Tennis Shoes – Become the new Boris Becker.
Like almost all shoes designed for sports (except shoes for sports that require spikes like soccer, golf, American football, rugby, etc.), tennis shoes (also generically called “sneakers") are also being used for casual wear because of their comfort. Hence, shoe manufacturers consider aesthetics in their design parameters to attract various market segments with varying levels of fashion consciousness. Men’s tennis shoes are normally designed to go well with casual clothing like denims and T-shirts. Women’s tennis shoes, on the other hand, are designed to also go well with “athletic-casual" outfits aside from the standard casual clothing. Designs for tennis shoes, and sneakers in general, vary according to the country of origin. German brands, for example tend to design “aggressive", “rugged", and “athletic" characteristics into their designs, and normally stick to standard color schemes for that “everybody" appeal. These designs have the advantage of “recyclability", i.e., they become popular for a while, disappear to the bargain basement, and experience resurgence in demand that follows that of other fashion designs and looks. Italian brands, on the other hand, tend to skew towards fineness, “fashionability" and, ultimately, expensiveness, daring to experiment with color schemes, designs and materials that are out of the ordinary.
Sneakers (tennis shoes included) have been part and parcel of the hip hop culture since the 1970’s. Whatever the fashion trend is at the time, whether it is oversized shirts, tight-fitting shirts, low-waist, loose fitting jeans, pencil pants, long pants, below the knee shorts, denims, leather, or bare-chest, etc., sneakers have almost always been the standard footwear of choice for the denizen of the hip hop, whether you were in the era of the Sugar Hill Gang or Eminem, Vanilla Ice, or Snoop Dog.
Sneakers represent big business. While not as popular as it had been in the 1970’s to 1980’s (where the likes of John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Bjorn Borg, Chris Everett, and Ilie Nastase reigned supreme), endorsements from tennis champions of popular brands bring in hundreds of millions of dollars both for the endorsers as well as the endorsed tennis shoes, equipment, and apparel. Not bad for a sport where “love" means nothing.