Sneaker tees: Influencing the next step in sneaker fashion

Trainers. Runners. Athletic footwear. Known by different names around the world, the humble sneaker has risen to global prominence of late. You only need to glance down to realize that the sneaker boom that has dominated fashion for the last few years is not slowing down. So, just how did the humble sneaker turn into a cultural icon? How are sneakers affecting the fashion world right now when we have such phenomena as sneaker tees?

Origins

How exactly did we go from the world’s first running shoe, a men’s leather dress shoe with spikes in the toe, to the limitless variety of sneakers that make up the shoe market today?

The answer might surprise you.

Let’s get to the bottom of where sneaker culture comes from. Doing so will help us understand the current obsession with sneakers and how they represent something unique about our style and status.

Most people believe that the sneaker trend started in the lower classes before being adopted by wealthier folk. However, the reverse is true. It was upper-middle-class people who could afford the cost of the newly invented athletic footwear in the first place. As well as spare the time to engage in leisure-based activities and not be working!

Once the privileged classes began wearing sneakers, they became the first-ever sneakerheads. However, their exclusive access to the latest and most rare shoes didn’t last long. Over time, the materials needed to manufacture the new footwear became easier to obtain. And the technology it took to make them improved so more shoes could be brought to the market cheaper and more efficiently. This boom in sneaker manufacturing coincided with a rise in people pursuing outdoor exercise. During the peak of the industrial revolution, working-class people wanted to escape the plight of inner-city life, such as overcrowding, pollution, and dangerous working conditions.

And thus, a ready-made customer base for supportive and comfortable footwear was born.

Impact on fashion: Sneaker tees

The current sneaker industry is worth somewhere in the region of $1 billion today. And it was the second-wave sneakerheads, the youth in NYC who wanted to customize their look in line with the burgeoning hip hop culture that kickstarted this phenomenon, of course. Nowadays, sneaker fashion has jumped out of the box to color people’s entire wardrobes.

It’s now easy to base your entire outfit around your latest sneaker purchase that you want to show off with the help of custom-designed sneaker tees. For example, picking a shirt to match Jordans is super easy when you shop at sneaker-inspired clothing companies like illcurrency.com.

Here are some sneaker match tees suggestions to keep you looking fresh:

• When you’ve got the latest Air Jordan 12 “Playoffs” you don’t want to hide them beneath baggy jeans or subdue their impact with an overpowering shirt. Instead, you can perfectly match their colorway, look and feel whilst simultaneously paying homage to the GOAT himself with a premium quality sneakerhead t-shirt.
• If you’re sporting the 2021 Air Jordan 11 Retros “Cool Grey” then you want a sneaker tee that is both color-matched and bold. Use the subdued colorway to declare something about your character.
• For the girls, we think the Nike Air Vapor Max “Pretty Pink” are pretty cool. And we also think bold design sneaker tees are too.
• Yeezy wearers most likely already have a lot of street cred and distinct style to boot. They need to share this with the world big-time with a custom-designed big print sneaker tee. Anything less and their whole outfit could look less-than-unique, which they themselves are not.

Final thoughts

Take a look around and down. The sneaker craze is going nowhere in a hurry. As a sneakerhead, you now have unlimited options to spruik your unique style and character with custom-designed sneaker tees. Adorning yourself in a t-shirt that matches the colorway of your prized kicks and makes a bold fashion statement, is a good way to stand apart from the crowd. Not only will your whole outfit look tightly styled and unique, but you will be giving a sartorial nod to the sneakerheads that came before you. Those inner-city kids who got creative and gave sneaker culture a kick in the right direction. You will be helping sneaker culture to advance forward yet again. Who knows where the next step will take us?