我们为什么喜欢运动鞋？Why we love trainers

Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English. I’m Sophie…
大家好，欢迎收听六分钟英语，我是苏菲。
And I’m Neil.
我是尼尔。
I see you’re wearing trainers today, Neil.
我看你今天穿了运动鞋，尼尔。
Of course, I don’t wear anything else.
当然了，我也不穿其他的鞋。
Well, trainers – or to use the American term, sneakers – are the subject of today’s show.They are ubiquitous – that means you can find them everywhere!People wear them across the globe – men, women, kids, teenagers and pensioners.And did you know that 85% of people who buy trainers don’t wear them for sport?
运动鞋，美语中称为sneakers，是今天节目的主题。他们无所不在，也就是说你能在任何地方看到。全世界的人们都穿运动鞋，不论男女老少。你知道85%的人买运动鞋不是为了穿着运动吗？
That makes sense to me.I wear mine because they’re comfortable.
我也是这样。我穿是因为运动鞋很舒适。
They’re also very tatty – that means old and in bad condition – if you don’t mind me saying so.
你的鞋子很破旧，如果你不介意我这么说的话。
Hmm. I should probably get a new pair.
也许我应该买一双新的了。
There’s a lot of choice out there. Hi-tops, gel, air, classic, retro… the list goes on. But before we go any further, I have a question for you. What’s a popular US slang term for trainers?Is it…a) kicks?b) wedges?Or c) flats?
其实有很多选择的。高帮鞋，胶鞋，带气垫鞋，经典款，复古款，还有很多可以罗列。我们继续谈之前，我有一个问题要问你。哪一个美国流行的俚语是指运动鞋？a) kicks （运动鞋）？b) wedges （坡跟鞋）？还是c) flats （平底鞋）？
I’ll go for kicks.
我要选kicks。
OK, well we’ll find out if you got the answer right later on in the show.Now, it has become socially acceptable to wear athletic apparel or clothing – including trainers – in situations where ten years ago it would not.
好的，节目的最后我们再看你回答得是否正确。如今社会上接受人们穿着运动服装，包括运动鞋，十年前并非如此。
Yes, I think my apparel of jeans and tatty trainers is socially acceptable – at our workplace, anyway.
在工作时我穿着牛仔裤，破旧运动鞋也是可以为社会接受的。
Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, is famous for his dressed-down – or informal – look of hoodies and trainers.You can pay anything from a few pounds for unbranded trainers to thousands of pounds for limited edition brands like Nike or Addidas – and limited edition means something produced in very small numbers.
马克·扎克伯格，Facebook的创始人，因其非正式的着装而出名，他经常穿着卫衣和运动鞋。你可以花几英镑买不知名的运动鞋，也可以花几千英镑买耐克或阿迪达斯的限量版运动鞋。限量版是指生产数量很少的产品。
Why would anybody spend a thousand pounds on trainers?And how many people would actually recognize that you were wearing Nike limited edition ones rather than regular ones?
为什么有人会在运动鞋上花几千英镑？有多少人能认出你穿的是耐克限量版而不是其他普通的鞋？
Other sneakerheads, Neil – a sneakerhead is somebody who collects limited edition sneakers.It’s an American term.But trainers are not new - in the nineteenth century, people wore sneakers as a mark of their prosperity – or economic success.Let’s listen to Elizabeth Semmelhack, curator of the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto in Canada.
一些鞋迷，指收集限量版运动鞋的人。这是个美国词。但运动鞋也不是最近才出现的，十九世纪，人们穿运动鞋，将其视为经济上成功的标志。我们听听加拿大多伦多巴塔鞋博物馆馆长Elizabeth Semmelhack的观点。
This new industrial age actually ushered in a new class, the emerging middle class,that was able to, now, have leisure time, because of their new economic success.And so what they did was, they wanted to, sort of, express the fact that they had leisure time by playing. But they also wanted to signify that they were doing these things by their sartorial choices.And so the sneaker, in part, was invented to meet the needs of this new class,so that they could very conspicuously show that they were playing.
新工业时代产生了一个新的阶级，新兴中产阶级，他们有很多空余时间，因为经济上的成功。所以他们想要向外界展示，他们有很多空闲时间去娱乐。但他们想通过对服装的选择来展示他们做了什么。所以为了满足这个新阶级的需求，运动鞋产生了。他们穿着运动鞋，明显得展示着他们在娱乐。
What does it mean to usher in, Sophie?
usher in 是什么意思呢？
It means to mark the beginning of something.In this case, the industrial revolution marked the beginning of a new social class – the middle class – who made a lot of money from industry.
