The Man Behind The Shoe Part 1

Stan Smith

I just post this because i found it interesting to know about the men or women behind some famous shoes. Some people just wore them without even knowing who the person the shoe contributed to or maybe the shoe contributed to the person.

Ok. Enough already. And now for some quick facts. Have you ever heard about an Adidas shoe name with Stan Smith? For the guys, I bet you have heard about this before. At least once. This shoe was quite famous during my old school years at the boarding school.

Stan Smith or he's real name Stanley Roger Smith (born December 14, 1946 in Pasadena, California) is a former American tennis player. He has partnerd with Bob Lutz. Guess Bob doesnt get a shoe named after him huh..

Ok, i'm lazy to write. So, this is some quick copy paste infos from wikipedia

Stanley Roger Smith (born December 14, 1946 in Pasadena, California) is a former American tennis player who, with his partner Bob Lutz, was one of the most successful doubles teams of all time. Together, they won many major titles all over the world. Smith also won many singles titles, including the Wimbledon championship once and the US Open championship once. In 1972, he was the year-ending World No. 1 singles player. His name is also used in a popular brand of tennis shoes.

Career


Smith played collegiate tennis at the University of Southern California, where he was a three-time All-American and won the 1968 NCAA singles championship and the 1967 and 1968 doubles titles. At USC, Smith was a member of Beta Theta Pi Fraternity.
In his 1979 autobiography, Jack Kramer, the long-time tennis promoter and great player himself, ranked Smith as one of the 21 best players of all time. In 2005, TENNIS Magazine put Smith in 35th place in its list of 40 Greatest Players of the TENNIS era.
Smith was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1987.
Following his playing career, Smith became active as a coach for the United States Tennis Association. He now has his own academy with Billy Stearns called Smith Stearns Tennis Academy, which is in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.
Today, Smith lives in Hilton Head with his wife and four children, all of whom competed in collegiate tennis. He also helped Mark Mathabane come to America, from Africa, on a tennis scholarship to college. He was the first in his family.

Tennis shoes

To non-tennis players, Stan Smith is probably most well-known for his line of Adidas tennis shoes. Although the Adidas Stan Smith shoe is not recommended for modern tennis players, the shoes continue to be an iconic and stylish brand for retro tennis shoe fans. During a November 17, 2009 interview that aired on The Tony Kornheiser Show, sports agent Donald Dell said the original Stan Smith green-tab shoe has been in production since 1972, and generated more than US$65 million in revenue in 2008. Dell added during the same interview that the shoe is now available in eight models, and the brand is the biggest-selling tennis shoe ever.