Recently, North Harford has seen the trend of the pink shoe. In professional sports, the rise of pink shoes didn’t begin as a fashion statement—it began as a gesture. Teams first introduced pink footwear and accessories for special events such as Mother’s Day or Breast Cancer Awareness Month. It was a subtle but powerful way to honor a group of people, to show solidarity, and to use the visibility of sports to highlight something bigger than the game itself.
Pink shoes and jerseys are typically a common sight within women’s sports, but when it comes to men, the color is hardly found. That is until recently, and even then, a lot of people don’t accept it since pink is commonly a feminine color. The reason behind this bias though, was originally simply a marketing concept.
According to “The Dreamstress”, in the 1700s European men wore pink as a sign of wealth and power, rather than gender. In 1918, an article in Ladies Home Journal advised: “The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl.” This idea was reinforced by department stores like Filenes and Marshall Field, as they were still suggesting pink for boys into the 1930s. Still, the concept of ‘gendered’ colors wasn’t widely recognized.
As it turns out, WWII was what changed it all. Marketing concepts became more popular and effective, exploiting what they saw buyers feigning after. By the 1980s, gendered colors were firmly set in this way. Even before that, there was no universal agreement. When Mamie Eisenhower wore a pink gown to the 1953 presidential inauguration, the public response was enormous. Girls and women adored the look, and retailers immediately capitalized on the excitement. If women liked the dress, marketers reasoned, then they must want more pink.
The color exploded in popularity, especially after Barbie adopted pink as a defining part of its brand identity. From there, executives decided it would be wise to switch girl to pink and boys to blue; manufacturers and stores caught on quickly that by assigning colors to gender they could double their sales. By the 1980s, gendered colors were firmly set.
Today, on the school teams, these same objectives come into play. Sophomore and JV player Alex Fallon commented. “I definitely feel like I am challenging [gender norms] by wearing pink instead of blue.” On the flipside, Senior and Varsity player Brad Halstead says, “my shoes are just shoes. I don’t really think it is that deep.”
Fallon wears Luka Dončić shoes because he enjoys that they pop out on the court and feel light on his feet. Halstead wears Austin Reeves shoes because he likes the butterfly patches that come on the shoe. The most important thing to them is choosing what they prefer, not what old marketing campaigns want them to pick.
