Sneakers run into the hearts and minds of their fans

NEW YORK — The perfect sneaker marries function and style, is culturally relevant but not trendy. One such shoe is the Nike Presto, according to Chris Law, co-author of "Sneakers: The Complete Collectors' Guide" (Thames & Hudson), and Adidas did a good job with its Climacool shoe, too.

"A lot of the sports brands are pushing trainers forward with technology, but if they're so function-led, they can be ugly. We don't want companies to overlook fashion. You don't want new technology in a really ugly looking space," he says.

The key is clean lines and not too much clutter, according to Law.

Law is a sneaker authority, of sorts. He and some of his buddies in London run a Web site called Crooked Tongues that is devoted to sneakers. Not to mention that Law personally owns so many pairs of sneakers that he's lost track of exactly how many are in his closet. "It's more than 200 and less than 300," he says with a laugh.

He says no pair ever gets too worn or dirty because he wears them on a rotation — and he's constantly adding new ones. His next paycheck is already spent on a pair of Vans.

For Law, 33, the sneakers that define his generation are Puma Suedes and Adidas Superstars. (Coincidentally, Puma and Adidas were brands founded by brothers, Adolph and Rudolph Dassler.) For an older generation, the classic shoe is probably the Converse Chuck Taylor All Star, and for Gen Yers, the "must-have" sneakers of their youth were Nike Air Jordans.

Basketball shoes have been popular in the United States for decades — hence the Chuck Taylor and the Adidas Jabbar, which when it came out in 1971 was the first to be endorsed by a basketball star (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), but Britons typically favored serious running trainers. That all changed with the emergence of hip-hop in the 1990s, Law says.

Now 13-year-old boys pay attention to their footwear the way 30-year-old women pay attention to their handbags.

"It's the age of hip-hop, and that's changed the world of sneakers. It became part of your identity. How you wear them, how you lace them say something about you," Law says. "In England, if you see someone in a certain pair of trainers, you might know where they come from. Certain shoes you can look at and say, 'He's from the north of England and he's into football.' "

But David Maddocks, vice president of global marketing for Converse, makes the case that sneakers are among the most democratic icons, especially when it comes to wannabe sports stars.