Hip Hop Shoes

The Creation

Hip hop shoes are created in the underground streets amongst the hip hop community and designed overseas in countries like Tokyo and Japan. The production is then supported and put in demand by hip hop stars such as, mega-producer Pharrell Williams and sneaker fanatic rap megastar Fat Joe. These factors make the shoes fashionable, limited and in demand.

Co-founder of Roc-a-fella Records, Damon Dash has his own shoes called Prokeds. St. Louis rapper Nelly has his own shoes, Derrty, which are distributed through Reebok along with International Reggeton star Daddy Yankee. Reebok has also granted footwear lines to rappers Jay-Z, who has is own S.Carters, and 50 Cent who has his G Unit line.

What Makes Them Hip Hop Footwear?

What makes a shoe a hip hop shoe? It’s what the shoe represents, who wears them, but most importantly, how rare they are. It’s a known fact that hip hop superstars have the currency to purchase anything they lay their eyes on without thinking twice about the price. Unfortunately, what hip hop superstars wear is what sets the trends that the consuming hip hop community wants to wear but the average consumer can’t always afford it. The most popular items are limited edition shoes.

Types of Hip Hop Shoes

The hip hop community embraces four types of popular hip hop shoes: Retro Jordan’s, Evisu, Ice Cream’s and Bapes, also known as Bathing Apes. These shoes are highly expensive and hard to get, but they set the community in a frenzy because they represent a certain status that makes the wearers popular and looked at as persons who are financially superior.

Watch any hip hop video and the artist will be wearing one of the shoes mentioned above. Lyrical references are constantly made in hip hop songs about these status symbols, and the most popular shoes mentioned are Jordan’s and Bapes.

Here are the four types of hip hop shoes, who makes them, who endorses them, and what they represent.

Retro Jordan

Made by Nike, Retro Jordans are the product of the years Michael Jordan spent building his eluxrious basketball career. The word 'retro' means a style from the past. For instance, the first pair of Retro Jordan 13 came out in 1998.

Two things make the Retro Jordan line rare. One is the fact they cost any where from $135 and up; the second is the fact that once a Jordan is released, it can take years, if ever, to be re-released. The Retro Jordan 13 was re-released in 2005, seven years after the original. Jordan’s are worn but more often collected.

Ice Cream Hip Hop Shoes

Ice Creams are the product from the brilliant mind of mega-producer Pharrell Williams and designed by Tokyo designer Nigo. The Ice Cream shoe is a skateboarding shoe created for Pharrell's hip hop skateboarding team that he calls The Ice Cream Team. Over the course of 2006, skateboarding has become surprisingly popular in the hip hop community, which has added to the popularity of the shoe.

The Ice Cream is a hip hop shoe because skateboarding has merged with hip hop music, and you can’t go to any city's downtown area or park without spotting someone skateboarding and wearing a pair of Ice Cream’s. Ice Cream shoes come in numerous designs and prices. In retail stores, the most common designs, the multi-color shoes, cost $800-$1,000, but on authentic dealer websites, the multi-design shoes go for anywhere between $210-$350.

Bapes (Bathing Apes)

Bapes are a product of Japan’s underground hip hop scene. They are designed by Tokyo designer Nigo. Bapes are the most popular hip hop shoe worn and talked about by hip hop artists next to Retro Jordan’s. Authentic Bapes are the single hardest shoe to come by, because most have to come from Tokyo and are priced at $210 minimum! Rap star Lil’ Wayne can be seen draped in Bapes almost every time he is in public, and he can been seen wearing Bapes shoes and jackets in his “Hustler’s Muzik” video. Since Bapes are so exclusive and expensive, the hip hop community has embraced them.

Evisu

Evisu has experienced ridiculous success with their $400 jeans. Now they’ve tried their hand at shoes and have been successful as well. Evisu is a Japanese line founded in 1988, and the reason Evisu is a hip hop shoe is, again, it’s rare and expensive. Some Evisu designs and styles are hand stitched or hand painted, making the production of a single shoe extremely labor intensive. Because Evisu is one of the most labor-intensive products available jacks up the price. Evisu shoes can now be found in select urban footwear stores, Finish Line is the first athletic retail chain to carry Evisu.

In Conclusion

A shoe is only a shoe until someone puts it on, and that person can define its meaning to a group of people. A hip hop shoe is a shoe that is popular with the men and women who represent the hip hop culture, and that culture embraces rare and expensive items.

With the level of popularity and the demand of consumers to posses these rare and expensive shoes, the hefty price tag is the only thing that stops everyone from owning a pair. With that in mind, there are a lot of conterfiet Jordan's, Bapes, Ice Creams and Evisu in the streets and on the internet. Be warned and remember if you pay much less than $100 for a pair of these shoes, they are most likely fakes.