Athletic or casual rubber-soled shoes are called sneakers. Before you walk your neighbor's Great Dane, you'll have to take off your work shoes and put on your sneakers. You can also call sneakers tennis shoes, kicks, or running shoes, and if you're in Britain, you can call them trainers or plimsolls.

4 The co-founder of Nike, Phil Knight, and his son Travis Knight, along with the holding companies and trusts they control, own more than 97% of outstanding Class A shares. 5 This allows the Knight family to exercise effective control of Nike even though it is a publicly traded business.

Nike is notorious for having a narrow design. For many people, this means needing to get a size 1-1.5 inches BIGGER than their normal size. It's not necessarily “smaller”, just skinnier. But most people don't have long, boney feet like characters in Medieval paintings.