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Take a look at the Coaster Neon collection

Posted on June 15, 2018

When fashion trends talk, we listen. This season bright, bold colours are the talk of the fashion town and we have three women’s Gola trainers that are ticking all the boxes for this trend.

The Gola Classics women’s Coaster Neon collection celebrates colour. The simple silhouette of the women’s Coaster trainer is a perfect canvas for the bright colours, making each style the statement of your outfit. The three colourways are Neon Coral, a bold Coral colour which paired with a pair of white jeans and a denim shirt would make a summer statement. The Coaster Neon Yellow is a highlighter yellow colourway, team this with dark denim to really make your shoes stand out. The Coaster Neon Pastel Pink is the last colourway, this style is girly and vibrant and can be paired with a summer dress or jeans.

The women’s Gola Classics Coaster trainer was first introduced into the Gola collection in the 70’s and has since become a firm favourite, the style has a vulcanised sole and canvas upper creating a trainer that is versatile and comfortable.

Born in Britian Fashion General Shoes Trends

The Gola Harrier celebrates 50 years

Posted on May 16, 2018

Our flagship shoe is turning 50!

Happy birthday Harrier, you have been a long and trusty friend to our wardrobe. To celebrate Harrier turning 50, we’ve taken the silhouette back to where it all began; using classic colourways from when Harrier first burst onto the sport shoe scene but with clever modern updates, this collection is everything you need this summer.

Back in 1968, Harrier was the multi-purpose training shoe of choice. Built for track and field, the gym or the pitch, Harrier led the way in sports footwear. Originally launched in statement making white/red, this colourway was soon partnered with royal blue/white as a fellow option but as the years have progressed Harrier’s colour options have run into the hundreds. Never shy of making a statement the original design featured a durable gristle rubber sole, suede toe cap, rubber toe guard, padded insole and of course the signatory contrast Gola wingflash branding.

As Harrier moved into the ‘70s it developed a new life in the form of a leisure shoe. This multi-purpose training shoe was now equally at home on the track as it was on football terraces up and down the UK. From here Harrier transcended into music culture, with a cult following from key names of the day such as The Jam. Over the decades other fans of Harrier included Duran Duran, Oasis, Robbie Williams, Jude Law and Paul Weller. For Harrier’s 50^th anniversary we have seen the son’s and daughters of rock royalty wear these styles with as much style as the first time around. Raff Law (son of Jude law) and Anais Gallagher (daughter of Noel Gallagher) are two of the names sporting the new Harrier style.

Never steering far from its original form, Harrier has stood the test of fashion cycles and footwear fads to have survived five decades and be Gola’s best selling footwear style. In recognition of this accolade, Gola has launched a special edition anniversary edit of Harrier. With the design staying true to the style’s 1968 roots, the special edition is a no gimmick, purist silhouette; it’s confident, genuine and unique. There’s only one Harrier.

Music & Pop Culture Trends

What Wins Best 90s Music Genre?

Posted on June 20, 2017

The great 1990s are a collection of ten incredible years hallmarked in history by their contribution to fashion and music.

90s music was a burst of angst, energy, colour, dance, and soul that has never repeated itself in quite the same way. Here, we’ll let 90s music fight 90s music. From Britpop to Eurodance, find out which is worthy of a 2017 comeback.

‘Girl Power’ vs…

90s music was all about powerful and influential female groups and singers. Expressive songs, motivational videos and power ballads from bands like Eternal, Destiny’s Child, En Vogue, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Britney Spears, and Christina ‘Xtina’ Aguilera were a hugely popular break from the male-dominated music scene of the time. Madonna was as omnipotent as ever and Sugababes managed to hop onto one of the last departing trains for the decade in 1998, but — of course — ‘Girl Power’ was high-kicked into a global phenomenon by the almighty Spice Girls.

An unforgettable quintet whose posters were plastered on the walls of every young girl’s bedroom during the decade, the five famously fabricated personalities of the Spice Girls gave young girls someone to identify with and pushed the idea that women could be successful independently from men (admittedly, their former manager, Simon Fuller, played a part).

