British Slang For Shoes (Explained!)

The British most commonly use universal slang terms for shoes like “kicks”. They also sometimes refer to shoes in general as creps, and specific kinds of shoes as trainers or trainees. “Sneakers” is used but is far less common in Britain. In Cockney rhyming slang, shoes are referred to as “ones and twos”.

While there are a variety of terms used to refer to specific kinds of shoe, for the most part the British are not likely to use slang terms to refer to shoes in general.

Shoes are simply shoes, and as you get more specific there may be more specific terms.

Let’s find out more.

In This Article

What do the British call shoes?

The British have a couple of different names for shoes.

However, it’s worth mentioning that in terms of a general slang term for shoes, there aren’t many widely used, universal slang terms for shoes in Britain.

That said, there are a couple that will definitely be understood by most people, if not used.

“Kicks” is probably the most widely used term for shoes.

Most will understand what you mean by this, and it can refer to any kind of shoe.

“Creps” is another one which is more common among the youth today than the older generations, but it is nonetheless still widely understood in Britain today.

It generally refers to fancy new shoes, particularly flashy new trainers, although it can be a catch all term for new and posh shoes of any kind.

You’ll mostly hear this one in the south of England, and it may not be that widely understood outside of this region.

Beyond these words, there are a variety of slang terms for shoes, but they are mostly highly specific. “

Trainers” is probably the one you will hear most, and this may be confusing to American ears.

Trainers are what, in American English, would be called “sneakers”.

They are typically shoes designed for running or athletics of some kind or another, but they are no means exclusively worn for this purpose.

“Wellies” is a very British slang term for Wellington boots,

Naturally, though, this is a very specific kind of shoe, and very few people would ever say the full name in any case.

Finally, in the East End of London, you may hear shoes referred to as “ones and twos”–more on that later.

Let’s look at where all these terms come from.

Why do the British say kicks?

Kicks is a term that has been in use in many parts of the English speaking world. It is far from exclusively British, though it has certainly taken on its own British character.

It has its origins, as far as we can tell, at the end of the 19th Century and was at first American slang.

In the 1890s in America, “kicks” was supposedly a term used by the homeless to refer to their shoes based on the action of kicking.

More than that, we don’t really know for sure.

The connection is very natural and intuitive, but when or where exactly it started being used is unfortunately lost to time.

It spread to the rest of the world through movies and television over the course of the 20th Century to take on its modern sense.

Why do the British say creps?

The word “creps” is mostly used in parts of London, and is particularly considered to be a Black British slang word.

It derives from Jamaican Creole, a form of English used by Jamaicans in Britain and under British occupation.

Beyond this, we don’t really know a great deal about the word’s etymology. It could be very recent, but it could also be fairly old.

With little written record to go off, we can only guess, though it is plainly at least as old as the 19th Century.

Why do the British say trainers?

Trainers is perhaps the single most universally used slang term for shoes, although of course it refers only to a certain kind of shoe.

The word itself is very recent, given that such shoes only came into existence within the last 50-60 years.

It’s not entirely certain, but it seems that the first usage of the word “trainers” was in 1968, by the brand Gola, as they were attempting to market their shoes as something you would “train” in.

Today, of course, trainers are not necessarily exclusively used for training but simply part of everyday fashion.

Why do the British say “ones and twos”?

Finally, in Cockney rhyming slang, you have the term “ones and twos”. If you are not familiar with rhyming slang, it is precisely what it sounds like.

You take a word or phrase that rhymes with the word you are actually signifying, and you substitute it.,

This one is of course highly regional and you won’t hear it at all outside of one area of London.

With little written evidence of its usage, we can really only guess about when it started being used.

There’s no more sense to it than the simple fact that it rhymes with shoes, and may have come into use in the 20th Century.

So, you are not without a few different ways to refer to shoes in British English.

At the same time, there are not many widely used, universal slang terms for shoes in Britain.

Most are either highly specific or not used by most people.

What the Americans would call sneakers, the British call trainers–other than that, it’s creps, kicks, or one and twos.

More in British Slang

Founder - @PollyWebster

Polly Webster is the founder of Foreign Lingo and a seasoned traveler with a decade of exploration under her belt.

Over the past 10 years, she has journeyed to numerous countries around the globe, immersing herself in diverse cultures, traditions, and languages.

Drawing from her rich experiences, Polly now writes insightful articles about travel, languages, traditions, and cultures, sharing her unique perspectives and invaluable tips with her readers.

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