5 Ways That Sneaker Culture Infiltrated Paris Fashion Week

Virgil Abloh at Louis Vuitton's Paris Fashion Week. Image via Getty

Fashion is the most judgmental world in the universe. Outsiders are shunned by the insiders, and if you don’t fit in, or have the right clothes on, you’ll never get their acceptance. Don’t know the right brands, go to the right parties and know the right people or what the hell qualifies something as couture? Don’t even bother showing up to a fashion event. But being into sneakers can change that nowadays. Fashion people don’t know a thing about good sneakers, and those who do are few and far between. Just look at what high-fashion brands are making these days. If you actually have credibility in the sneaker industry, it can go a long way during Fashion Week. Knowing that you’re going to turn up to see people in Nikes and track suits, too, makes you feel more at home as well.

For years fashion brands have put in calls to footwear brands to get shoes for their shows. Maybe it’s just a variety of different models, like what John Elliott does with Nike, or brands will make special makeups for designs. A pair of New Balances recently surfaced that the company made for Christopher Shannon years ago. But now, fashion collabs finally being accepted in the sneaker community, and brands are unveiling their projects at shows. This has been happening for some time, but it feels like every cool label has their own shoe coming out. CLOT x Nike. Pigalle x Nike. Undercover x Nike. White Mountaineering x Adidas (although that collaboration is complete garbage). It has everyone looking down during the shows and seeing what’s going to pop up.

High-fashion shoes, for the longest time, have been the worst thing ever. They’ve ripped off the best sneakers of all time, made them worse, and raised the price. Or given their “elevated” opinion on a shoe that no one ever asked them about. Things have gotten better lately. Pigalle is doing a Zoom Air sneaker. Don C is sitting front row at high-end shows. Undercover is doing Air Maxes. And Comme des Garcons is making Air Jordan 1s. Sounds pretty good to me. It’s what we want to see from high-fashion and the footwear industry. It’s about not letting brands go too crazy on good shoes and making an honest product that doesn’t feel condescending. Don’t even tell me, “You don’t understand this shoe.” I will piledrive you on Champs-Élysées.

Virgil Abloh is the king of streetwear right now and especially the intersection of designer brands working with footwear companies. Him taking over as the Creative Director at Louis Vuitton has really brought an authentic sneaker perspective into the best-known designer label. Can’t say we’re mad at that. This is the official acceptance of sneakers in high-fashion culture. Yes, Kim Jones was there before, likes streetwear and has had his own Nike collaborations, but he’s no Virgil Abloh. We’ve seen Abloh create his own LV sneakers, which are a riff off ‘80s Avia sneakers and invite his crew, which he hit Paris Fashion Week with in 2009, saying they weren’t invited to the shows then. That’s changed—now they’re in charge of the brands, the must-be-seen people at events and calling shots everywhere. Funny how the ten year challenge works.

Okay, it’s crazy to say that sneakers are the main attraction of Paris Fashion Week, or any Fashion Week for that matter. Maybe New York, but not really. But they’re vying for that spot. I used to hate when people said that high-fashion put sneaker culture in a better place, mainly because the people saying it were assholes and had no leg up to make any of these statements outside of their titles. Either way, brands are working with the right partners, designing the right shoes, putting them in the right places, and it’s all starting to work. Fashion Week and sneaker blogs? Never thought the two of them would collide, but it will be interesting to see if sneakers, and sportswear as a whole, are shaping the future of high fashion or are merely a trend.