Out Now: Sneaker Freaker’s New SOLED OUT Book!

The day is finally here! Sneaker Freaker’s epic ad archive SOLED OUT is now available in all good retailers, globally! Copies are also coppable directly from SF.

ICYMI, SOLED OUT is an essential reference to the golden age of sneaker advertising spanning across three decades, compiling almost 900 adverts across 720 pages.

This is the physical embodiment of the labour of love SF founder and SOLED OUT author Simon 'Woody' Wood spent over a decade completing. The process involved scouring the globe for any scrap of physical sneaker marketing, then painstakingly narrowing down thousands of clippings into 13 brand chapters. Some ads and shoes are instantly recognisable, while others haven't been seen for decades.

The ‘golden age of sneaker advertising’, as Woody defines it, existed from 1970 to 2000, with any material beyond the new millennium ‘simply too modern and too knowingly sophisticated for sentimental reflection’. And within these three formative decades is a vast array of hardened athletes, celebrity endorsees and pop culture characters lending their likeness to sportswear’s biggest brands as they found and further established their creative and advertorial voice.

SOLED OUT is not only an exploration of the sneakers and the ads that promoted them, but an appreciation for the stories and people behind the scenes (and, in many cases, cameras and computers). As Woody notes, ‘There’s a lot more going on in these ads than just the promotion of sporting footwear.’

Purchase SOLED OUT from the Sneaker Freaker shop or for other IRL and online stockists, check out the full Where To Buy list.