St. James Press, 1999. Although an 19th century American lexicographer described sneak as shoes with canvas tops and rubber soles the vernacular meaning has come to include any shoe with natural or synthetic rubber soles. Uppers can be of leather, nylon, canvas, plastic or combinations of these. Call them tennis shoes, gym shoes, plimsolls, felony shoes, cross trainers, boat shoes, and other names. The most popular type of shoe, sneakers accounted for just over a third of all shoes sold in 1996 according to Sporting Goods Marketing Association.
Modern sneakers have beginnings in various sports shoes.
One ancestor is the expensive British upper class footwear of late 1800s, used for lawn tennis, cricket, croquet, and at beach. Worn by both sexes, these canvas or leather lace-up oxfords or high tops had rubber soles. By the end of the century they were priced for the average consumer. Field and track shoes are also forerunners. Sears sold leather shoes made specifically for runners as early as 1897.