Slam Kicks

The definitive primer on the world’s most popular shoe: the basketball sneaker. Basketball shoes have a long and storied history both on and off the court. Back in the 1930s, a basketball sneaker was created for straight-up performance. Today, hoops footwear do double duty: they’re designed for and by elite players, but to sneakerheads, how they look is nearly as important as how they perform. SLAM Kicks breaks down the path of the basketball sneaker, from the birth of the very first iconic shoe, the Converse Chuck Taylor All-Star, to the white-hot best-selling cultural-phenomenon Nike Air Jordan sneaker line. This book showcases the hottest basketball kicks over time, throwbacks and new shoes alike, covering each legendary sneaker and its design, the technical advancements found in the shoe, the athletes who made the shoe famous, and the cultural waves the footwear has made off the basketball court. Featured sneakers also include the Adidas Jabbar, the Puma Clyde, the Nike Air Force One, the Reebok Question, the AND1 Tai Chi, the Nike Zoom Kobe IV, and many others. SLAM Kicks: Basketball Sneakers That Changed the Game is the perfect gift for basketball-sneaker fans and street-fashion enthusiasts alike.

Andrea's life is pretty close to perfect-she's the leading scorer on her soccer team, has great friends, and can't wait to start a new school year. Then her parents ruin everything by announcing that the family is moving to Scotland for a whole year! When Andrea gets there, she has to deal with a haunted castle, her stuttering problem, and some tough new soccer friends-who might not accept that the boy she is crushing on plays for a rival team. It's a perfect middle-grade tale of friendship, sports, and first love.

Whether you call them kicks or sneakers, runners or gutties, you probably have a pair of athletic shoes in your closet. The earliest sneakers debuted in the 1800s and weren't much more than a canvas upper and a flexible sole made of a crazy new material—rubber. The stuff might have been new to Americans then, but for thousands of years, the indigenous peoples of the Amazon Basin of South America had been using latex made from the milky sap of hevea trees to protect their feet from rocks, sticks, and biting insects. Once Charles Goodyear figured out how to make the stuff more durable, sneakers were here to stay. Early sneakers were initially designed for elite athletes, but kids and teens quickly adopted them. Some of the first brands included Converse, Brooks, and Saucony. German companies Adidas and Puma started up during World War II. The Nike shoe debuted in the 1970s (with a bit of inspiration from a waffle iron). As fitness crazes took off in the 1980s, people all over the world started buying the shoes for workouts and everyday wear. At about the same time, companies began hiring high-profile athletes and pop stars for big-dollar endorsements, and shoe sales soared into the stratosphere to the tune of billions of dollars each year. In Sneaker Century, follow sneaker fashions and the larger-than-life personalities behind the best known athletic shoe brands in history. Learn how teen sneakerheads became important style makers and drove the success of NIKE, Inc., and other shoe companies. Look behind the scenes at the labor-intensive process of manufacturing sneakers. Explore the sneaker frontier of the future—recycled shoes, earth-friendly initiatives, and high-fashion statements. Get ready to speed through the Sneaker Century!

A vibrant, unconventional, highly opinionated guide to the triumphs, joys, struggles, and heartbreaks of the modern era of the game, for every obsessive basketball fan who loves to hate hot takes The Joy of Basketball celebrates the meteoric rise of basketball over the last quarter century by ignoring the bland, traditionalist binary of wins or losses. Instead, the book's focus is on everything else. Using text, charts, and illustrations that upend conventional jock wisdom, the book details the most incredible players in history, draft flops, long-limbed oddballs, superteams, the international talent wave, brawls, scandals, the rapid evolution of contemporary gameplay, coaching, fashion, crime, positional erosion, tragic tales, memes, and the sacred Kardashian Blessing. Bouncing between witty graphics and keen sociopolitical observations, The Joy of Basketball is a subversive sports manifesto camouflaged as a colorful reference book for your coffee table.

"A sure-fire hit with readers who love sports." -Booklist A fast-paced, heartfelt story for basketball fans that proves being a good teammate remains the most important quality in basketball--and in life, from New York Times bestselling author Mike Lupica. Wes' father always told him that there was only one ball in basketball. That you had to know when to take it yourself and when to give it up, that finding the right balance was key. So at every practice and game, Wes tries his best to be a good basketball player and, above all, a good teammate. As the season kicks off, Wes finds that not everyone on his team has the same idea. All-star player and the Hawks' point guard, Danilo "Dinero" Rey seems determined to hold the spotlight and the ball, even if it means costing his team the game. If the Hawks are going to make it to the playoffs, Wes will need an assist--even if it means his most important one comes off the court. In No Slam Dunk, #1 New York Times bestseller Mike Lupica demonstrates once again that there is no children's sports novelist today who can match his ability to weave a story of vivid sports action and heartfelt emotion. A touching story about teamwork and family, of selfishness and generosity, No Slam Dunk shows that even in the face of adversity, giving your best is the surest way to victory. Praise for Mike Lupica: -"Lupica is the greatest sports writer for middle school readers."--VOYA on True Legend -"Lupica will win a Pulitzer for his sportswriting one day (he should have won it already)."--The New York Times on Heat

