Sneakers are so comfortable to wear.  It is hard to imagine them not existing a hundred years ago
That's a good point. When exactly were they invented?
I am not sure.  Sneakers have so many different names depending on where you are in the wolrd.
That is true. I wonder who the world leading producer of sneakers currently is.
Sneakers
Sneakers (also called trainers, athletic shoes, tennis shoes, gym shoes, sport shoes or runners) are shoes primarily designed for sports or other forms of physical exercise, but which are now also widely used for everyday wear. The term generally describes a type of footwear with a flexible sole made of rubber or synthetic material and an upper part made of leather, synthetic substitutes or cloth.
Names and etymology.
The shoes have gone by a variety of names, depending on geography, and changing over
an interview with the Smithsonian Institution, Motley explained his motives and the difficulty behind painting the different skin tones of African Americans:
They're not all the same color, they're not all black, they're not all, as they used to say years ago, high yellow, they're not all brown. I try to give each one of them character as individuals. And that's hard to do when you have so many figures to do, putting them all together and still have them have their characteristics.