To celebrate the diversity of sneaker culture, trace its history and examine its connections with entertainment, technology, contemporary art, hip-hop, sports and fashion, ASM is hosting Sneakertopia: Step Into Street Culture from February until July. It is the Asian debut of an exhibition founded in Los Angeles by Emmy Award-winning producer Steve Harris and Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur Steve Brown in 2019, to share their passion for sneakers.
The display takes visitors through 10 immersive zones filled with artwork by street artists and rare shoe collections on loan by Mandeep Chopra, founder and
CEO of Limited Edt, boutique art consultancy The Culture Story, and popstar JJ Lin. US creatives involved include McFlyy, Michael Murphy, Smoluk, Mimi Yoon and Tommii Lim.
Seventeen Singaporeans are also part of the show, which has 100 limited-edition sneakers, 70 murals, prints, large-scale installations, sculptures and even a DJ mixtape with tracks selected based on hip-hop artists’ influences and connections to sneaker culture.
Professional athletes, designers and brands have worked together to create innovative sneaker designs and The Playground zone doffs the cap to sports legends such as LeBron James, Serena Williams and Michael Jordan.
Think sneakers and you see celebrities, athletes and high-end brands making an imprint across the screen, in the sports arena and even on the catwalk — remember Chloe Zhao’s white Hermès pair when she received the 2021 Best Director Oscar for Nomadland?
Sneakers have made the leap from niche interest to global obsession, says Sotheby’s, which sold a pair of Nike Air Ships worn by Michael Jordan in 1984 for about US$1.47 million in October 2021. They are assets of choice, status symbols that tell stories about those whose feet they adorn, and the people who design and make them.
Getting down to the sole of this growing phenomenon, Adrian George notes that sneaker culture was born on the streets along with street art and skate culture and it was artists, designers and creatives who drove it forward. “It has been appropriated and turned into a global business worth about US$72 billion last year,” adds the director of programmes, exhibitions and museum services at Singapore’s ArtScience Museum (ASM). Market revenue worldwide is forecast to reach US$100 billion ($133 billion) by 2026.
