It was 1969 and the streets of Paris were filled with rioting hippyish students rallying against a conservative and consumer driven government. A musical called Hair was having a successful run as it evoked the spirit of the rebellious Sixties and embodied the anti-Vietnam war peace movement in America. With its bright psychedelic graphics and message of youth, love and bohemia, the production’s poster caught the eye of Daniel Raufast who was inspired to create a shoe for the blue jeans generation.

With the help of designer Jacques Chevallereau, Daniel Raufast put the original Kickers colour way into production. The traditional formal style of brogues and the oxford classic were shunned in favour of Kickers with their supple and colourful nubuck leather and casual yet stylish design.

What defined the Kickers style was the referencing of denim in the design and quality; the label sewn onto the uppers - like jeans, the engraved eyelets - like jeans buttons, the Kickers logo hot branded onto the back of the shoe, the fleurette with the slogan ‘le vrai est gravé KICKERS’ (seal of authenticity), and the contrast triple stitching. The success was such that in one season Kickers production capacity soared from 300 to 12,000 pairs per month.

Kickers was present in over 70 countries and became the casual shoe for jeans for both adults and children. Kickers also received the exported goods ‘Oscar’ for exceptional sales results.

In 1975, the iconic Kick Hi was invented and instantly became Kickers’ most popular design. We opened our first shop in the UK on the fashionable Kings Road where all the rock and pop stars, fashion students and trendsetters hung out. Mod rock royalty The Who’s Roger Daltry and Pete Townsend, Elton John and David Bowie were all popular customers cementing Kickers’ place in rock fashion history.

One year later, we opened our second store in London on South Molton Street. Kickers were the shoe to be seen in and the band of ’76 was papped in the Kings Road store trying some on…Slik! Do you not remember Slik? No funnily enough we don’t either but they snapped up some cool Kickers in their five minutes of fame and squeezed in some modeling for us too. Kickers were also featured in fashion shoots in 19 Magazine, OK, Harper’s & Queen (now Harper’s Bazaar) and Vogue in a range of spreads from casual fashion to sportswear.

1977 was the year of the European Cup quarter finals between Liverpool and St Etienne. Liverpool fans arrived en masse wearing their bright European tracksuit tops and their lois cords ripped at the seams to show off their multi coloured Kick Hi’s. Perceived as the ultimate statement for the style conscious of the era, Casuals wore the boots with Farahs, Lacoste jackets and Kangol bucket hats. The Football Casuals from the North had swagger, a love for their brands and a fun seeking attitude which went on to define a generation!

By the late 80s, the rave scene had adopted the bright red Kick Hi boots as footwear durable enough for raves in fields. For ravers dancing to acid house music with their smiley face baggy shirts and dungarees, the bright Kick Hi boots (with the tags still attached) added the element of fun to their mad image and had a great cultural significance making them an integral part of the music and youth culture.

But, while we were raving hard here in the UK, the French were staying close to the tricolor by supporting the Tour de France with their very own Kickers mobile!

The Madchester music scene style, was born out of the attitude of the Football Casuals mixing with ravers. Taking inspiration from rock music in the Seventies, the old skool Manchester indie kids wore their Kick Hi boots with laid back style.

Kickers were more popular than ever by 1989; Liverpool indie band The Farm used a sheep wearing red Kick Hi boots as the cover image of their ‘Stepping Stone’ 12” single, the Stone Roses donned a pair for their Fools Gold video (1989) and Ian Brown infamously wore a pair to the legendary home of rave, acid and trance, The Hacienda nightclub, to cheekily sneak round the doorman’s policy of no trainers. In June ’89, Shelly’s shoes on Oxford Street reported selling 175 pairs of Kickers in three hours. (Quote taken from ‘A Decade of i-Deas’, 1990.)

The Brit Pop movement was born from the Madchester scene and forged ahead by referencing Sixties psychedelia and the Seventies mod rock sounds. Oasis and Pulp were key contenders for the crown of Brit Pop and both lead singers, Noel Gallagher and Jarvis Cocker, were often seen sporting a pair of Kick Hi boots.

