In the 1980s, artist Kate Knudsen began customizing clothing, including sneakers and when Reebok reached out to her, she became one of the first artists to collaborate with a sneaker company. Knudsen’s witty juxtapositions and use of small plastic toys to embellish sneakers connected her work to both the Post-Modern New Wave aesthetic and more traditionally female-coded practices of crafting and her first Reebok sneakers were one-offs for celebrities including Whoopi Goldberg, Elton John, and Ronald and Nancy Reagan. In 1987, Reebok debuted the commercially available Knudsen x Reebok Freestyle in four of the artist’s distinctive designs, including this pair with its Western theme. The Freestyle was the most popular women’s aerobic shoe of the time and it remains the most popular ever made.