If you grew up in the eighties, you probably remember having a pair of Kangaroos shoes. I had a pink pair and back then they had a little velcro bag on the side of each shoe where you could keep your secret treasure. Today the bag remains, but has been replaced with a zipper instead of Velcro. Nike says, “Just do it,” but Kangaroos wants to know, “What’s in your pocket?”
The Kangaroos brand began in 1979 when an avid runner named Bob Gamm decided he needed a place to store his house keys and a small amount of money while he went for a run every day. There is no glamorous or fabulous story here. These simple and fun shoes may have grown from small beginnings, but their popularity has endured for 30 years. In the 1908s, Kangaroos shoes began to gain popularity as professional athletes such as Walter Payton, Clyde Drexler, and Ozzie Smith began endorsing the shoes. As sales increased, Gamm was able to reinvest some of the money to further improve their running shoes. It even partnered with NASA to develop a shoe technology known as Dynacoil, a proprietary energy system that involves improved suspension and cushioning located in the sole of the shoe. Many other shoe companies have started to use this technology in their own shoe lines.
For a few years in the late 1908s, kangaroos disappeared from the market after their popularity waned, but they reappeared in the late 1990s. During this time, the shoes became very popular in other countries, especially in Europe. Even during these tough times, Gamm remained dedicated to making kangaroos alongside serious athletic footwear and worked on developing their shoes at a testing center located at the University of Illinois. During this time, he was able to refine his shoes for use in many different sports including basketball, tennis, track, and football.
Now Kangaroos shoes are better known for their role in fashion and lifestyle footwear than in high-performance sports. Today they are sold in more than sixty countries around the world. You’ll probably find Kangaroos shoes in all sorts of styles, shapes, and colors. Most still have pockets and some have a larger side pocket that goes up the ankle and can hold a small wallet.