Five years ago, sneakerologists noticed a sudden shift in millennials’ choice of kicks. Twentysomethings–dressed from head to toe in athleisure–were ditching their high-performance athletic shoes for iconic sneaker silhouettes of the 1980s and ’90s. Of course, some sneakerheads have always been into old-school sneakers, but overnight this obsession with vintage shoes was going mainstream. Why were millennials rummaging through the deepest corners of their parents’ closets for their old shoes? Carlos Escobar, a designer at Reebok, saw this nostalgia unfolding around the world, from the subways of New York to hip neighborhoods in Paris to the shopping streets of Berlin. “Young people seemed to have a kind of longing for the past,” he says. “And it was playing out in their sneakers.” Read more at Fast Company.
