Élodie Gachot, Rights Executive "Long reserved for sports, sneakers are now worn by everyone, no matter their age or class. But sneakers are more than a fashion statement: they have a long history."

From elite to working-class, athletes to urbanites, hip-hop to rap, Monroe to Brando, Michael Jordan to Karl Lagerfeld: everyone wears sneakers. In World War II, they were a political issue; today, they are a commercial item par excellence. Sneakers have ceaselessly reinvented themselves, reflecting the political, social, economic and environmental concerns of movements as they evolve. Here in this book is the history of sneakers over the last century.