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In recent times, the fashion world has come to embrace and adore sneakers in ways that couldn’t have been imagined. The evolution of the footwear will be on full display this summer as New York’s Brooklyn Museum unveils a new exhibit this Friday (July 10), The Rise Of Sneaker Culture.

The exhibit opens July 10 and will be featured in the Morris A. and Meyer Schapiro Wing on the museum’s fifth floor. According to the museum’s websites, visitors can expect to witness the sneaker’s 19th-century origins to the fancy offerings that have emerged in the past 10 years. The museum writes on its site that this is the first such exhibition to study the history of sneakers and the culture surrounding it.

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The exhibition, which includes approximately 150 pairs of sneakers, looks at the evolution of the sneaker from its beginnings to its current role as status symbol and urban icon. Included are works from the archives of manufacturers such as Adidas, Converse, Nike, Puma, and Reebok as well as private collectors such as hip-hop legend Darryl “DMC” McDaniels, sneaker guru Bobbito Garcia, and Dee Wells of Obsessive Sneaker Disorder.

Also featured are sneakers by Prada and other major fashion design houses and designers, as well as those made in collaboration with artists including Damien Hirst and Kehinde Wiley. Film footage, interactive media, photographic images, and design drawings contextualize the sneakers and explore the social history, technical innovations, fashion trends, and marketing campaigns that have shaped sneaker culture over the past two centuries.

The exhibit was put together by the American Federation of Arts and the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto. Elizabeth Semmellhack, the senior curator at the Bata Shoe Museum, curated the Brooklyn Museum’s exhibition.

The Rise Of Sneaker Culture will run until October.

Photo: Ron Wood. Courtesy American Federation of Arts/Bata Shoe Museum