The clichéd thing to say here is that Adam "Air Rev" Leaventon has forgotten more about sneakers than you'll ever know, but the truth is—and if you read this whole thing you'll understand—Adam doesn't seem to have forgotten a damn thing. He grew up a sneaker fanatic, paid his collector dues digging in musty basements for forgotten gems, then later parlayed his years of study into a career as an exec at Puma and DC Shoes. Right now he's testing free agency, but that's a good thing for us, as we were able to tap into his seemingly boundless knowledge. Read on and enjoy. Once upon a Borg, around about 1985, you already had your Bruins, your Shells and your Suedes, and maybe—if you were a fly type of player—your patent leather Concord Mids. If you lived in Philadelphia, New York or Baltimore, maybe you had your Air Force 1s. You tried to have something nobody ever saw before. You tried to customize your joints and put three pairs of laces in them to get that color combination just right and all yours. 

And at some point you might have said to yourself, “damn, I have laced my joints bar style, zigzag and checkerboard; I have jelly rolled them; and dyed them a shade of burgundy that no other cat has done.” Ultimately, however, they bit your style. How then, my fashionable friend, could you achieve the style they hadn’t obtained yet? For a very brief period of time around 1985-86, there was an unusual convergence of rap culture and European culture. FILA was an extremely high-end European proposition. Ellesse had a jewel on the back, and you couldn’t afford it. Brands like T.R.O.O.P. and British Knights were about to ride the Euro wave and make paper, and emcees were moving the dial with English accents, both legitimate and make-believe. In that moment, just before Nike put a headlock on the athletic lifestyle market, sidewalks were saturated with Nike, adidas and Puma. But step into your friendly neighborhood sporting goods store, and next to the catgut and Babolat, Kneissl and Prince, you were drawn in by a wall of something very different for your feet.

No one could tell you they were skippies either. Euro-pedigreed, and very new to the U.S.. Imported to the store by your favorite retailer. Imported to the block by you. The list you are about to read details out The 50 Greatest Tennis Sneakers of All Time. The list is necessarily personal and is generally based on the following criteria: Style: This is criteria number one. It is why I started buying shoes, and why most people reading Complex do also. Innovation: This is not an article about performance tennis. Still, innovation and forward progress are mission critical for footwear companies. Innovation can come in the form of performance technology, but can also come in the form of advances in fashion or in the manufacturing process. Story: I am a sucker for a good story. I like the G Vilas, but I really like what Guillermo Vilas was doing during Wimbledon in 1982. I wonder if he was doing it in Puma. Tennis shoes are dope, I am honored to have the opportunity to dialogue on this topic.

Feedback is 100 percent welcome. and I'll respond if I can. In the meantime, bust out your Shoe Goo and get to reading!Tennis trophies, trophy wives, trophy life – Boris Becker does not stay at the Intercontinental. Clown Shower Head‘Baron Von Slam’ was the precocious boss of the pro tennis game in the 1980s; Mirrored Closet Doors With Wood Framehe stormed Wimbledon as a 17-year-old, backed it up the next year to prove it was no accident and ended his enviable career with six Grand Slam titles. Better Homes And Gardens Warm Comforting KitchenHe did it all with a swagger that shattered the mold of the stern German stereotype, while accruing a spectacular flock of fangirls along the way – a most rare achievement for a red-head.

The shoe that was on his feet for the start of that reign, the Puma Boris Becker, is being reissued and Sir Boom Boom was in town to promote it. We scored some time with him and talked about the sneaker bring-back and changes in pro tennis… We’re looking at the Puma Boris Becker retro model now, is this year’s release any different to the original? I think it’s exactly the same. Obviously technology has changed. This shoe was very, very modern when it came out. It was groundbreaking because it was the first half-top tennis shoe, and I needed that to support my ankles, with my particular style. And 30 years later I think it’s still very valid. As a pro court shoe or a casual sneaker? As a tennis shoe and as a shoe you’re very comfortable in. I always needed to be comfortable on the court, so that was a focus, and that’s important with casual shoes. So would wearing this pair of shoes from the 80s to play in today not be unthinkable? No, I would wear it.

