“Sneakers are allowing men to express their individuality in increasingly nuanced ways,” she said. “I keep thinking of that Bruno Mars lyric: ‘Got Chucks on with Saint Laurent/Got to kiss myself I’m so pretty.’ ”

It’s fitting that the Brooklyn Museum is the first stop in the United States for “The Rise of Sneaker Culture” because that culture arguably originated in New York through the b-boy scene and playground basketball tournaments.

The exhibition, which originated at the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto and is touring North America under the auspices of the American Federation of Arts (it will visit the Toledo Museum of Art after leaving Brooklyn in October), dives deep into sneaker history, exploring early designs from the 1800s, industrial advancements in rubber, and the athletic shoe as a signifier of wealth for the early-1900s leisure class and the ’70s Me Generation alike.

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Mr. Williams will no doubt be rocking sneakers when he visits the Brooklyn Museum — maybe the Adidas Energy Boost 2s he’s lately favoring, or another of his 175 pairs. He is moderating a panel discussion about the limited product offerings for women, one of several events planned around the exhibition.

Ms. Small said she needed to up her own “kick game” before leading museum tours. “The only pair I own right now worthy to be walked around in is the Adidas Superstars,” she said. “Since they’re black and white, they go with everything I own.”

“There was a time even in the ’70s when it wasn’t acceptable to show up in sneakers to restaurants, clubs, churches,” Mr. Williams said. “Now there are people getting married in sneakers.”

In the show’s interpretation, the release of the first Nike Air Jordans in 1985, along with Run-DMC’s hit “My Adidas” the next year, took sneaker culture mainstream and paved the way for a critical survey.

In sourcing the shoes, Ms. Semmelhack said she was struck by the “baroque” design and colors of modern sneakers. “If you wore such loud colors with any other item of clothing, it would seem feminine,” she said. “But sneaker design is where men are willing to take their biggest fashion risk.”

You can thank rappers, athletes and boy-wonder tech entrepreneurs for the ability to conduct a business meeting or command shopkeepers’ respect in casual wear, said Lisa Small, a curator at the Brooklyn Museum who is overseeing the exhibition.

The exhibition includes over 150 pairs, from vintage Puma Clydes and Converse All Stars to recent high-fashion kicks by Christian Louboutin and Raf Simons, all held in display cases like works of sculpture. (Also included: the Adidas Yeezy Boost 350, the new limited-edition Kanye West low-top selling for over $1,000 on eBay.)

And this is a busy month for the city’s sneakerheads; besides the museum show, the traveling trade fair Sneaker Con will take place on July 25 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan.

The age of the sneaker and its influence on men’s fashion may get a further boost with “The Rise of Sneaker Culture,” opening Friday at the Brooklyn Museum.

“I wear sneakers every day,” he said, adding that, for sneaker fans, dressing isn’t about thinking head to toe but “toe to head.”

“You wouldn’t catch anyone in a high-level retail establishment ignoring some guy who comes in wearing a sweatshirt, jeans and sneakers,” Ms. Small said, “because that guy could be a hedge fund manager. That guy could be running some dot-com.”

Elizabeth Semmelhack, the senior curator at the Bata museum, who conceived the show, said she was interested in how the sneaker has altered traditional notions of masculinity, exploding the gray-suit-and-brown-brogue paradigm of male dress.