Keds Sneakers Advertisement from 1925
This Keds sneaker ad is from May 1925.
Boston school boys called their tennis shoes “sneakers” in the late 1880s – because the soft soles let them sneak around. The slang must have survived and spread, because according to the Keds website, in 1916 when the United States Rubber Company began manufacturing Keds they marketed them as sneakers.
Here’s a 1962 Keds commercial starring Ozzie and Harriet.