Surprise, surprise, everyone, WWD did a piece on designer sneakers. You wouldn't believe the renaissance they're having in the high-end space. It's really amazing. You may not believe it, but even some of the most mundane high-fashion sneakers for women soar into the four figure price range. This is so fucking absurd, I don't know where to begin. You're seriously telling me a sneaker that is essentially a bedazzled Vans Authentic will fetch $1,500? I need to quit this writing shit and hit arts and crafts breakout session time hard. While this piece focuses on the women's side of things, we can apply it to men's just as easily.
As you would expect, big name fashion houses have (finally) caught onto the trend and begun putting their uniquely shitty interpretation on sneakers. Labels like Saint Laurent, Margiela, Raf Simons and Rick Owens have long established themselves as arbiters in the high-fashion sneaker world and have generally been adopted by the sneakerhead community at large. But now the likes of Giorgio Armani, Tom Ford, Valentino, Gucci, Celine etc.—labels more remembered for their clothes on the runway—are trying their hand at luxury sneakers. The days of "red bottoms" strictly referring to Louboutin pumps have ended.
Naturally, these brands hone in on the audience who already buys their clothes: wealthy women. The women's sneaker industry reached nearly $3 billion in the past year and doesn't look to slow down anytime soon. That's a hefty chunk of change. But for some reason, it's taken decades for the big name fashion houses to even offer comfortable footwear like sneakers. Surely, sneaker stalwarts Nike, Adidas, New Balance, Asics and others are scared, right? The fashion sneaker renaissance could ruin their business, right? They finally figured it out!
Lmao get the fuck outta here forever.
As Chanel, Tom Ford and Armani put the aesthetic at the forefront, experienced sneaker brands continue to rely on performance. They have no reason to compete with the high fashion brands in the ~$1,000 price range. The smart ones—which at this point is pretty much all of them—already work with luxury designers for their own high-end collaborative designs. Nike just had the Riccardo Tisci Air Force 1s and continues to work with Jun Takahashi of Undercover on Gyakusou. Adidas has worked with Yohji Yamamoto for more than a decade on Y-3 and recently brought on the talents of Rick Owens, Raf Simons, Mark McNairy, Kanye West, Pharrell and Stella McCartney as well. New Balance and Asics branch out to well-known designers and brands on the regular. Each offers their own brand of high-fashion at an affordable pricepoint. In reality, these sorts of "fashion sneakers" appeal to an audience already in the store. Not to mention, they look terrible compared to sneaker-focused luxury brands like Common Projects. This is a segment of the marker they've missed out on until now and only just realized can turn into straight cash money.
Please note, 99.9% of this entire piece was written in sarcasm font.
