With the rubber tree, of course, and that's where senior curator Elizabeth Semmelhack ventured for a new exhibit, "The Rise of Sneaker Culture," at the Brooklyn Museum. The exhibit of about 150 shoes opens Friday and is ambitious in scope, spanning rubber production to Prada to the coveted kicks bearing basketball legend Michael Jordan's name, along with his monumental endorsement deal with Nike. Between the two world wars, governments began to democratize physical health and sneakers so that people had fit bodies to serve their country. Fashion designers Ricky and Dee Jackson, brothers whose Pony shoes are part of the exhibit, said the sneaker sweepstakes of today are focused not just on the shoes of athletes but on limited-edition styles. Fashion giants like Gucci and Prada entered the sneaker industry early on but sneakers did not turn high-end until sports brands teamed up with designers like Jeremy Scott and Yohji Yamamoto, and companies like Jimmy Choo and Louis Vuitton saw the value in the billion-plus business. "Men are willing to wear pattern and color in their footwear in ways that they are not willing to wear in aspects of their dress and so for fashion designers, sneakers are the perfect canvas for playing with," Semmelhack said.