An exhibition all about a certain form of leisure and sports shoe is opening in a few weeks time at the Design Museum, and tickets are now on sale.

What was once simply a softer shoe to wear for sports has transformed into both a product that is engineered to give sportspeople the best advantage, and also at the same time something that some people idolise as collectables.

Some people even wear them.

Your correspondent being of a certain age and modest budget tends towards simple trainers that do the job of protecting feet, but an entire fashion industry exists that’s worth some $6 billion a year for second-hand collectable shoes.

There are even digital sneakers that can be only be seen when using augmented reality vison on a smartphone, and that people pay to “wear”.

Being the Design Museum, the exhibition focuses mainly on the fashion and the cultural impact of the sneaker, along side the design process that keeps churning out ever more creative concepts for the fans to keep buying.

The exhibition, Sneakers Unboxed: Studio to Street opens Tuesday 18th May.

Tickets can be prebooked here.

The Design Museum has also teamed up with the exhibition’s sponsors StockX to give away a pair of Jordan 4 Retro Off-White Sails – details here.