Puma, Mostro, 2000

San Francisco museum runs with athletic shoe show

Yves Behar-Fuseproject, The Fuse Shoe, 2000     INTERACTIVE GALLERY Click: More from the exhibit     RESOURCES   ART MUSEUM SITES:   international   u.s. cities: a-h   u.s. cities: i-q   u.s. cities: r-z

July 21, 2000
Web posted at: 4:59 p.m. EDT (2059 GMT)

By Thurston Hatcher
CNN.com Writer

(CNN) -- Those Nikes you've been slouching around in might just be museum-worthy.

Recognizing that Keds and high-tops have long since given way to a stampede of multicolored, expertly engineered footwear, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has mounted an exhibition that pays homage to the modern athletic shoe.

"Design Afoot: Athletic Shoes 1995-2000," which opens Saturday and continues through October 17, traces the recent evolution of athletic footwear with more than 150 shoes from a dozen companies, including Adidas, Converse, Nike, Oakley, Polo, Prada and Puma.

"Part of what this exhibit is about is to have you take off your shoes, put a spotlight on them, and look at them in real life," said Aaron Betsky, the museum's curator of architecture, design and digital projects.

Betsky and co-organizer Steven Skov Holt actually emphasized aesthetics over athletics as they scanned catalogs, Web sites, articles and advertisements looking for the right shoes.

"We chose the shoes not on performance or durability or comfort, because we can't really judge those kinds of things, but purely on their visual excitement, how beautiful they look," Betsky said.

They also opted for shoes that, while intended as athletic wear, could be worn on the pavement -- meaning cleats and climbing shoes were out.

'More and more sci-fi'

The shoes are displayed on three shelves encircling a room, going from the simplest, most pared-down shoes to "the most exuberant, most baroque, most over-the-top shoes," Betsky said.

In the middle of the exhibition are additional shoes that -- unlike the others - - visitors are encouraged to touch. Also on display are two-dimensional prototypes drawn up by five renowned designers.

Betsky said they focused the exhibition on the last five years because of the profound effects computers and new materials have had on designs. He suggested that people have also become much more willing to wear shoes that not so long ago might have been considered too funky.

"What you've seen in the last few years is shoes that have become more and more sci-fi," he said.

Although most of the shoes are on loan, Betsky contributed two pairs -- Gucci and Tommy Hilfiger -- from his own closet.

"They're very well worn," he said.

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