The Sports Shoe by Thomas Turner

Author:Thomas Turner
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781474281812
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2019-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

6.14 Liverpool fans in Munich, West Germany, 1981.

When shoes like the Samba and Stan Smith became ubiquitous, trendsetters began to look further afield. As The End wrote in its 1984 account of terrace fashions, when the styles of 1978 and 1979 “became played out it was decided by all to broaden ones [sic] horizons, and the cry went up Europe!” Britain’s accession to the European Economic Community and the arrival in the 1970s of package holidays, inexpensive European rail and ferry schemes, and the relaxation of currency restrictions together made overseas travel a realistic possibility for many working class Britons. For soccer fans, European competition provided a reason to visit towns and cities that might otherwise have remained off the beaten track. Liverpool fans were some of the best travelled in Europe. The team won the UEFA cup in 1973 and 1976, the European Super Cup in 1977, and the European Cup in 1977, 1978, 1981, and 1984. This unprecedented winning streak, together with a series of pre-season tours and friendlies, meant Liverpool played in continental Europe more often and in more places than any other British team. Travelling fans visited sports stores in what The End called “un-explored territory,” with many “bringing home … smart looking garments with strange sounding names.” According to Hooton, in the early 1980s, “training shoe addicts would never dream of getting a pair you could buy in the city centre in Liverpool.” Sports shoes from abroad, especially adidas models that were unavailable in Britain, became highly prized.17

There were several reasons why shoes that sold in continental Europe were not on sale in Britain. Adidas and Puma catered primarily to German consumers, with many products made solely for the German market. By 1985, adidas made around sixteen million pairs of shoes a year, with 85 percent of them destined for West Germany. Different sporting traditions and well-established “sport for all” schemes, particularly in West Germany, created a mass market for sports clothing and a demand for models that were not needed in Britain. Sports stores were independent, responsible for ordering their own stock, and catered to regional sporting preferences. In the case of adidas, the shoes offered to retailers were determined by the rivalries between adidas France and its parent in Germany. International territories were split between the two sides of the firm: some nations received products from adidas France, some from Germany, and some from both. This internal competition also resulted in huge product duplication. In 1979, for instance, two tennis catalogues were published, one German, the other French. The shoes listed in each were entirely different; not one appeared in both publications. In total, adidas offered twenty-three models just for tennis. On top of this, the nature of footwear production, in which upper materials can be changed easily and soles attached to different uppers, allowed for almost infinite variation as sports shoes became increasingly specialized. Perhaps the most significant factor, however, were contrasting wealth levels across Europe. British travelers were often astonished at the range available overseas.

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