Ever how sneakers came to be?

Well, believe it or not this rubber-soled footwear was not always as fashionable as it is today.

In fact, the first “sneakers” were rubber-shoes with no right or left foot. Imagine hitting the dance floor in those!

Around 1892, the US Rubber Company came up with more comfortable rubber sneakers with canvas tops, called Keds.  Keds were first mass-marketed as canvas-top "sneakers" in 1917.
 

The footwear was christened “sneakers” because they were so quiet, a person wearing them could sneak up on someone. The word was coined by Henry Nelson McKinney, an advertising agent for N. W. Ayer & Son.

During the first half of the 20th century, sports shoes were worn mostly to play sports. But in the 1950s, kids began wearing them as fashion statements. Even more teens followed the fad after seeing James Dean in sneakers in the popular movie Rebel Without a Cause.

Sales of sneakers really took off in 1984, when Michael Jordan signed a contract to wear a Nike shoe called Air Jordans - the most famous sneaker ever made.

Sources: Factmonster.com, inventors.about.com