What do you call casual/every day shoes? My step mother is from South Carolina and always referred to them as tennis shoes so I always just assumed it was either a southern thing or her just being crazy/weird. My gf is from Indiana though and she calls them the same thing. It's not like I get shoes with the intent of playing tennis while wearing them, then decide to wear them other places too. I don't know why this annoys me.

5/13/2011 8:24:48 AM

Quote :

"What do you call casual/every day shoes?"

"shoes"

5/13/2011 8:27:10 AM

You're the only ten I shoes.

[Edited on May 13, 2011 at 8:28 AM. Reason : wait...that's not...crap.]

5/13/2011 8:27:50 AM

Timberlands

time to get some chukkas fucker

5/13/2011 8:28:46 AM

the vast majority of my footwear collection are chacos, but when i say "chacos," i'm always referring to my sandals and not my flipflops

5/13/2011 8:29:51 AM

Quote :

"shoes"

5/13/2011 8:36:53 AM

5/13/2011 8:37:24 AM

I call 'em sneakers...

5/13/2011 8:38:14 AM

canvas shuuu?

5/13/2011 8:41:22 AM

Some people call athletic footwear sneakers (i do) and others call them tennis shoes.

But if we're talking about regular shoes and not athletic footwear, and people are still calling them tennis shoes...well beats the fuck outta me then.

5/13/2011 8:42:20 AM

I don't live in NC anymore but when I did (and now here in AL) I've heard people refer to just about any shoe that isn't a dress shoe, boot, or heel as a "tennis shoe".

5/13/2011 8:50:47 AM

I call them tennis shoes *shrug* just what we always called them. I've heard really old school people call them tennis pumps or tennie pumps


I think it may be because historically, "athetic shoes" of the variety someone might wear every day were actually originally meant for playing tennis. Or possibly the first shoes with rubber soles and a lower cut (not basketball shoes) were meant for playing tennis or other raquet sports.

aka the Jack Purcell




Its the same way that some people call all soda "Coke." You use the original name to refer to all the different offshoots of the original idea.

5/13/2011 8:51:39 AM

chris has trained me to say running shoes instead of tennis shoes. i usually just refer mine by brand name. i only have 1 pair of running/athletic shoes anyway...and a million pairs of other types of shoes.

5/13/2011 9:04:35 AM

i haven't used a "kleenex" in years...yet that's what i call almost all "facial tissues"

[Edited on May 13, 2011 at 9:12 AM. Reason : .]

5/13/2011 9:11:41 AM

after some googling it appears that the first ones were made with tennis in mind and a lot were named after tennis stars.
the name just kinda stuck....


thats just what i can gather. can't verify any of it :shrug:


^yeah i just call it tissue



[Edited on May 13, 2011 at 9:32 AM. Reason : i call them tennis shoes and have wondered this same thing]

5/13/2011 9:29:22 AM

sneakers

5/13/2011 9:31:28 AM

why the fuck

5/13/2011 9:32:45 AM

I call them tennis shoes...but I rarely wear them...I'm mostly in rainbows, sanuks, or barefoot.

5/13/2011 9:34:24 AM

sneakers.


Now someone tell what makes a tennis bracelet any different than any other bracelet and why it's "tennis"?

5/13/2011 9:34:57 AM

IIRC some famous female tennis player wore one back in the day, and they were called tennis bracelets thereafter.

5/13/2011 9:38:08 AM

Also Tennis Elbow.

5/13/2011 9:40:32 AM

http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/1099045

5/13/2011 9:45:02 AM

I have always wondered this too. I say this phrase because that is what I was taught.

My friend who is from Wisconsin calls them gym shoes.

I would like to incorporate sneakers into my language repertoire but my brain always reverts back to tennis shoes. I also don't know where sneakers comes from. You can sneak around in these shoes?

[Edited on May 13, 2011 at 10:22 AM. Reason : s]

5/13/2011 10:21:35 AM

Quote :

"I also don't know where sneakers comes from. You can sneak around in these shoes?"

from wikipedia, for what it's worth:

Quote :

"The word "sneaker" is often attributed to Henry Nelson McKinney, an advertising agent for N. W. Ayer & Son, who, in 1917, coined the term because the rubber sole made the shoe stealthy. However, the word was in use at least as early as 1887, as the Boston Journal of Education made reference to "sneakers" as "the name boys give to tennis shoes." ... The idea of a "sneaker" did not come along until an American inventor, Charles Goodyear, patented the process for the vulcanization of rubber."

5/13/2011 10:24:57 AM

^they make that "sneakkkk" sound on hardwood floors?

5/13/2011 10:25:37 AM

I call them sneakers too

5/13/2011 10:26:47 AM

I call most athletic shoes tennis shoes, because that's how I grew up, but I call my running shoes running shoes. In the past I hated on the term sneakers, though these days I sometimes go through periods of trying to convert to that terminology. I generally go for specificity or amusement with words, and tennis shoe doesn't fit either, but damn it's hard to get rid of. I haven't played tennis in forever.

5/13/2011 10:28:15 AM

^^^ if it's named after the sound they make we'd be wearing squeakers.

[Edited on May 13, 2011 at 10:31 AM. Reason : ^]

5/13/2011 10:29:02 AM

we southerners call them "tenny shoes"

get it right or pay the price

5/13/2011 10:37:32 AM

I called them Gym shoes cause I am a fat kid and the only time I would bust them out was during gym at school.

5/13/2011 11:41:12 AM

what type of shoes do fat people normally wear

srs qstn

these look like lunchlady shoes

5/13/2011 11:45:28 AM

Gotta have that orthapedic support of their knees will buckle like Shaun Livingston's

5/13/2011 11:56:59 AM

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_iSMpDS_2wRg/SDsM_CZZXGI/AAAAAAAAAHE/LweA9ixjqzE/s320/00215_MenProShoe_Dansko_med.jpg

these are my "chef stilettos".

5/13/2011 12:07:16 PM