Velcro sneaker straps were created in the late 1960’s; designed with the purpose to lock feet into shoes giving a tighter and secure grip. Velcro sneakers became a trendy shoe especially for wearing on casual days. The fashion industry discovered they could use artistic and futuristic designs to create a trend that celebrities took part in and young teenagers. In 1968, Puma released a pair of Velcro sneakers making them the first brand to do so which lead the follow up of Adidas and Reebok.      

As we can see, the image on the left was taken on the way to my lecture. My eyes caught a fellow students Velcro shoes and kindly asked if a picture of them could be taken. I managed to ask some questions like the comfortability, style and features of the Velcro sneakers. She appeared to prefer Velcro straps to laces because they are a lot more suitable for quickly putting your shoes and taking them off.

Fortunately for myself, I work at a retail store called ‘Schuh’ and was able to photograph a few pictures of Velcro type sneakers that are available there to buy. These shoes I photographed from the display stands of Schuh, tell us that Velcro shoes have become very kid friendly in terms of fashion because parents have now seen the benefits of making parenthood a little more easier by making their baby wear easy to wear shoes rather than laces.

We took pictures to demonstrate how Velcro sneakers was formed into different shapes and structures. We were able to dissect the shoe by cutting and stretching the shape. This image demonstrates what our shoe looked like once we took it apart from its original standard. From picking apart the Velcro strap, I discovered the comfortable materials used to showcase the shape, feel and look of the sneaker.

I have learnt through experience and research that Velcro sneakers are beneficial for young children and elderly people as they are much simple to place on and off feet. In today’s fashion trends, Velcro sneakers aren’t seen as very popular by young teenagers, instead are seen as a quick last minute style that is used to run or wear on a lazy days, however teenagers as seen as trending tend to outfit trainers with Velcro straps and laces which adds a mixed style to their clothing.

Velcro sneakers funnily enough remind me of Marty’s shoes in back to the future, Velcro straps were the shoe of the future when they were first released. A shoe with no lace was viewed as the breakthrough shoe designs but as time progressed the Velcro sneaker didn’t that far

Through research on Velcro sneakers I have learnt that the shoe was a design that has lasted the test of time by helping others who perhaps don’t like their shoes containing laces for various reasons whether they aren’t accustomed to them due to fashion reasons or are simply lazy to lace up trainers. However, Velcro sneakers are aimed at a market that is more mature or pre-school children and not teenagers.

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Images were taken by Jardim, Claudia (my own camera) October, 2015 at Brighton.