SWOOSH: THE STORY OF NIKE AND THE MEN WHO PLAYED THERE
by J.B. Strasser and Laurie Becklund; Harcourt Brace Jovanovich; $24.95
Sneakers -- or what some people still call tennis shoes and most everyone now refers to as athletic shoes -- are an American icon. The sneaker is not so much an object as an idea, a symbol of values that America has always taken pride in: social and physical mobility, practicality, informality, even rebellion (such as when Woody Allen wore a pair of Converse high-tops to escort First Lady Betty Ford to the ballet in 1975). It has only been...