The first Air Jordan and Imelda Marcos's 3,000 pairs of shoes

The History Hour

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service.

This week’s programmes are all about the history of footwear.

First we take a trip back to the 1960’s when Brazilians were introduced to a new type of footwear, which went on to become one of the country’s biggest exports.

Plus the story of how a then rookie basketball player called Michael Jordan signed a deal with Nike that revolutionised sports marketing.

We also hear about the thousands of shoes owned by the former first lady of the Philippines, Imelda Marcos.

Then we learn how one family feud led to the creation of two massive sportswear companies, Adidas and Puma.

Finally, we hear how a Czech company revolutionised shoe production and brought affordable footwear to the world.

Contributors: Sergio Sanchez - Author and former employee of Havainas. Sonny Vaccaro - Former Nike executive. Dr Alex Sherlock – Lecturer in the school of Fashion and Textiles at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia and founder of the Footwear Research Network. Sigi Dassler – Daughter of Adi Dassler the founder of Adidas. Mick Pinion – Former Bata engineer.

(Photo: Air Jordan Original. Credit: Getty Images)