Britpop

Britpop was, as you can guess, all about singing for British youths and acted almost as a counter attack on the themes of American songs at the time. Bands like Blur, Oasis, The Verve, and Manic Street Preachers took influence from 60s/70s British rock music and propelled Britpop to subculture status with its own distinct clothing and attitude. 90s songs like Wonderwall and Parklife had a strong sense of local identity and working class ethics that really spoke to youths of the day, while the behaviour and atmosphere of Britpop championed the brazen maleness of ‘lad culture’ at a time when ‘Girl Power’ was about to make waves.

Verdict:

While Girl Power instilled self-belief and confidence in many young girls, Britpop was all about giving the working-class a mainstream platform and voice. Feminism vs. social mobility? We’re backing off and making this one a tie.

Party dance routines vs…

From Whigfield’s Saturday Night to Los del Rio’s Macarena, you have to admit the 90s were a hit for disco routines. Not only were these ideal ways of moving from the corner to the dancefloor at the unavoidable school Christmas party, but they’ve also been helping DJs crank up the party spirit at wedding receptions and 18th birthdays ever since. In this time of dabbing, twerking and whipping your hair; there was something pricelessly innocent about doing Madonna’s Vogue gestures, followed by a Steps’ 5,6,7,8 and Rednex Cotton Eye Joe hoedown.

Boy bands

Although 90s music was big on girls groups, the stage was fairly shared by the boy band. N’Sync and Backstreet Boys were America’s greatest exports in this industry, while Take That and Westlife fought back well for the UK and Ireland. The ballads, bubblegum pop tunes and craze-making dance routines pumped out by boy bands of the 90s created the type of frenzy seen by Elvis fans in the 50s and The Beatles followers in the 60s.

Before we knew it, there were dolls, posters, magazines, and clothing devoted to these vocal harmony groups but unfortunately, this led many to associate boy bands as being mere puppets of a money-hungry record label. Although we tired of miming shows, structured interviews and tacky merchandise, many boy bands have actually made a respectable return to the music scene in the past few years, including Take That and Backstreet Boys. So, there was talent behind the trash after all.

Verdict:

Although these disco dance routines are always good fun, the boy band 90s music genre was a formidable force. Even today, we wonder if Smash Hits would have kept in print without it. All in all, it’s that wonderful sense of nostalgia that has persuaded us to let the boys win this one. Nothing brings back memories of our youth than the dolls, posters, concert t-shirts, and scrapbooks filled with ‘I *heart* Justin’ of our beloved 90s boys.

Feelgood party tunes vs…

The 1990s were a feelgood decade. Home Alone was on at the cinema, the World Wide Web had its first test run, Nokia’s Snake was controlling all our minds, and Harry Potter flew into our lives. But this was also the season of boppy, catchy pop songs that still get us dancing today. In the same year that Tony Blair rode Labour back into office the Danish-Norwegian pop group, Aqua, released Barbie Girl and we were hooked. The 90s music scene was peppered with unforgettable tunes like B*Witched’s C’est la Vie, Chumbawamba’s Tubthumping, Right Said Fred’s I’m Too Sexy, Ricky Martin’s Livin’ La Vida Loca, and literally anything Steps released. Yes, these weren’t lyrical masterpieces, but they were a good laugh and we all loved them back in the day.

Contemporary R’n’B and urban music

In the 1990s, the world was more connected than it’s ever been. So, let’s look at 90s music outside the UK. The greatest genre to captivate the decade was modern R’n’B/urban which was spearheaded by artists including: Faith Evans, Lauryn Hill, En Vogue, Boyz II Men, Usher, R. Kelly, and TLC.

Combining funk, pop and blues, contemporary R’n’B and urban songs are rich, soulful and emotional which was a great contrast between the more sugary ballads and techno tunes they were up against in the 90s. Tracks such as I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston and Vision of Love by Mariah Carey kick-started the genre which has weaved its way through the following decades to nourish global stars like Beyonce, Ne-Yo and John Legend.

Verdict:

We’re grateful for the cool, deep and inspiring songs of 90s R’n’B music, and how they’ve contributed to our music then and today. But if we could bring either of these 90s music genres back; our heart says feelgood. There’s no better party starter or stress booster than a cheesy 90s playlist. Let’s face it, family occasions just wouldn’t be the same without a 90s feelgood megamix at the end of the night.

