Sports influence on Sneakers

The sneaker world has descended from sports, nowadays they can be sports shoes but are primarily worn casually. This influence from sports wear has allowed athletes to collaborate with major shoe brands, these collaborations can be for a team or a player, it is a good way for their fans to feel involved and for the athletes to have an influence on the design.

Collaborations with sports athletes usually benefit both athlete and brand as the athlete will have their own design of shoes and the brand widens their range for consumers through sales and the athlete wearing them. Adding to this some athletes have received sneakers designed for them, an example of this is with American football star Odell Beckham Jr, Nike designed a pair of cleats with his initials on for him to use, from this the design was so desired they became available to public in many different colourways. Other athlete and shoe brand collaborations include Serena Williams X Nike X Off-White, Cristiano Ronaldo X Nike and Kylian Mbappe X Nike.

Serena Williams collaboration with Nike and Off-White was very desired for sneaker heads due to the unique designs and colourways as well as the shoes which were used for design. This collab included new designs for the Nike; 97’s and Blazers. This release was extremely limited. The designs involved neon green Off-White tags representing tennis balls, a pink and purple pattern on the soles and grey monotone body of the shoe.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s recent collab with Nike on the Air max 97’s was a hyped-up drop celebrating its 20^th anniversary. This release featured the traditional Nike 97 silhouette with a white sole and gold patchwork design for the rest of the trainer with further details such as mini-Swooshes on the side of the show walls with a clear air max bubble.

Kylian Mbappe X Nike Air Max 98 was inspired by the gritty suburb of Paris where Mbappe practised when younger. This release is a very clean and versatile shoe, with the colour palette featuring Dark and light grey accents on a suede upper, the shoe has leather and mesh accents also, the sole and air unit display a gold sole as well as the French flag on the tongue of the shoe representing Mbappe’s nationality.