A HISTORY OF BASKETBALL IN FIFTEEN SNEAKERS

by Russ Bengtson, Forward by Bobbito Garcia

“If you ever want to get a good look at the history of basketball, just go to a sneaker store. Most of it will be right up there on the walls.” So begins expert sneakerhead Russ Bengtson’s expansive chronology of one of the world’s most popular sports: A HISTORY OF BASKETBALL IN FIFTEEN SNEAKERS (Workman Publishing; on sale Oct 10, 2023; $35).

A compelling narrative that charts the history of the sport from Chuck Taylors to the Back to The Futureinspired Nike Adapt BB, this is a basketball book sure to please the most diehard of hoops fans and sneaker aficionados alike.

The former editor in chief of SLAM magazine and Complex’s first sneaker editor, Bengtson’s unparalleled expertise shines as he explores the tangled history of shoes and hoops, both multibillion-dollar industries that grew together and built each other. Beginning as simply a part of the uniform, sneakers are now the primary means of individual expression for players.

Hugely influential in marketing pro ball before the leagues even knew how to market themselves, they enhanced and even helped create true basketball superstardom, with players’ signature shoes catapulting hoopers a step beyond mere All-Star status and into cultural zeitgeist territory.

In A HISTORY OF BASKETBALL IN FIFTEEN SNEAKERS, readers will discover the history of iconic shoes like:

• The humble Chuck Taylor All-Star— a basic sneaker with little arch or ankle support that is virtually unchanged since it came on the market in 1917 —and which happens to the be shoes that Hall of Famers like Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain wore when they set so many unbeatable records.

• The Puma Clyde, named after Knicks legend Walt Frazier—the first link forged between the world of basketball and the world of fashion.

• Nike Air Swoopes—Sheryl Swoopes’ signature shoe, on the market before there was even a major league for women players. This shoe and the Hall of Famer wearing it helped launch the WNBA, a huge turning point in the sport.

A HISTORY OF BASKETBALL IN FIFTEEN SNEAKERS features a foreword by author and sneaker expert Bobbito Garcia, plus stunning photography and diagrams of the iconic shoes profiled, showing readers why the evolution of the game and the evolution of the shoes are so intertwined – for example, how a kid called Michael Jordan changed the way college players are recruited to how Steph Curry’s explosive three-point shooting called for revolutionizing the structure of the shoes themselves.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Russ Bengtson is the former editor in chief of SLAM magazine and was the longtime sneaker editor at Complex. He wrote a monthly column at Mass Appeal and conducted one-on-one interviews with most of the NBA superstars of the 1990s and 2000s, including Michael Jordan, Allen Iverson, Kevin Garnett, Tracy McGrady, Kobe Bryant, Charles Barkley, and Shaquille O’Neal. He was also a contributor for the books Agents of Change: The Story of DC Shoes and Its Athletes, SLAM KICKS: Basketball Sneakers That Changed the Game, and Nike SB: The Dunk Book.