Hip Hop vs…

The world of 90s music would be incomplete without a nod to the globally-renowned rappers and hip-hop stars of the day. From 2Pac, Notorious B.I.G, and Vanilla Ice, to Ice Cube, Busta Rhymes and Eminem; hip hop was the genre of choice if you wanted an unfiltered insight into hard urban culture that’s often glossed over in mainstream media. Empowering, rhythmic and confident, hip-hop was the top-selling genre of music in the mid-to-late 1990s. Similar to Britpop, hip-hop is a subculture, generally containing key elements like rapping, graffiti, breakdancing, and DJing, which could explain its popularity across the world.

Eurodance

Rarely has technology and musicality collided so fruitfully. The birth of Eurodance masters like Vengaboys, Haddaway, 2 Unlimited, Corona, and Scatman John came about in the 90s due to the explosion of equipment that enabled electronic music. A combination of house, techno and dance, the Eurodance 90s music genre is recognisable for its use of synthesizers and strong bass rhythms. This type of music is almost always positive and upbeat with a strong undercurrent of partying and generally having a good time — ideal going out soundtrack for when you’re getting ready.

Verdict:

Although Eurodance has helped us get pumped up for crucial life moments, we can’t place it above the global phenomenon that is 90s hip-hop. The decade propelled the gritty genre all over the world and it’d be a very different stream of sound today if it weren’t for the rappers of the 90s.

Rock vs…

This decade was also the time that the great rock bands in modern musical history came to our attention. Before 1990, many rock bands had just a niche following compared to other genres, but as we entered the decade we saw bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and The Smashing Pumpkins receive attention from major music labels and become commercially successful. The energetic performances and expressive song lyrics really filled a gap in 90s music, and the media presented rock’s popularity throughout the 1990s almost as a rebellion of real music and emotions against the more manufactured genres of the time.

Country

Country music rocketed in popularity and airtime during the beginning of the 1990s — it even had a cover story about its history and appeal in Time magazine. Aficionados will probably attribute a lot of 90s fame to the surge in people taking up line dancing. Even in the UK, many working men’s clubs had a weekly line dancing night and this helped songs like Achy Breaky Heart and Boot-Scootin Boogie ride high in the charts. As the decade progressed, artists like Shania Twain, LeAnn Rimes, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, and Dixie Chicks took a hold of the genre and helped to usher it into the consciousness of a younger audience. Almost certainly, it was this nudge into the ‘poppier’ mainstream arena during the 1990s that helped breathe new life into country music and make sure it made it into 2017.

Verdict:

The problem is, both these genres are raw and creative, inspiring millions of fans for so many years. Country songs all seem to tell a true-to-life story, while rock expresses all the emotions we want to show for us. Dare we draw another tie?

The 90s were a huge decade for music. If you want to check out our range of retro shoes, browse our men’s and women’s Gola Classics for the perfect throwback trend to suit your style.

Sports Trends

Sport: 50 Years in the Future

Posted on May 10, 2017

The realm of athletic stars, world-breaking records, international tournaments, and lifelong rivalries are part of all our lives in 2017. But have you ever considered the future of sports and what it’d be in 2067?

Sports is an unpredictable, ever-evolving phenomenon that whips up a multi-billion pound betting frenzy like nothing else. The future of sports is a maze of new and daring ways to pull the best out of its players and create the most intense experience for its fans. With the rapid rise of virtualization technology, ballooning authority of social media, and intensifying focus on user experience, find out what could be in store for sports in 50 years.

Future sports equipment

We predict that sports across the board will be obsessed with achieving unbelievable speeds, shots, throws, and goals. Exciting results get unavoidable shares, likes and retweets pinging across the world, which means more fans, more sponsorships and more advertising deals — all free of charge.

We can see every tactic possible being used to enhance the performances of sporting stars in a bid to boost the breaking of unbreakable records and create demi-God athletes that will make prime social media stalking targets to keep up momentum. Even today, sportswear brands are constantly re-inventing clothing to make it easier for athletes to out-perform themselves, and in the future, we reckon that everything from shot puts to football turf will be artificially enhanced for the ideal level of feel, speed, traction, and manoeuvrability.

