It’s lightweight, waterproof, and extremely durable for a shoe that can go anywhere. What To Consider When Choosing A Pair Of Crocs Look-A-LikesĪny comfy Croc alternative is going to be made from EVA - a rubbery foam that provides exceptional cushioning while it absorbs shock and bounces back after every wear. If you want to hop on the trend but can’t bring yourself to embrace the brand’s signature garden clog, there are actually quite a few shoes similar to Crocs that rock comparable levels of blissed-out comfort in wearable street styles.

The trend towards comfort dressing coupled with wide-ranging celeb endorsements ( Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber are both fans) has renewed the rubberized shoe’s appeal. Example: 'I gotta get me some new kicks to wear to the Funhouse Saturday,' The Funhouse, by the way, is a popular disco with with this crowd.Along with wide-leg jeans, matching tracksuits, and other polarizing early aughts fashion statements, you might have noticed the reemergence of one unlikely icon in particular: Crocs. Pumas and Nikes are the current favourites. Kicks: synonymous with sneakers, which are the last word in footwear. _issue us two kinds, hobnails, or ﬁeld shoes,Īnd marching shoes, which are just plain,Ī snippet of page 159 of The Rap Attack: African Jive to New York Hip Hop (Pluto Press, 1984) by David Toop gives a rough idea of when and how it was specifically applied to sneakers: Know what it is to be comfortable in shoes The Literary Digest for Aug(page 47, Hathitrust) published a letter, dated July 2, from a violin player who had joined the army: 'She bought me these kicks,' he said and held up a foot.

the story of a city within a city (1964) and a 1973 Black world magazine.Ī Jazz Lexicon (1964) by Robert S. The OED has a pair of 1930s quotations from tramps' slang, followed by John Henrik Clarke's Harlem U.S.A. 1500’ Life in Sing Sing 250/1 Kicks, shoes. The Oxford English Dictionary dates it to 1904:ġ904 ‘No. The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (2008) says kicks meaning shoes is US from 1897, but has no quotations. It appears to have come from hobo slang (circa 1900s - 1930s), via jazz slang (1920s - 1960s) into African-American slang (1960s -) and from there to more mainstream use, and became used specifically for sneakers/trainers/athletic shoes when these were the most fashionable shoes. Kicks for shoes in general is at least 19th century.

Another word for running shoes