Every year, 24 billion pairs of shoes are produced in the world: from slip-ons for one dollar to Kanye West’s sneakers, popularly known as crocs, for two million. People’s insatiability is being reduced with the help of new technologies: virtual and “eternal” shoes are being used, which are recycled into new shoes after wear. Paula Stradiņa Museum of Medical History introduces the history of sports shoes – from a symbol of simplicity to a cult object – and shows unique copies of Adidas, Nike, Jordan, as well as the new brands of celebrities and secret collectors.
A bad athlete won’t be helped by Michael Jordan’s crocs either, but a good one will reach the world record even with bare feet. The exhibition “Sneakers: eco x ego” begins with the story of the Ethiopian runner Abebe Bikila, who won the marathon at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome, running the distance barefoot. Legend has it that he didn’t have his own sports shoes, but when it came time to choose a pair before the start, the technical sponsors “adidas” there are no more shoes of the relevant size left.
Nine years later, Bikila got into a car accident, became paralyzed, but did an experimental rehabilitation course in England for those times, picked up a shooting range and became one of the first Paralympic stars.
“Freaks”, “geeks”, “gamers”, “feats”, “fakes”, “hypes” – the explanatory plates near the exhibits use language understandable to teenagers, for whom krosenes or “sneakers” (from the English “sneakers”) are something more than just shoes. To keep the attention of the non-reading generation, a special font and paragraph separation, dynamic exhibits and a lot of videos, sometimes even with quite bold content, have been chosen. For example, video with Estonian rapper Tommy Keshawho in cooperation with “adidas” has created the world’s longest crocs, – among the exhibits are also the meter-long black and white “Superstar” (in the cover photo).
