The Sneaker Odyssey: Looking at Sneakers Through the Female Gaze

French sneaker retailers have presented Sneaker Odyssey, a short documentary directed by Sarah Jocteur that explores the history of sneakers in fashion through the feminine lens. Anchored in the fashion capital of Paris, the investigation is supported by a range of industry experts, including Girls on Kicks Founder Sanne Poeze, France’s Sportstyle Marketing Specialist Olivia Peyronnet, and very own Managing Editor, Audrey Bugeja. The documentary traverses through the many barriers to women entering the sneakersphere, including ‘shrink and pink’ designs, lack of accessible sizing, and above all, the idea that women shouldn’t be wearing sneakers.

Going back to the 60s and 70s, women were expected to forego comfort for beauty, donning heels and ballet flats in lieu of the men’s athletic shoes. As it became more common for men to take their sneakers from the courts, tracks, and fields to more casual wear in the 1980s, women became more interested in this burgeoning sub-culture. While the 90s fashion trends heavily involved the aerobics aesthetic, this still segmented women’s sneakers to the athletic sphere while men were embedding sneakers like into their everyday outfits. SF’s Bugeja recalls that when she bought two in the 90s, she had to buy grade school sizing. But of course, not every release was available in GS, and even then, it still wasn’t ‘normal’ for women to wear sneakers.

Fast forward to 2024 and women wearing sneakers is as natural as hitting a fadeaway; however, it took a lot of advocating and pushing to get to this point. As mentioned by the interviewees, some of the turning points to get here include on the first signature shoe for a female basketball player (Sheryl Swoopes) in 1995, work on recreating the for women in 2017, Women division opening in 2018, the and , and more recently, collaborations between and , and , and and . All of these projects pushed natural femininity into the fashion sneaker world, steering them away from the standard pink and purple approach that plagued previous attempts and instead towards the wider spectrum of feminine design. Additionally, sizing has become much more accessible, with the majority of releases boasting extended sizing down to a women’s 5 or 5.5, not to mention the slew of women’s specific iterations.

Despite this progress, there’s still some to be made in both the design and accessibility realms, but also in normalising women wearing sneakers, especially in professional settings. Tapily Kiadatou recalls in the documentary, ‘I started wearing sneakers, I think, two years after taking the oath… When you run from one hearing to another, it’s super important, and so far, I would say one hearing out of three, they tell me, “but sneakers are not normal”, and I say, “unless I’m mistaken, I don’t work with my feet, but with my head”’.

Dive into the full documentary above to get more insight into the journey of sneakers from both the female and Parisian perspective.