Jeff Carvalho, the co-founder of Streetwear website Highsnobiety, thinks they will “help her connect not only to a younger audience but also to the important Gen X crowd”.Ĭulturally, they are also “a quintessentially American sneaker,” says Semmelhack. Nick Engvall, the founder of Sneaker History, thinks Harris’s choice of sneakers rather than the traditional business attire worn by politicians on the campaign trail could mean she will “appeal to others like myself who feel it makes her more authentic or normal”. Fans have included Andy Warhol, the Ramones, Karl Lagerfeld and Kurt Cobain. “Chuck Taylors have a long history of being used to convey ideas of authenticity rather than hype,” says Semmelhack. Photograph: Jack Kurtz/Zuma Wire/Rex/ShutterstockĮver since James Dean wore his, Converse has become the go-to shoe for the rebellious and the outcasts. Kamala Harris campaigning in Des Moines in October last year. They suggest Harris “is a woman of action”. “The sneakers are acting as the sartorial equivalent of being willing to roll up her sleeves,” she says. Semmelhack believes Harris’s shoes signal action. Traditionally, there is a standard shoe etiquette for women in political office – either alpha (see: Nancy Pelosi’s stilettos, Theresa May’s leopard print heels) or conservative (Elizabeth Warren’s slide sandals, Hillary Clinton’s pantsuit-matching kitten heels). “Sneakers are a form of footwear finding their way into many women’s closets as part of a larger challenge to outmoded concepts of femininity,” says Elizabeth Semmelhack, the author of Sneaker X Culture: Collab. It is a small sartorial detail, but it is linked to the larger cultural moment in which we live.

She is also the first to prominently wear sneakers on the campaign trail. Kamala Harris’s nomination as Joe Biden’s running mate is historic: the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, she is the first woman of colour to be on a major party’s presidential ticket.

My story converse pink