people bob gamm products shoes apparel website http www.kangaroos.com kangaroos are an american brand of sneaker originally produced from 1979 through the 1980s with a later revival that continues in present . they were notable for having a small zippered pocket on the side of the shoe large enough for a small amount of loose change keys etc. kangaroos were designed by american architect and jogging enthusiast bob gamm . gamm was a running enthusiast who would go ten kilometers a day but preferred light athletic clothes without pockets . he designed the sneakers for his own personal use as a place to store his keys and money then marketed them effectively . his marketing design was successful leading to sales in excess of 700 000 pairs a month by the early 1980s . 1 further refinements on the original design led to several significant innovations in athletic footwear . one such innovation the dynacoil was a patented energy release system designed in the mid 1980s by former nike designer ray tonkel and consultant al gross and tested by nasa . 2 many other athletic shoe manufacturers would later incorporate similar designs into their shoes . in the early to mid 1980s many usa professional athletes wore roos football and baseball shoes as well as shoes for running and training . notables included walter payton o.j. anderson william the fridge perry football ozzie smith vince coleman and ron darling baseball and kenyan track stars running . 3 there was a faddish dimension to the shoes which became very popular among both casual athletes and american schoolchildren . gamm himself remained committed to kangaroos as serious athletic footwear and in 1985 he worked with a 10 000 square meter testing facility called the kangaroos laboratory & gymnasium at the university of illinois . this allowed for refinement and development of the sneakers for many different sports including american football basketball hockey tennis and track and field . by the end of the 1980s the popularity of the sneakers was on the decline executives departed the company and kangaroos were quietly withdrawn from the market . however nostalgia combined with an appreciation both of the shoe s athletic design and its ubiquitous pocket led to a reappearance of the shoe in the late 1990s . today kangaroos are sold in over sixty countries worldwide . 4 recent years have witnessed expansion through central and south america as well as asia . the footwear moved its strategic focus from performance sports to sports lifestyle footwear most still bearing the zippered pocket on the side . some however now have a side pouch up on the ankle which can hold a small wallet . references edit kangaroos website in the history section . pentland website a kangaroos partner michael d. sorkin july 18 2012 . bob gamm dies ; invented and sold millions of kangaroo shoes . st. louis post dispatch . kangaroos site front page and history section external links edit official website 1980s portal retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title kangaroos & oldid 743638295 categories 1979 introductions1980s fashion2000s fashionaustralian themed retailersshoe brandsshoe companies of the united statescompanies based in st. louis navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages deutsch edit links this page was last modified on 10 october 2016 at 14 18 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view