sneakers.submarinechannel.com In the first episode of Sneakers we meet TJ Hooker, cool hunter in LA. Hooker: "I try to find the next up-and-coming thing. That's usually from the street level. In my opinion the street is where the trends are set, where things originate and it goes from there. I try to find someone with something totally new, totally different, some new play on an old thing or a new twist on a new thing. Anything I see that is not the norm." Sneakers is a 50-minute documentary about the history and social significance of sneakers. The film asks the question how sneakers have evolved from being the "poor man's shoes" to an icon of modern lifestyle and subculture identity. Directed by Submarine Channel co-founder Femke Wolting, Sneakers emphasizes the fashion and design aspects of the popular sports shoe, showing the design process and the ways that brands profile themselves on the competitive sneakers market. The film also focuses on the extraordinary shoe designers, as well as on the people who buy them and wear them. The film mixes original footage with commercials, photos, scientific films and other film and video material, showing how brands make use of underground culture to give street cred to a pair of sneakers. Fascinating stuff. Art direction by Alexei Tylevich (who later founded Logan.tv), Motion graphics by Sander Alt and Fons Schiedon.