We’re not sure if you’ve been naughty or nice but hopefully it is the later because if you are a sneaker aficionado, there are some great books for all you sneakerheads this holiday season.  We got caught up in the “sneaker game” years ago and eventually cashed out BUT… we still love those hard to find, hard to get kicks that EVERYONE wants. (You hear me Travis Scott, EVERYONE WANTS!)

 

Phaidon commemorates the company’s influence with Nike: Better is Temporary, a landmark publication that charts Nike’s transformation from rebellious upstart to global phenomenon.

This immersive visual survey offers an unprecedented, behind-the-scenes exploration into Nike’s ethos-driven design formula, placing industry-defining innovations and globally recognized products alongside previously unpublished designs, prototypes, insider stories, and more.

Beginning with “Breaking2”, an introduction detailing Nike’s 2017 attempt to facilitate a sub-two-hour marathon, the book lays out in five thematic chapters Nike’s focus on performance, brand expression, collaboration, inclusive design, and sustainability.

The book’s extraordinary design also nods to its contents. The striking cover features overlapping silkscreened layers of Nike’s proprietary Volt yellow and Hyperpunch pink colors overlaying an image of world-champion marathoner Eliud Kipchoge printed in a half-tone dot pattern. The book’s spine, visible through the clear jacket, showcases a series of colored tabs that extend from its interior pages and which are referenced in the book’s bonus chapter, “Crafting Color.”

Combining 500 color illustrations with stories, insights, knowledge, passion, and history shared by Nike’s remarkable team, Nike: Better is Temporary will serve as a manual of innovation and inspiration for generations to come.

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More than a decade in the making, Soled Out is the definitive — and only — collection of sneaker advertisements from the footwear industry’s golden age. Lovingly written and compiled by Simon ‘Woody’ Wood, founder of the legendary Sneaker Freaker magazine, this colossal volume combines nearly 900 vintage images with a punchy narrative full of insider stories and historical revelations. 

How many of these ads do YOU remember?

Hardback

720 pages

900 illustrations

Size: 12 3/8 x 9 in

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More than 100 years ago the brothers Adolf (“Adi”) and Rudolf Dassler made their first pair of sports shoes. Hundreds of groundbreaking designs, epic moments, and star-studded collabs later, this book presents a visual review of the adidas shoe through almost 200 models.

To further develop and tailor his products to athletes’ specific needs, Dassler asked them to return their worn footwear when no longer needed, with all the shoes eventually ending up in his attic (to this day, many athletes return their shoes to adidas, often as a thank you after winning a title or breaking a world record). This collection now makes up the “adidas archive”, one of the largest, if not the largest archive of any sports goods manufacturer in the world—which photographers Christian Habermeier and Sebastian Jäger have been visually documenting in extreme detail for years.

Shot using the highest reproduction techniques, these images reveal the fine details as much as the stains, the tears, the repair tape, the grass smudges, the faded autographs. It’s all here, unmanipulated and captured in extremely high resolution—and with it comes to light the personal stories of each individual wearer. We encounter the shoes worn by West Germany’s football team during its “miraculous” 1954 World Cup win and those worn by Kathrine Switzer when she ran the Boston Marathon in 1967, before women were officially allowed to compete; custom models for stars from Madonna to Lionel Messi; collabs with the likes of Pharrell Williams, Raf Simons, Stella McCartney or Yohji Yamamoto; as well as the brand’s trailblazing techniques and materials.

Accompanied by expert texts, each picture tells us the why and the how, but also conveys the driving force behind adidas. What we discover goes beyond mere design; in the end, these are just shoes, worn out by their users who have loved them—but they are also first-hand witnesses of our sports, design, and culture history, from the beginnings of the Dassler brothers and the founding of adidas until today.

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Sneaker Freaker’s epic guide to the ultimate sneaker collectors

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The stories behind the brands, designers, and sneakerheads that transformed athletic footwear into a cultural phenomenon unfold in this epic volume. From its early twentieth-century origins as a sporting shoe to the thrill of seeing Michael Jordan’s red, white, and black high-tops on the court to the swagger and style of hip-hop footwear, the sneaker has become a status marker and a coveted cult collectible.

This history of the sneaker spans Nike’s famous swish logo and global domination, the saga of the dueling brothers who respectively founded Adidas and Puma, and the enduring popularity of Off-White kicks and Vans.

With a glossary of key terms and an overview of the technological and stylistic revolutions of the sneaker, this is an essential book for understanding the streetwear universe, vocabulary, and codes; its innovators and their coveted models; as well as the burgeoning global resale economy.

Through profiles of the brands; portraits of Virgil Abloh, Chitose Abe, and Travis Scott; and interviews with collector Max Limol and pop culture guru Sarah Andelman of the legendary Parisian boutique Colette, this book offers deep perspective on the creativity of the industry. Insight into the future of sneakers and how the leading brands are committed to sustainability, customization, and gender equity reveal how the sneaker business continues to reinvent itself at the forefront of culture.

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