A comprehensive infallibly informed reference guide for the sneaker novice and connoisseur

Sneaker culture is no longer the preserve of the hardcore sneaker freak: it is a full-blown mainstream phenomenon. Walk into any shoe shop today and you'll be faced with a dizzying array of new designs, 'old skool' favourites, limited-edition models and 'rare' shoes, all in a myriad of colourways. The sneaker has moved out from the sports arena and exploded into popular culture, a fashion staple that transcends race and class yet defines who you are in today's urban tribes.

This encyclopaedic profusely illustrated guide displays over 180 sneakers chosen for the impact they have made on sneaker culture worldwide. Eleven leading brands – from Adidas to Vans – are discussed in detail with full histories, while a further selection – from well-loved or long-lost classics to new designs – will excite both the novice collector and the committed sneaker freak.

Packed with over 550 specially commissioned photographs, and featuring an indispensable directory of collectors’ shops, resources and websites, as well as practical tips on how to build and care for your collection, this is the definitive guide to the very best and most collectable sneaker designs.

Sneakers is written, photographed and designed by Unorthodox Styles, the team behind the leading sneaker website.

About the Author:

Unorthodox Styles are a London-based creative consultancy, specializing in graphic design, web design and photography. They are the producers of crookedtongues.com, the leading online sneaker resource.

The ultimate guide to over 300 of the very latest, ultra-collectible sneaker designs, presented through specially commissioned photography

This sequel to the classic Sneakers: The Complete Collectors’ Guide is a global survey and reference guide to the very best and most collectible limited-edition sneaker designs released over the last decade

Sneakers: The Complete Collectors' Guide was a phenomenal success and a key influence in the transformation of sneaker collecting from an underground subculture into a mainstream, multi-billion dollar business. Following publication of that book, sneaker brands began reissuing classic designs and creating shoes that would spur the second wave of collecting: limited editions and collaborations between the brands, invited artists, designers, musicians and cultural icons.

This sequel showcases the very best of this new sneaker culture, featuring more than 300 designs arranged by brand. Each sneaker is accompanied by informative text and a ‘data’ box listing Edition, Pack, Year Released, Original Purpose, Technology and Extras.

Essential for both the hardcore sneaker freak and the first time collector, this book will also attract and seduce fashion and design aficionados.

About the Author:

The creative consultancy U-Dox are creators of the leading online sneaker resource crookedtongues.com.

Contents List:

Introduction • Adidas • Asics • Converse • New Balance • Nike • Air Jordan • Puma • Reebok • Vans • And Not Forgetting

The Sneaker as (Hyper)Object. Nike and Virgil Abloh reinvigorate 10 icons of sneaker history

In 2016, sportswear manufacturer Nike and fashion designer Virgil Abloh joined forces to create a sneaker collection celebrating 10 of the Oregon-based company’s most iconic shoes. With their project The Ten — which reimagines icons like Air Jordan 1, Air Max 90, Air Force 1, and Air Presto, among others — they reinvigorated sneaker culture.

Virgil Abloh’s new designs offer deep insights into engineering ingenuity and burst with cultural cachet. Drawing on the genius of the original shoe using lettering, ironic labels, collage, and sculpting techniques, Abloh plays with language and sculptural elements to construct new meaning. Inspired by the wit of Dadaism, architectural theory, and avant-garde happenings, he analyzes what makes each shoe iconic and deconstructs it into an artistic assemblage, making each shoe into a piece of industrial design, a readymade sculpture, and a wearable all at once.

Icons traces Abloh’s investigative, creative process through documentation of the prototypes, original text messages from Abloh to Nike designers, and treasures from the Nike archives. We find Swooshes sliced away from Air Jordans and reapplied with tape or thread, Abloh’s typical text fragments in quotation marks on Air Force 1, and All Stars cut into pieces. We take a look behind the scenes and witness Abloh’s DIY approach, which gives each model in the Off-White^TM c/o Nike collection its own unique touch.

The book documents Abloh’s cooperative way of working and reaffirms the power of print. For its design Nike and Abloh partnered with the acclaimed London-based design studio Zak Group. Together they conceived a two-part compendium, equal parts catalog and conceptual toolbox. The first part of the book presents a visual culture of sneakers while a lexicon in the second part defines the key people, places, objects, ideas, materials, and scenes from which the project grew. Texts by Nike’s Nicholas Schonberger, writer Troy Patterson, curator and historian Glenn Adamson, and Virgil Abloh himself frame the collaborative work within fashion and design history. A foreword by Hiroshi Fujiwara places the project within the historical continuum of Nike collaborators.

The author:

Born in Rockford, Illinois, Virgil Abloh is a multi-hyphenate creative that often rejects classification on creativity. He operates in the realms of Art, Design, and Culture in conjunction with advocacy, mentoring, and philanthropy in the spaces he occupies. After earning a degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he completed a master’s degree in Architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), Chicago. At IIT, while studying a Bauhaus design curriculum devised by Mies van der Rohe, Abloh began to craft the principles of his broader art practice. The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago presented a major traveling survey of Abloh’s work in summer 2019 — one of the highest attended exhibitions in the museum’s history. Currently, Abloh is the Chief Creative Director and founder of Off-White™️ and Men’s Artistic Director at Louis Vuitton, amongst other endeavors.

Every Sneaker Story Worth Telling! A 15-year anthology of cult magazine Sneaker Freaker

The first and only publication of its kind, Sneaker Freaker has been at the forefront of the global sneaker scene for nearly two decades. With over 650 redesigned pages, fresh photography, insane historical detail, and otaku-level minutiae, this monster anthology combines the magazine’s finest and content created exclusively for TASCHEN into one seriously epic celebration of sneakers.

Back in 2002, Simon “Woody” Wood was dreaming up schemes to get free sneakers. Two weeks later, he was the proud owner of Sneaker Freaker and his life was never the same.

From its early roots as a punk-style fanzine to today’s super-slick print and online operations, the fiercely independent publication has documented every collab, custom, limited edition, retro reissue, Quickstrike, Hyperstrike, and Tier Zero sneaker released over the last 15 years.

Woody’s original premise that Sneaker Freaker would be “funny and serious, meaningful and pointless at the same time” has certainly been vindicated in The Ultimate Sneaker Book. With more than 650 pages jam-packed with insider knowledge and his own irreverent observations, the insane historical detail and otaku-level minutiae is beyond obsessive.

Traversing 100 years of history, each chapter paints a rollicking picture of the sneaker industry’s evolution. Air Max, Air Force, Adi Dassler, Converse, Kanye, Dapper Dan, Dee Brown, Michael Jordan, and Yeezy — along with obscure treasures like Troop, Airwalk, and Vision Street Wear — are all exhaustively documented.

This is a definitive source of knowledge. This is… The Ultimate Sneaker Book!

About the Author:

Simon “Woody” Wood is the founder and editor of Sneaker Freaker magazine. In little more than a decade, the Australian created a unique global brand at the fore of the sneaker industry, publishing in over 50 countries. Sneaker Freaker are headquartered in Melbourne, Australia.