tux Whether you love to hate it or hate to love it, there’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that the chunky father shoe trend is a force to be reckoned with. While these “ugly” sneakers have been around because the beginning of time, they were always associated with mowing the lawn and Sunday cookouts. fast forward just a couple of years and they’ve now become one of fashion’s many sought-after commodities. From streetwear enthusiasts to supermodels, anybody who is interested in style has a pair of father sneakers in their daily rotation. With all that said, we want to take a second to explore how these old school trainers went from long runs to London runways in the short span of just five years.
If you imagine the sneaker game as a sort of timeline, chunky father shoes really came into prominence towards the end of 2017. looking back at this period, casual sneakerheads were really into the Air VaporMax which had only just been announced. The NMD and Ultra increase were also at their peaks, and one of the hottest collaborations of that year was the Tom Sachs x Nike Mars yard 2.0. What makes these silhouettes so similar? Well, if you look at them all side-by-side they all work on top of a knit or mesh bases and are pretty minimal when it concerns design. They also introduced a sense of ruggedness and utility which was a massive hit for shoe lovers, as this was also the year that techwear began to hit its stride over in western markets.
2017 was also the year that brought back the classics. Virgil Abloh’s Off-White x Nike “THE TEN” collection completely turned the industry on its head, and we also saw the release of the Nike Air force 1 “AF-100” pack which teamed up with several style icons to celebrate the AF1’s 35th verjaardag. So when Balenciaga spilled the beans on the Triple S and Kanye West showed off the Yeezy increase 700, everyone was wondering the exact the same thing: “What the hell is going on?”
Image through onairwithmiked
Many would argue that these types of sneakers first came into play in 2013 when Raf Simons took on the adidas Ozweego, but 2017 was when they first dove into the mainstream. According to Google Trends, the term “dad shoe” started to pick up steam around August 2017. This just so happens to be the same month that the “Wave Runner” was uploaded onto Yeezy supply and the sought after “Cream” Triple S was unveiled. What made both of these models so well-known was the fact that they seemed like a parody of genuine father sneakers. With their over-exaggerated curves and bold and brash palettes, every single design element was blown out of proportion. very quickly, unsightly trainers became the butt of every joke and diehard sneakerheads swore that they would never own a pair. Of course, these statements would eventually not hold water.
Soon after, every luxury brand wanted a piece of the chunky pie. Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Off-White, and Versace all released their very own over-designed silhouettes. Interestingly, this all happened in the space of three months, so it seemed as if every fashion house under the sun gathered all their designers and demanded them produce something instantly. World-renowned style icons like Alexa Chung, Bella Hadid, and Kendall Jenner were all found on social media rocking these significant creps, and just like clockwork, social platforms displayed an practically 200% increase in messages relating to this style.
So what makes them so sought-after? Well, there’s no doubt that these sneakers are made to turn heads. painted in some of the most outrageous colourways, these certainly stand apart amongst the crowd. They’re also accompanied by insanely high price labels so it provides a sense of exclusivity. According to a 2015 study by CBC, consumers are 65% much more likely to purchase something when it’s advertised as limited. This marketing ploy has been around because the dawn of capitalism, but the chunky shoe market really took advantage of it. At the end of 2018, the Balenciaga Triple S dominated Lyst’s hottest sneakers of 2018 list, beating the Air VaporMax and the NMD by a quarter mile. numerous begged for this fatherly fad to disappear, but unbeknownst to many, this was just the beginning.
Image through AJohnSnow
As we headed towards 2019, brands such as adidas and Nike began to switch up their strategies. Taking their foot off the gas with their core models, they went full steam ahead with the introduction of chunky sneakers for the masses. featuring exaggerated designs with not-so-exaggerated price tags, silhouettes like the M2K Tekno, P-6000, and Yung-1 rapidly became some of the most popular pairs of the year. These were also available in much much more wearable colourways, so if you wanted a taste of the trend but still wanted to keep some of your self-respect, these companies made it simpler than ever.
This eventually created a spin-off sneaker genre that retained the highly-sculpted midsoles of the chunky trend but equipped them with deconstructed designs, creating the ideal balance of classic and contemporary. models such as the LXCON and the ZoomX Vista Grind completely took control of this space. The three stripes even brought back the Ozweego but without all the overcomplicated cues that Simons had injected into it a few years prior, and collaborations like the A-COLD-WALL* x Nike Zoom Vomero +5 introduced the idea of retro-futurism. sacai’s Chitose Abe took her Swoosh collaboration into a brand new direction during Paris fashion Week 2018, fully embracing vintage silhouettes but applying extra thick midsole units below them. In fact, this shown so popular that the sacai x Nike LDWaffle became Complex’s best sneaker of 2019. “The charm of the sacai x Nike LDV Waffle is that it’s both old and new. Aesthetically, it has retro DNA, but is a completely fresh silhouette at the same time.” stated their then-Editor-in-Chief, Gerald Flores.
With all that said, luxury labels continued their dominance in the dadshoesphere. Balenciaga got technical with the Track, while Gucci bedazzled us with the Flashtrek which looked like it took inspiration from Thanos’ Infinity Gauntlet. Kanye also continued his reign by introducing the ever-popular 700 V2 which numerous consider to be the best Yeezy model ever made, and he also introduced the 500. one of his many ambitious drops ever, the Desert Rat was unlike anything we had seen before. Taking footwear design to another realm, it somehow looked like something straight out of the future while being stuck in the past. It’s so hard to describe its aesthetic, but even after three years, no one else has attempted anything like it.
