Rubber and canvas combinations dominated on the feet of tennis players for decades. But Stan Smith helped launch a whole new wave of high-tech shoes when he got behind an Adidas shoe that featured leather. Leather was a massive change in the late 1960s and early 1970s that created a new way of thinking about tennis shoes. “It was the only leather shoe (on the tennis courts),” says Smith. “It was considered kind of high-tech at the time compared to the canvas shoe. It had pretty good support; it was considered an upgrade from the other shoes.” But the story of the legendary Adidas Stan Smith shoe goes beyond its lead champion and the history of the tennis shoe as a whole spirals much further into the past than Smith. The plimsoll shoe3, has