Ryan Trembath has written a great book for Eckhartz Press called Signature Shoes: The Athletes Who Wore Them and Delightful Pop Culture. We caught up with him recently to discuss the book, which is due to come out at the end of this month, and is available for pre-sale now.
EP: You have written a book about shoes. Clearly, you’re a shoe-aholic. How many different pairs do you have in your closet right now?
Ryan: Not as many as you might think, but right now I have 2 pairs of Reebok Classics, 2 pairs of Adidas (a pair of Superstars and Rod Lavers), and a pair of Puma Roma. I also have a pair of Saucony Jazz, but they have been relegated to the garage for mowing the lawn. I have a decent amount of golf shoes, I’m currently sitting on three pairs of FootJoy and a pair of Nike. I appreciate sneakers, but I’m not a collector. I’ll get a few pairs and wear them out and then move on to the next pair.
EP: I’m a fellow sneaker lover. There’s nothing like that first day wearing your new pair of shoes. That was especially true when I was a kid. What was that first pair of yours that sent you on this journey?
Ryan: Easily the Air Jordan VI which came out in 1991. I was also a big fan of the Air Jordan VII in 1992, it wasn’t even funny how into the Bulls I was back then. I still have the ticket stubs from games I went to in the early 90s and the stub and program from the last game at Chicago Stadium. Most people don’t know this but the last game at Chicago Stadium was actually an exhibition, Scottie Pippen’s Ameritech Classic in 1994. Jordan was retired at the time, but he played and dropped about 50 points. It would have been around ’93 or ’94 when I started wearing Reebok Pumps, which first appeared in ’89, the hype was too much by the ‘90s and I had to have a pair, somehow, I convinced my parents to spend the $200 or whatever they were going for then. After that I got into the Nike Air, again they were released in the late 80’s, but I didn’t get a pair until later. I have vivid memories of them being worn out and sticking a pen or pencil into the air pocket, which was visible on the midsole.
EP: People are very brand loyal when it comes to their sneakers. Are you personally a Nike, Adidas, Puma, Converse, or Reebok man, and why?
Ryan: Growing up I was always a Nike man but I’ve kind of gravitated towards Adidas. The Adidas transition might have started when I was in Rome on my honeymoon in 2013 and grabbed a pair of the L.A. Trainers, those were great shoes. I’ve been wearing the same pair of Superstars for the last three years and they are still in great shape and really comfortable. Adidas just released a pair of Superstar golf shoes and I might have to get a pair of those. I’ve never really liked Converse, I’ve only owned one pair in my life and those were the One Stars…that would have been about 1994 (I almost pulled the trigger on the Dr. J 2000 which were released in 1997). For a long time in the early part of this century I got into ROOS and then I had a bunch of pairs of Nike Cortez, but around 2010 I was playing softball in them and got a really bad sprained ankle in a pair.
EP: I love the way you feature the shoes that were worn by famous athletes. Are you the kind of guy who likes the shoes because of the athlete, or the athlete because of the shoes.
Ryan: That’s a tough question, never really thought about it. I guess I would have to say I like the shoes because of the athlete. Although, there’s been some signature sneakers that are hideous, but I still like and respect the athlete that lent his or her name to the shoe.
EP: Quite a bit of research was required to put this book together. What are some of the things that you discovered along the way that you didn’t know when this journey began?
Ryan: It’s kind of crazy that signature shoes and shoes in general aren’t very well documented, not even by the companies that released them. There’s so much conflicting information out there, for example journalist Sam Smith wrote in one of his books that the Clyde’s came out in 1971, when in fact Puma has 1973 on their own website…1971 is a common misconception of the release date though. There was a bunch of other stuff, like Ilie Nastase apparently has very little recollection of when he got a shoe, he was way off in his book. There’s almost nothing on Namath’s shoe The Swinger, I reached out to Puma and they sent me one ad and said this is literally all we have on The Swinger. PONY is another brand that was difficult to piece together information on, very little at all is out there on their signature shoes. A lot of the signature shoes I wrote about kind of fly under the radar nowadays, as far as history is concerned. Chuck Taylor, Jordan, Clyde, and Stan Smith get all of the attention.
EP: The holiday season is right around the corner. Describe to us the perfect person who would love this book as a holiday gift.
Ryan: Anyone who likes sneakers or sports, especially if you like tennis and basketball. I don’t think it’s limited to that audience though, if you like pop culture you would also find the book enjoyable. Sneakers play such a large part in the hip hop community so there’s a bunch of quirky pop culture references I made throughout the book, as well as references to when athletes and sometimes the sneakers themselves appeared in movies or television shows.