Image through wideawakearthquake
At the end of 2019, pretty much every fashion publication believed that the chunky shoe trend would end sooner rather than later. In an interview with Fashionista, Grailed co-founder Jacob Metzger said “chunky sneakers and father shoes will be beaten to death over the next few months, and then a new trend will follow.” little did he and numerous industry experts realise that the father fad wasn’t ending, it was just evolving.
Chunky sneakers have come a long way because they first hit the mainstream in 2017. While 2019’s take on the trend was heavily influenced by vintage silhouettes, 2020 took it to another dimension. Chitose Abe unveiled her newest hybrid with the sacai x Nike VaporWaffle, while the Beaverton brand went full throttle with their ISPA line-up. Standing for “Improvise. Scavenge. Beschermen. Adapt.”, releases like the Air Max 720 ISPA and road Warrior looked like something that had landed from space. Interestingly enough, Ye absolutely adored both of these models. While in Tokyo, he was found by fans rocking the former while sneaker shopping. With the latter, West famously posted an in-hand shot on Twitter, writing that the sneakers “take me back to my childhood,” that he needs a pair, and to tell Nike to keep innovating as “the world needs it.”
One year later, Kanye himself took on the avant-garde father shoe concept with the release of the Yeezy 450. The brainchild of Yeezy Head of design Steven Smith, who also created the Reebok InstaPump Fury and Nike Air Zoom Spiridon Caged 2, development of the 450 began all the way back in 2018 when we were still lusting over the Triple S. With a knit upper, the midsole was injected with EVA foam and featured a sharktooth-inspired look that was quite unlike anything out there. keeping inline with his infamous season 8 design language, nothing looked like it was from this world anymore. The NSLTD Boot looked like something snatched from a Sci-Fi epic, while the Foam Runner can only be described as something borrowed from an alien colony in Mars. While both of these silhouettes are pretty cool in their own right, it was starting to look like the retro father shoe trend was a thing of the past. little did we know, however, that things were just about to go full circle.
Image through Nolis
If you asked anybody in 2021 what their preferred sneaker brand was, the chances are that 90% of them will probably say new Balance. If you told us that the Boston-based company would reach this status back in 2017, we probably would’ve just laughed. There’s no denying the numbers though. According to Statista, an estimated 1.38 million people purchased NB trainers in the UK in 2020. This was an increase of 60,000 people from the previous year, and the highest number in history. The 991 celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2021 which lead numerous people to purchase pairs, while normcore made a massive comeback as well, bringing the 990 and 992 back into the fold. even though these pairs are priced at over £200 a pop, the classic father shoe aesthetic was so sought-after to the point that numerous sneakerheads were paying in excess of £400 for a pair and over £1,000 for collaborative offerings like those from JJJJound and Joe FreshgOods. Een van de belangrijkste winnaars in de nieuwe balansbereik was echter de 550, die de “must-cop” -lijsten van iedereen volledig domineerde. De enige provider zag veel meer mensen dan ooit op zoek naar het silhouet, en toen we opnieuw aanroepen aankondigden, zo gingen talrijk van u naar onze site tot het punt dat onze servers zo ongeveer met het verkeer konden omgaan. Het is dan ook geen wonder dat New Balance verwacht in 2023 maar liefst $ 7 miljard aan jaarinkomen te harken.
Gorpcore heeft ook een moment. Het krijgen van zijn duidelijke naam aan de basisvoedselbron voor wandelaars over de hele wereld, “Good Ol’ Raisons and Peanuts “, deze op bergbeklimmen geïnspireerde trend heeft de dikke schoenverslag veroverd. De Nike ACG-line-up is veel meer hyped dan ooit, en eerder onderschatte labels zoals Salomon lopen voorop. Hun nieuwste ACS Pro Advanced Model, dat eigenlijk een opknapbeurt is van de GCS Pro uit de jaren 2000, is nu een van de populairste sneakers ter wereld. Om brandstof aan het vuur toe te voegen, is de Gucci x The North Face Collab een van de meest besproken onderwerpen in de modewereld geworden. In feite is elke samenwerking met de North Face waanzinnig gehyped geworden dankzij deze trend, en dit alles leidt ons terug naar 2017, toen vaderschoenen voor het eerst populair werden.
Van overdreven gecompliceerde CREGS tot smaakvol retro-lopers, de industrie zou niet zijn wat het vandaag is zonder dikke sneakers. In 2018 vroegen we onze lezers wat zij van de trend vonden. 36% van jullie bestempelde het als “pure afval”, 28% zei “nog steeds onzeker”, 20% verklaarde “geen mening”, terwijl een miezerige 16% dacht dat het “absoluut vuur” was. Vier jaar snel vooruit en we hebben je exact dezelfde vraag gesteld. Toevallig denkt 36% van jullie nog steeds dat het “puur afval” is, maar grappig genoeg, 34% denkt nu dat het “absoluut vuur” is. De Vaderly FAD heeft een lange weg afgelegd, en hoewel we niet weten of het over een paar jaar nog steeds relevant zal zijn, zijn we behoorlijk blij om te zien wat er daarna komt.
Afbeelding door het einde.