Expect hi-tech track surfaces for sprinters, enhanced/low-drag costumes for swimmers, spring-loaded courts for basketball players, and ultra-streamlined everything to push the boundaries of human limitations.

Future stadiums

Where we view our sports will go through the greatest transformation in the next 50 years. In the next few decades, we can see super-stadiums for the biggest teams and events, decked out with virtual rides, hologram replays and personal video feeds you use to track your favourite player throughout the game.

But by 50 years, viewing sports will be dominated by the 3D, virtual stadium where you can zoom, tilt and pan using an optical head-mounted device (think Google Glass without the failure). Of course, there’ll still be fans in the stadium watching the game, your headset will simply let you tap in from home.

Why headsets? We predict a voracious focus on lucrative sponsorship deals instead of traditional ticket purchases, which is why a headset is ideal for hosting regular, unavoidable flashes of selected logos and adverts beamed across your eyes.

Gone will be the days of queueing at the turnstile, climbing to your seat and seeing a pie lobbed off a steward’s head. We’ll have virtual subscriptions to replace paper season tickets, surround sound for those atmospheric chants, and assigned (virtual) seats every time so we can sit with our friends without having to sit with our friends.

Future match Format

Commercials and sponsorships are likely to exert even greater influence over the sports format in the future.

Endorsements are big money in every sport, which is why a growing amount of air-time is devoted to getting them seen and heard. In the UK, the value of all Premier League shirt sponsorship deals reached £226.5 million for the 2016-17 season, which might go someway to explain why football matches are already packed with extra commentary and statistics to lengthen the programme and squeeze in more advertising. Even in America, the NFL shows about 100 commercials for just 11 minutes of play, while getting a 30-second ad slot during Sunday Night Football would cost you approximately $625,000.

Looking at these statistics, it’s not big a stretch to imagine a future where sports are tweaked for a more ad-friendly format. In 50 years, we can imagine sports with few sections of play (like football’s two-half structure) perhaps introducing extra water breaks or switching to a quarterly format in order to anchor in more promotional material.

We might even go one step further and annihilate the heart-racing penalty shoot-out in football, which we reckon will be substituted for lengthier matches that last as long as they have to — punctured with plenty of breaks.

The future sporting environment

In 50 years, we’ll either all be massively green or have destroyed ourselves. So, if we’re still around, the jet-setting world of sports is likely to be a popular target for promoting eco-friendliness.

To survive, NASCAR and Formula One motors will probably all be electric to save on carbon emissions, and we will see a rise in competitive cycling as part of a future worldwide bid to encourage less cars on the road.

In stadium sports, the introduction of virtual arenas will be heavily subsidised by many governments in order to reduce unrecyclable waste left behind by fans after games.

In this future of endorsements, celebrity status and respect for the eco-system, we can also see more cash incentives and a greater responsibility placed on sports personalities for showing the masses how they should be a good citizen. Expect plenty of viral content from leading athletes shared across the world to encourage their followers of the importance of being green.

Future of sports globalisation

The future of sports revolves around the global athlete. We think sports in 50 years will have transcended country borders and we’ll see everything from international Premier Leagues to worldwide NFLs. Instead of nationally segmenting our teams, we’ll judge them on an international scale, creating divisions peppered with teams and fans from every part of the globe, playing together on a regular basis (imagine Man City thrashing LA Galaxy in a mid-week game on your virtual headset).

There’s currently talk of the NFL putting more resources into finding talented athletes on other continents — could American football take over as the first world-inclusive sport in 50 years’ time? And would this spell the end for international tournaments and national victories, like the Olympics and World Cup?

As we’ve probably said too many times, the future of sports is steered by money, and there’s only so much a business can grow domestically.

A fairer game in the future?

The last we heard, there have already been secret video technology trials carried out in Premier League matches this season. However, football is a curiously slow member of the sporting family when it comes to implementing this across the board.

Thankfully, the future of sports will likely be built around instant replay and video evidence used to support every sporting decision. So, no more uproar following embarrassing ref mistakes like Lampard’s disqualified goal and Maradona’s laughable Hand of God.