它是指某件事的开始。在这里，工业革命标志着一个新社会阶级的产生，中产阶级，这些人从工业中赚取了很多钱。
And why were they interested in trainers?
他们为什么对运动鞋感兴趣呢？
They wanted a way of showing people that they were so rich they didn’t need to work all the time.And by wearing trainers they were saying, ’I’m busy playing tennis’.Sartorial, by the way, means ’related to clothes’.
他们想通过一种方式，表现自己很有钱，不需要一直工作。通过穿运动鞋，他们表达出“我忙着打网球”这种状态。Sartorial是指和服装相关的。
These days wearing trainers doesn’t reveal much about social class. For example, Mark Zuckerberg and I look surprisingly similar in our hoodies and trainers. You’d have to guess which one of us was a multibillionaire – and which one was… not!
如今穿运动鞋和社会阶级没有太大关系。例如扎克伯格和我穿着卫衣和运动鞋看上去都差不多。你还得猜谁是亿万富翁，谁不是。
People respond to current trends in popular sport through the trainers they wear.And here’s Matt Powell for the US consumer research group, NPD, to tell us more.
人们通过穿运动鞋，传达对流行运动的关注。我们听听美国消费者研究机构NPD的研究员Matt Powell 的观点。
When I first got into the retail business in the 70s the sexy sport, if you will, was tennis.And we all wore tennis apparel for casual wear, and we played tennis, and we wore tennis shoes. And we identified with athletes like McEnroe, and Borg, and Connors.Over time though, it has become even a broader range, there was a jogging craze in the 70s– everybody was out jogging, and then that became a full-fledged running business. The basketball business really exploded in the mid late 80s with the emergence of Michael Jordan.
当我在70年代第一次接触零售生意时，最性感的运动是网球。我们都穿着网球装，打网球，穿网球鞋。我们认可的运动员是McEnroe， Borg和 Connors。随着时间流逝，网球愈发大众，70年代又出现了慢跑热。所有人都出去慢跑，和跑步相关的生意兴起。80年代中后期，随着迈克尔·乔丹的出现，篮球相关的生意蓬勃发展。
So Matt Powell knows a thing or two about current consumer trends- he says in the 1970s there was a craze – or enthusiasm – for tennis and jogging. And this led to big sales of the apparel associated with these sports.
Matt Powell 了解消费流行趋势。他说20世纪70年代出现了网球热和慢跑热。这造成和这些运动相关的服装生意空前火热。
Are tennis shoes still sexy, Sophie?
网球鞋如今也很性感吗？
Maybe – but basketball hi-tops are sexier. Michael Jordan started that trend back in the 1980s and it’s still going strong.Well, we’re running out of time.Let’s go back to our quiz question. I asked you: What is a slang term for trainers?Is it… a) kicks, b) wedges or c) flats?
也许吧，但篮球鞋更性感。迈克尔·乔丹在20世纪80年代引领了潮流，如今也很流行。我们节目时间快到了。回到今天的问题。我问你，哪一个俚语是指运动鞋？ a) kicks, b) wedges 还是 c) flats?
It has to be kicks. I’m right, aren’t I?
我选的是kicks。我答对了，是吧？
I have to tell you, Neil, you’re… right!
我不得不告诉你，你回答正确！
Yes!
噢耶！
Wedges are shoes or boots with a triangular wedge-shaped heel and flats are a woman’s shoe with no heel.
Wedges 是指带有像三角形楔子形状鞋跟的鞋或靴子。 Flats是指不带跟的女式鞋。
I know my onions, you see, Sophie.
我了解我的选择。
Yes, in other words, you know a lot about something you do.Now, let’s remember the words we heard today.
换句话说，你确实了解你做的事。我们回忆一下今天听到的单词。
ubiquitous
无所不在的
tatty
破旧的
apparel
服装
dressed down
着朴素的服装
limited edition
限量版
sneakerhead
鞋迷
prosperity
成功
usher in
引进
sartorial
裁缝的
craze
热潮，狂热
know your onions
了解你做的事
That’s the end of today’s 6 Minute English. Don’t forget to join us again soon!
今天的六分钟英语就到这里。我们下期再见。
Bye!
再见！