Learn English – the origin of the slang ‘kicks’ meaning sneakers

Kicks for shoes in general is at least 19th century. It appears to have come from hobo slang (circa 1900s - 1930s), via jazz slang (1920s - 1960s) into African-American slang (1960s -) and from there to more mainstream use, and became used specifically for sneakers/trainers/athletic shoes when these were the most fashionable shoes.

The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (2008) says kicks meaning shoes is US from 1897, but has no quotations.

The Oxford English Dictionary dates it to 1904:

1904 ‘No. 1500’ Life in Sing Sing 250/1 Kicks, shoes.

The OED has a pair of 1930s quotations from tramps' slang, followed by John Henrik Clarke's Harlem U.S.A. the story of a city within a city (1964) and a 1973 Black world magazine.

A Jazz Lexicon (1964) by Robert S. Gold says:

kicks, n. pl. i. [from hobo slang: cf. 1930 American Tramp and Underworld Slang, s.v. kicks: "shoes, those things with which a kick is delivered"; current among jazzmen since c. 1925] See 1959 quot. —1958 Somewhere There's Music, p. 101. "She bought me these kicks," he said and held up a foot. — 1959 Swinging Syllables, s.v. kicks: shoes.

The Literary Digest for August 25, 1917 (page 47, Hathitrust) published a letter, dated July 2, from a violin player who had joined the army:

The shoes are great; you can never know what it is to be comfortable in shoes until you get into army “kicks." They _issue us two kinds, hobnails, or field shoes, and marching shoes, which are just plain, strong, tan shoes.

A snippet of page 159 of The Rap Attack: African Jive to New York Hip Hop (Pluto Press, 1984) by David Toop gives a rough idea of when and how it was specifically applied to sneakers:

kicks: synonymous with sneakers, which are the last word in footwear. Pumas and Nikes are the current favourites. Example: 'I gotta get me some new kicks to wear to the Funhouse Saturday,' The Funhouse, by the way, is a popular disco with with this crowd.