Sports Illustrated "sneaker-phone"
date: label: Date made
content: about 1990
label: date made
content: ca 1990
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: Sports Illustrated "sneaker-phone," about 1990. A telephone made into an athletic shoe, and given away "free with a paid subscription to Sports Illustrated magazine" according to company advertising. The telephone is designed to rest on a horizontal surface tread-down when not in use. The activation switch is set into the heel just below the mouthpiece. A touch-tone pad with an on-off switch is set in the arch of the shoe, and the ear-piece is set at the ball of the foot. A 9-foot long, 2-conductor cord emerges from the back of the heel and has a modular plug on the end. A blue cloth liner is in the opening of the shoe, and a blue felt-board covers the telephone apparatus.
label: Description (Brief)
content: The telephone came into being as a business tool and "frivolous" social use was discouraged for many years. Even after telephone companies grew comfortable with the idea of people just chatting, telephones themselves stayed very business-like and drab in appearance. This began to change in the 1960s and (after the breakup of the Bell Telephone monopoly) a wide variety of lively telephone designs came into use. Advances in technology also led to a reduction in prices, to the point where telephones could be given away as promotional items--like this "sneaker-phone" from the publishers of Sports Illustrated magazine. New subscribers to the magazine received this telephone along with their subscription. Purchased at an antique show in Parkville, MD.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: from Harold D. Wallace, Jr.
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2003.0030.18
label: catalog number
content: 2003.0030.18
label: accession number
content: 2003.0030
objectType: label: Object Name
content: desk telephone
label: Object Name
content: Telephone
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 5 in x 4 in x 12 in; 12.7 cm x 10.16 cm x 30.48 cm