Are High-Fashion Knockoff Sneakers Getting Too Ridiculous?

High-fashion brands have jumped on the sneaker bandwagon in recent years, but has it all become too much?

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We’ve waxed poetic about the melding of high fashion and its obsession with athletic-inspired footwear time and again. The broader “athleisure” trend, the buzzword that so-called industry experts have dubbed it, comes from the general idea that sporty clothes or athletic gear are a comfortable enough option that they would translate into everyday wardrobes. Sneakers have been a key category in defining this sportswear movement, and it's seeped its way into nearly every high-fashion brand’s offerings for the last couple of years.

We already saw how the adidas Stan Smith inspired a new generation of luxury sneakers from the likes of Common Projects to Saint Laurent Paris, and even the Stan Smith itself has seen a welcome revival from both sneakerheads and the fashion elite. And while high fashion may have elevated sneaker culture, at what point does the well run dry when it comes to finding new “inspiration” for brands to draw on?



it doesn't matter if you've got high-end sneakers when everything else is lackluster.


When French ready-to-wear label Céline launched its Fall 2014 footwear collection early last year, which consisted mainly of platform shoes and heels, there was one distinct silhouette in its lineup that looked awfully familiar. It was a high-top sneaker that was essentially a pared-down Nike Air Force 1. It was ironic given that Céline’s Creative Director, Phoebe Philo, was one of the first to champion the Stan Smith down the runway. Sneakerheads weren’t sure what to make of the $900 homage, but nonetheless it was an inflection point for high-fashion brands cashing in on sneaker culture.

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The term inspiration is often used loosely in this industry and sometimes the lines are so blurred that it’s hard to differentiate between imitation. So when Isabel Marant dropped its Étoile Bart sneaker, lots of folks were left scratching their heads because it bore so much resemblance to the adidas Stan Smith, almost an exact replica. While other interpretations of sneakerhead classics at least used updated toolings and slightly different silhouettes, these seemed like an uninspired clone. 

That strikes us as odd because Marant pioneered the sneaker wedge trend with women that took the industry by storm back in 2012, thus causing a trickle down effect that led to nearly every brand copying the style and making its own. Marant even went as far to say that there were, “A lot of copies, and the bad copies are super-ugly.” The irony isn't lost on us that Marant essentially copied the Stan Smith verbatim. 

Most recently, we saw a sneaker that came from left field with Italian label Marni and its iteration of a Nike classic, the Air Rift. Arguably one of Nike's oddest silhouettes, the co-opting of a sneaker that most people wouldn't wear casually in the first place signaled a shift that fashion brands are scrambling to do something "different" while not really doing anything different at all.

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Brands like Japanese label Hender Scheme offer genuine homages to coveted classics like the Air Jordan IV because, aside from looking amazing, they offer an actual value proposition—they're made from natural cowhide leather that patinas with age as they're worn, transforming each sneaker into a truly unique shoe. On the other hand, something like Del Toro's version of the Jordan Spizike seems like an uninspired shell with no true purpose. Spizikes certainly weren't clamored for from the beginning so why even produce a luxe remake in the first place?

Reinterpreting something for the sake of being offbeat is a reminder that brands should probably take a step back and reevaluate if this is something that consumers really want. It's getting to a point where brand's are no longer coming up with creative ways to reimagine enduring silhouettes and it begs the question, has it all gone too far?

As designers like Alexander Wang borrow more and more from sneaker culture, putting on an entire show with garments, shoes, and accessories directly inspired by Nike and adidas sneakers, it's become apparent that the trend has come full circle.

It may be lost on fashion houses that the entire reason sneakers are popular in the first place is because they have a history and serve real purposes in their respective domains. Guys don't need to be dipped head to toe in designer duds, and it's readily apparent when you see dudes like Givenchy Creative Director Riccardo Tisci rocking plain old Air Force 1s regularly, even before his collaboration with Nike, and Details magazine Style Director Eugene Tong mixing up his look with Nike Flyknits. It's all a balancing act that both brands and consumers should learn to juggle. Because at the end of the day, it doesn't matter if you've got high-end sneakers when everything else is lackluster. 

Sneakerheads are beginning to realize that a fashion sneaker won't necessarily make you "stylish." Even street-style heavyweight Tommy Ton thinks the whole notion of the high-end designer is being muddied. In a recent interview with Style.com, Ton admits that "It’s great that those kids are becoming more fascinated by fashion, but for me, the luster of the designer is kind of being lost because it’s being seen everywhere." Having your own sense of style will trump rocking the latest designer shoe, no matter how much it cost. Don't let a hypebeast tell you otherwise.

Daniel So is an associate editor at Complex and still doesn't own a pair of Common Projects. You can shame him on Twitter here.