The Kick Hi appealed to all; the young, old, rock, indie, hip-hop, even the garage and grime artists got involved. The Kick Hi was given a new image with urban artists Ms Dynamite, So Solid Crew and Rodney P spotted wearing them. In the same year this lot were wearing their Kickers and getting slammed in the press for glamorizing violence, Brooklyn Beckham was spotted showing the sweet side of Kickers.

The iconic Kick Hi celebrated its 30th in rainbow bright styles by issuing a multi-coloured version laden with bright fleurettes. The trippy bright colours pleased the hippies, delighted the senses of the ravers and the number of fleurettes stop the tag thieving school kids from a life of crime. Job done!

Other creatives from the music, art and fashion world signed up to collaborate with Kickers. Sought after by the rich and famous for his work, silversmith Reino Lehtonen-Riley created 30 heavy-weight silver charms of the iconic Kick Hi. 30 years on, the Kick Hi was still feeling the love from some of its original fans like Jarvis Cocker who was spotted by photographer Helen Lawrence.

“Kicker shoes were responsible for so many arguments in shoe shops with my mother when I was a small kid. They made your legs look like tree trunks but every cool girl wanted them, if you didn't have the rubber tag hanging off your school footwear you might as well have stayed at home.”

In a nod to their musical inspirations from the Madchester lot to the Brit pop era, the new indie bands - The Kaiser Chiefs, The Artic Monkeys and The Enemy - were all wearing their rock legendary Kickers with pride.

The Kickers ‘Go Do Something’ Campaign:

In the spirit of the rioting French students of ‘68, we launched our ‘Go Do Something’ campaign, which through a positive manifesto encouraged people to make a pledge to fulfil their promise of doing something before they ‘popped their clogs’. As part of the campaign there was also an online brick wall displaying the pledges, and to weed out the cowardly custards, the pledges were projected on massive screens in London and Manchester. Two entrants also got a big helping hand from Kickers to fulfil their pledges of being a cover model and an Ibiza club DJ.

The X Project brought together the most talented independent UK fashion designers, jewellery artists, illustrators and stylists to create their version of the Kick Hi. Siv Stodal, Peter Jensen, Griffin, Henry Holland, Charlotte Mann, Husam El Odah, Simon Foxton, and Noki are among the creatives who joined the X project.

In 2008, Kickers invited you to ‘Meet the Kickers’ in our new advertising campaign. In part of the campaign called ‘Find your Feet’, we sent out across the UK over 1000 paper cut-out legs wearing the infamous red Kick Hi boots and asked the public to get snap happy creating cheeky images with them. Once uploaded to the Kickers website, entrants had the chance of winning festival tickets and an original pair of Kick Hi boots. Over 1,500 images were uploaded and 12 winners were chosen.

In April, Kickers teamed up with notoriously naughty animators Modern Toss who produced three hilarious Random Bandits sketches involving Kickers boots. The sketches included Shoe Horn (a footwear obsessed shopper), Dave Beeline (a rowdy driver who pointblank refuses to accept the existence of any places not recognised by his sat nav) and Flytalk (the celebrity-gossiping insects). The latter starred Slough office goon and Hollywood swashbuckler Mackenzie Crook. Kickers celebrated the collaboration in a kick off party with Vice Magazine.

40 years of Kickers! From a company that links its origins to the blue jeans generation, a musical called Hair, the passions of French rioting students and one Frenchman’s sudden lightning strike of inspiration, we got off to an intense start! But like a good French wine we improve with age, and from the mod rockers, Brit poppers, hip-hoppers and indie boppers who wear their iconic Kickers with pride, you can sense the feel-good spirit that is Kickers.

So where do we go next with all these good feelings and happy feet? On the path to revolution of course! It began with a 2 day photo shoot where Kickers captured The Feelgood Revolution and the voice of the people taking many of them straight from the street and throwing them into Kickers revolutionary chaos. We’ve taken Feelgood outdoors, online and beyond with LEGOLAND Live and the X Marks the Spot comic, the second generation of Colour Me In to Win, and the Your Shout competition.