Reading – Art and Sole
This last weekend I grabbed a copy of Art & Sole: Contemporary Sneaker Art & Design while I was out of town. A nice, heavy book packed with photo after photo of high-end sneakers, sneaker art, sneaker-related toys, and sections of special projects and exhibitions, this book turned out to be an excellent introduction to an art style that I knew existed but had never investigated.
The Amazon description reads:
“In recent years the sneaker scene has exploded with limited editions and artist/designer collaborations. These specialist shoes are invariably produced as short runs using innovative or luxury materials and often have bespoke packaging.
Art & Soul is the first book to focus exclusively on contemporary cutting-edge sneaker design. It sets out to explore and to celebrate the creative side of sneaker culture showing the best and most original rarities/collaborations and previewing the latest art and design. These are the shoes at the sharp end of sneaker culture—not shoes that can be found in your average sports store.
The book also highlights how creative advances on-the-scene have been furthered by a growing number of artists who base their work on sneakers—from sculptures made from dissected shoes to oil paintings on canvas and even the customization of the shoes themselves. There is now a huge crossover between sneaker culture and the worlds of art and design.”
The book isn’t at all perfect. The decision to cram so much into a single book means that many of the more interesting photos are tiny. The publisher should have either authorized a second book (dividing the work between sneaker-related art/art on sneakers and limited-run sneakers) but what’s here is enough to give me the best look at this subculture that I could hope for from a single book.
I can easily see why people get into sneaker art, but I just cannot imagine how anyone affords collecting these shoes. Designer toys are expensive enough, but art sneakers blow toy prices out of the water. It would be fun to take advantage of one of the sites specializing in custom sneakers and design my own pair, though.
For more photos and thoughts visit Creative Review and J A X O N.