But why not go one step further? Sports in 50 years might kit out its rugby, cricket and football players with tiny cameras strapped to their boots or collars in order to capture every rant and dirty tackle for the ultimate in fair-play and entertainment.

Personally, we’re in two minds. On the one hand, we’re all about playing by the rules and ensuring a game is won justly. But hating the referee or umpire is such a unifying experience for fans that taking the decision-making out of their hands could just ruin the atmosphere.

On a less crucial point. The future of sports will likely leave behind the mandatory coin-toss at the beginning of many sporting events. Football matches still use it to decide who kicks-off, but we’re sure half a century will create an app that will provide an even more random result to the heads-or-tails scenario.

Future commentary and broadcasting

The future of sports is all about the viewer. Even now, events like Formula One races are strategically held at peak TV viewing times in Europe to ensure they pull in their maximum audience, and we’re seeing more and more kick-off times deviating from the 3pm time slot for a more TV-friendly time.

In 50 years, we can see every league and division having its own channel which means a sad farewell to scuffles between networks like the BBC and ITV for the broadcasting rights to Premier League matches.

Another big change will be the authority of social media, which will replace the traditional, sit-down press conference after a game and will introduce live, post-match Tweeting direct from players to fans.

Future personalities and sports extinctions

The big news about sports in 50 years is that snooker might not be there to see it. The gentleman’s game of snooker has lost many of the big names and famous personalities that made it popular during the 1980s, like Steve Davis and Dennis Taylor.

Greed for big-money deals means that any sport like snooker and darts without huge team sponsorships, heavily endorsed stars, and prime-time viewing slots are pushed aside to make extra room for more emotional games, animated players and photo-opportunistic moments that are prime meme fodder and offer the greatest money-making chances.

Virtual sports

As we’ve said before in our predictions, we’ll likely see more augmented reality and virtual reality interfaces in sports, with all decisions, formerly dictated by men with whistles, coming from computers.

The future of sports brings with it more meticulous analysis, aided by instant replay, video feedback and masses of statistics presented in seconds. Boxing and kickboxing, for example, will receive instantaneous information about key parts of the sport, such as impact and strength, which will be analysed by coaches and medics to dictate if a fight should end or how the boxer should end it.

Delving deeper into the world of virtualism, skipping 50 years into the world of sport might give us completely transformed games, like virtual driving in Formula One. Perhaps this could be a way of keeping alive the due-to-be-departed sports like snooker and darts, too.

Future kits

Sports gear of the future, will offer more for your money. Why have one sponsor when you can have several? Shirts to come will be made from a materials that enable multiple endorsement logos and ads to show throughout a game, which will go far to keep up with the demand.

Similar to the microscopic camera idea strapped to players’ kit, we imagine that integration and communication will be commonplace among players and management in 50 years. Team members will be fitted with earpieces so that the coach can speak directly to them at all times, rather than hollering from the sidelines, which should lead to a more tactical game for the viewer to enjoy.

Another key kit change we expect to see in sport in 50 years is one that we’re sure will happen much sooner. Many UK scientists today firmly believe that repeated headers during a professional footballer’s career can lead to long-term brain damage. So, we’re almost certain that the world of sport in 50 years will require each of its players to wear headguards on the pitch.

With the ever-growing focus on health and safety, sports in 50 years will likely strap its athletes up with respiratory and heart rate gauges during games to ensure that players are monitored throughout, rather than just once the game finishes.

Really off-the-wall ideas for sports in the future:

Here’s a selection of more world-changing sporting events that, for us looking at the prospect now, would change sports beyond modern-day recognition.

Health and Safety takes over; sports like American football and boxing diminish while ‘safer’ sports like basketball, croquet and badminton flourish in the cotton-wool future.

Olympics is cancelled; mass globalisation and a political drive towards dishonouring national pride eradicates competition between countries and anything that promotes it.

Human athletes are replaced with robots; sports become solely about the fandom, voyeurism and entertainment. Players’ talents and physical builds are replicated in machines, which are then continually enhanced for a sleeker, better performance.

Check out our men’s Gola Classics and women’s Gola Classics before you go.

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