movement for basketball players. Five years later, Converse hired a basketball player Charles H. “Chuck” Taylor as the ambassador of Converse. During his stint as an ambassador of Converse, Taylor managed to market the shoes to a wider appeal. For the next few years, Taylor and his basketball teams the “All-Star” would put on a coaching clinic at the end of basketball games, encouraging those who showed up on the coaching clinic to buy Converse’s basketball shoes which have been embedded with “All-Star” logo on its sides.
The shoes’ popularity would rose in the next few years and by the 60s almost every basketball player in the United States have picked Chuck Taylor’s All-Stars as their footwear of choice. Converse managed to dominate the basketball shoe market nearly by 80%. Unfortunately, Converse’s popularity was cut pretty short. Their popularity would plummet in the 70s because of greater competition and poor business decisions. Many NBA players would abandon Converse in favor of other shoes with more durable material as well as more comfortable linings. Despite their fall from grace, the Chucks would eventually found solace within their newfound habitat in certain subcultures, particularly the Punk subculture.
Initially seen being worn by Rock ’n’ roll figures, such as Elvis Presley, Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin, and George Harrison of the Beatles, the Chucks would be worn again by Punk rock musicians in the late 70s. Bands like The Ramones, Sex Pistols, and The Clash were known to wear the Chucks. Considering that at the moment the Chucks were known as affordable footwear and they also tend to be bought most of the time as a beater, it was reasonable to see Punk artists opting to wear the Chucks to their concert. Eventually, the look got carried into the 80s and beyond. Members of bands such as Guns ’N’ Roses, Nirvana, The Strokes, and Green Day would be spotted wearing the Chucks onstage. Moreover, celebrities would also be seen sporting the Chucks either on film or photoshoots, as can be seen on the likes of Michael J. Fox, Leonardo DiCaprio, River Phoenix, and Winona Ryder.
While the Chucks vanished from the basketball courts in the early 80s, Nike would release a basketball shoe that eventually found its way into pop culture and fashion too while at the same time maintains itself as a high-performance basketball shoe for the next few years. In 1984, Nike attempted to sign Michael Jordan in a contractual deal to endorse their product. They went the extra mile by offering Jordan a whole new brand based solely on him. The Hall of Famer was reluctant at first, he always wanted to sign with Converse. Moreover, Jordan also noticed the fault in the soles of Nike shoes which he deemed to be way too thick. They responded by hooking him up with Nike’s creative director at that time Peter Moore. After receiving some input from Jordan, Moore eventually released the shoes in 1985 with the name “Air Jordan 1”. Initially hating the design saying it might make him “look like a clown” the shoes would eventually grow on him as time goes on.
Business was doing great for Nike as their latest product the Air Jordan 1 was sold out almost immediately once they finally hit the shelves, owing it’s due to their marketing division hyping up NBA’s $5000 fine towards Michael Jordan for breaking the league’s uniform code. As Nike made a new model of the Jordans in the next few years, the shoes continue to be bought by many sneakerheads and aspiring basketball players. Not only worn exclusively by sneakerheads and basketball players, but the Jordans were also worn by people from other segments such as skateboarders, rappers, and even metalheads as the shoes can be seen hugging the feet of Lance Mountain, LL Cool J, and Dave Mustaine of Megadeth respectively. In fact, Nike would release another iteration of the Jordans that were properly designed for skateboarding called the “SB Dunk” after they introduced their new “SB” skateboarding line in 2000.
As basketball shoes already hitting the courts, the streets, the skateparks, as well as the stage. In the mid-2000s, multiple fashion designers inside and outside of fashion houses start to include their rendition of Chucks and Jordans to their runways. During his reign as the creative director of Christian Dior’s menswear line Dior Homme, the French-born fashion designer Hedi Slimane would create a hightop shoe dubbed the “B03”, inspired by the Chucks worn by rockstars on stage. The B03 can be seen making its first appearance in Dior Homme’s Spring/Summer 2004 collection “Strip”.
Not too long after that, in the United States, another designer also offers their take on basketball shoes. In his Fall/Winter 2006 menswear collection titled “Dustulator”, Rick Owens introduced the “Dunks” (which would eventually be rechristened as the “Geobasket”) to the world, an outlandish twist of Air Jordan 1 designed in line with his glunge (a mix of glamour and grunge as Owens calls it) aesthetic.“I always thought athletic shoes were so dreary and prosaic” declared Owens in his 2015 interview with Complex magazine “If I was gonna wear them I wanted monster trucks on my feet. So I made my own parody combining Puma, Nike, and Adidas motifs” he added, revealing his idea behind the creation of the Dunks. As a matter of fact, Nike would eventually charge Owens with a cease and desist over the Dunk’s warped swoosh logo, requiring him to replace the logo with a new one.
Having experienced a flashy moment on the runways, both the Chucks and the Jordans were also brought inside the art studio of a few artists in due course. An avant-garde Austrian half-designer half-artist Carol Christian Poell would create an artistic clothing piece that was inspired by the look of the Chucks. The grimy-looking shoes known as the “Drip” sneakers were crafted from kangaroo leather and features a bunch of small rubber drips hanging from the soles. Carol Christian Poell is notable for employing bizzare techniques to create his garments. He also tends to avoid any media or commercial attention. His mysterious presence and peculiar handcrafts made the shoes regarded as a holy grail for some people, especially avant-garde fashion connoisseurs. The shoes would sometimes be marked up as high as $2000 on the online marketplace.
As for the Jordans artisanal moment, In British Columbia an Indigenous artist from Doig River First Nation named Brian Jungen has transformed the legendary shoes into interesting sculptures. Inspired by how Indigenous artwork would often be exoticized inside science museums, he visualized how objects such as sneakers are treated as such. To realize that, he would buy Jordans in bulk and then cut them up into pieces which are then would be reassembled into a sculpture that mirrors the appearance of Indigenous artifacts. Jungen’s artwork often connects day-to-day objects with Indigenous art, drawing a parallel between the two. Other than creating a mask from torn apart Jordans, Jungen also has built totem poles from golf bags, as well as whale skeletons assembled from discarded chairs.
To think that footwear specifically designed for basketball games would be used as an art medium for contemporary artists is perplexing at first. However, for a clothing item that has brought such great cultural impact to the world, I think it’s safe to say that both the Chucks and the Jordans might have a chance to cop some spot in high art. Hell, they might even be considered as artifacts in the very far future.