It was made for my foot, though. We hear a lot about new technologies in sports shoes every year. Is it a beat-up, though? How far do you think athletic shoe development has come? I think they’re different, but every player has different specs, and different needs in a shoe. Obviously when you’re a runner you want a very light shoe. But I wasn’t a runner, I was more of a power guy who came up to the net. So I needed a very strong shoe to support my ankles. You were wearing it at your first Wimbledon, right?. Did they say Boris Becker on them? Not the first year, I don’t think, but definitely the second year. So it started off as a general Puma model? Yeah, it was a general Puma shoe. Then I won Wimbledon, and Puma realised that I would be a good endorsement for this shoe. Were you signed to them already, at that time? Yep, for shoes and racquets. How did that partnership come about when you were so young, and an unproven player on the pro scene?

Puma is a German company, I’m German. I always loved Puma. I’ve met Mr (Rudi) Dassler a lot of times, so we started the relationship. It goes way back. Your son, Noah, was featured in a promo for the retro shoes. What does it feel like having a younger generation wear shoes with your name on them as fashion items? I don’t take it for advantage. Young people have their choices for shoes – with the Internet and social media, there’s a lot of opinion on what’s trendy and comfortable and you make your own mind up. So for him to actually like the shoe, and wearing it and being part of the campaign, is a compliment as a father. He wouldn’t do it if he didn’t believe in it, that’s how I raised him. It doesn’t seem possible for a 17-year old in today’s game to win a Grand Slam?Every record will be broken eventually, though. But at the moment as we speak, the top tennis players seem to develop in their mid-twenties. That’s the trend at the moment. Maybe soon we’ll have teenagers coming up left and right and the chances will increase that another 17-year-old will win a Grand Slam.

What’s changed about the game that has caused this? Does modern tennis require bigger bodies; the kind of muscle mass that is only possible once you’re fully grown? We all have different philosophies on why it’s different now. I personally think a lot of it has to do with expectations. Now when young players start hitting the ball well, people notice and that puts you under more pressure. Not everybody can handle the pressure, but once you’re in your twenties you can handle the expectations better. I think in my day, you didn’t have social media, Internet – so you didn’t know how good you were. You didn’t believe the hype because it wasn’t there. Now, the whole tennis community hails you as a new superstar when you’re still young before winning anything. I think that’s the main problem. You didn’t feel the pressure back then? I felt it because I put it upon myself, but it wasn’t because people were putting pressure on me. Having said that, once I won at 17, I became an overnight superstar in sport and then when I had to come back and do it again the next year, that’s when I really felt the pressure.

Michael Chang was a great player, but he surely fluked the win in 1989. Were you surprised to win Wimbledon so young? Did you feel like you got lucky and you had to revel in that moment because it might not come around again, or were you sure it was just the start of huge things? You never know, you just don’t know. You have your hopes and expectations, so coming back the following year and defending my title was the biggest tournament of my life. Once I came back and won that, I felt like I belonged, it got easier. You said it was surprise to your family that you became a pro tennis player. That seems strange, how was your talent not apparent? In the mid-80s, you just didn’t become a professional sportsperson, period. It just didn’t happen. You started sports after school, meaning you were 20 or 21. So for me to give going pro a try at 16 was unheard of. You can break your ankle, then it’s over, your career is over. My parents didn’t have a sporting background, so they believed, like most people, you had to get your education, get your degree, become a doctor, become a lawyer – something more serious than a sportsman.

Did you ever wish you could experience being anonymous, go to university and get a ‘normal’ job?I was very independent at 16, 17. I think teenagers loved to be independent then, because parents usually make all the decisions for you. So winning a couple of tournaments and making a bit of money gave you the freedom to do what you wanted to do. I had more freedom than a normal teenager. So I don’t think I missed out. I was able to make the decision on whether I would go to work tomorrow or not, that’s pretty cool. You’d achieved a lot by your early twenties, like championships and accolades, did you ever become bored with the tennis touring life? Sure, you had moments, when you were burned out. But because I was able to make decisions for myself, I was able to have a long career. I loved the sport and I loved winning, but it was my love for the game that was the reason I wanted to play as long as I could. Nowadays you have these tennis parents that put more pressure on their kids than necessary.