Commercial Break


Kickers were very hip shoes in the late 1970s, the footwear of rich rock stars and, judging by the ad above, were mostly only sold in swanky London fashion spots like South Moulton Street and Beauchamp Place.

Of course that made them very desirable to style-conscious kids too and I knew a few who had a pair back then. They’d show them off around the estate, cocky in the knowledge that a pair of red Kicker Hi boots had a status beyond the latest must-have trainers. I never had any because they were too expensive — we were poor, you know — but I didn’t like them much anyway.

They became more popular and widespread in the 1980s, their bright colours and chunky soles going well with the nursery-school outfit of Smiley t-shirts and baggy dungarees of the Madchester/Acid crowd (and were worn by a sheep on the cover of a Farm album), but I have no idea what their hip cachet is these days.

“You Wear It Well” was a bit too obvious a selection for this post so I went with this one instead.

Download: Country Comfort – Rod Stewart (mp3)

4 thoughts on “Commercial Break”

  1. They were big in my neck of the woods with the Casuals in the 80s. The colours went well with all that pastel. And people collected the tags, putting extra tags on them was a thing at one time. I hated them, they look like the worst chunky nursery shoes.

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