A collection of writing by Simon Reynolds, centered on music that seemed, in its moment, to prefigure the Future Simon Reynolds's first book in eight years is a celebration of music that feels like a taste of tomorrow. Sounds that prefigure pop music's future—the vanguard genres and heroic innovators whose discoveries eventually get accepted by the wider mass audience. But it's also about the way music can stir anticipation for a thrillingly transformed world just around the corner: a future that might be utopian or dystopian, but at least will be radically changed and exhilaratingly other. Starting with an extraordinary chapter on Giorgio Moroder and Donna Summer, taking in illuminating profiles of Ryuichi Sakamoto, Boards of Canada, Burial, and Daft Punk, and arguing for Auto-Tune as the defining sound of 21st century pop, Futuromania shapes over two dozen essays and interviews into a chronological narrative of machine-music from the 1970s to now. Reynolds explores the interface between pop music and science fiction's utopian dreams and nightmare visions, always emphasizing the quirky human individuals abusing the technology as much as the era-defining advances in electronic hardware and digital software. A tapestry of the scenes and subcultures that have proliferated in that febrile, sexy, and contested space where man meets machine, Futuromania is an enthused listening guide that will propel readers towards adventures in sound. There is a lifetime of electronic listening here.

Just about everyone is familiar with the Nike Air Jordan shoe, but just when did the practice of attaching an athlete’s name to a shoe become common practice? This text takes you from the beginning of the signature shoe industry, and through the 1980s when the popularity of signature shoes accelerated. At the start of the ‘90s, just about every footwear company was producing a signature shoe, and looking for the next charismatic spokesperson, when they saw the dollars Nike was making with the Jordans. Eventually, signature shoes entered all facets of popular culture and were taken for granted by the public. Before long, it wasn’t just the most well-known and marketable athletes getting their own shoe. Athletes in Major League Baseball, the Women’s National Basketball Association, National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, Formula One, the Professional Golfers’ Association, the National Football League, musicians, and even the National Hockey League had their own footwear to go along with the mainstays of the NBA and professional tennis circuits.

Bowen is a coming-of-age story from a unique city block on Staten Island, New York, filled with many gripping moments of drama, misfortune, and triumph of a young man trying to make the best out of the cards he was dealt in life. If you love stories of an underdog; or life in the big city; or what life was like growing up in the late seventies and the eighties; or the crack-filled streets, violence, and hustling of New York City during this era; the impact of drug addiction and mental illness to the family; life growing up in a New York City housing project; and reading about well-known celebrities in their youth, this is the book for you! You will love every minute of this account!

This is the first academic study of sneakers and the subculture that surrounds them. Since the 1980s, American sneaker enthusiasts, popularly known as “sneakerheads” or “sneakerholics”, have created a distinctive identity for themselves, while sneaker manufacturers such as Reebok, Puma and Nike have become global fashion brands. How have sneakers come to gain this status and what makes them fashionable? In what ways are sneaker subcultures bound up with gender identity and why are sneakerholics mostly young men? Based on the author's own ethnographic fieldwork in New York, where sneaker subculture is said to have originated, this unique study traces the transformation of sneakers from sportswear to fashion symbol. Sneakers explores the obsessions and idiosyncrasies surrounding the sneaker phenomenon, from competitive subcultures to sneaker painting and artwork. It is a valuable contribution to the growing study of footwear in fashion studies and will appeal to students of fashion theory, gender studies, sociology, and popular culture.

Wilbur Smith, one of the world's most acclaimed adventure writers, returns to the world of ancient Egypt withWarlock, the stunning sequel to the New York Times bestselling River God. In the wake of a sixty-year war over the reign of the kingdoms of Egypt, two young pharaohs have risen to claim power, but only one can succeed, deciding the fate of his empire forever... The mission of Prince Nefer, rightful heir to the throne, is to rebuild a magnificent kingdom in the stark and tumbled ruins of the embattled city of Gallala. The desire of Lord Naja is to destroy his rival and rule the land with unholy supremacy. But Nefer has on his side the warlock Taita, a matchless ally and legendary priest of notorious powers... To see their dream come true, Nefer and Taita must stay one step ahead of the depraved assassin, survive the tortuous shadow of her ever-pursuing armies, and outwit the shocking betrayals of is own flesh and blood. As Nefer's courage increases, and as Taita's magic grows more beguiling, so grows stronger the power of their tireless enemies.... Now, with the threat of tyranny and blood thundering closer and closer toward the vulnerable gates of Gallala, the ultimate battle for Egypt will begin...