Brands have always promised that their shoes made you run the fastest or jump the highest. How they accomplished that, however, has been fascinating at best and comedic at worst.

With the Air Jordan line, Nike and Michael Jordan launched the sneaker game to another level, but that landmark 1984 deal was far from the first of its kind. Here are the athletes who ran so MJ could.

Whether MC, DJ, breaker, or graffiti writer, practitioners of hip-hop culture’s four pillars have always had fresh sneakers, way before hype took over.

Once upon a time, the best Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and Fendi pieces weren’t made by those fashion houses, but by a boutique in Harlem that arguably started because of a boxing match.

Before Steph Curry, there was Damon Jones.

Little quirks are fun, until they’re not. While mostly harmless, these classic bad sneakerhead habits need to be retired soon for everyone’s good.

In 1984, the first shoe able to track running stats was introduced. This is what happened then and since.