Reebok’s Instapump Fury 94 sneakers have long been collector’s items in Japan but now they’re also art, thanks to Anrealage’s Fall/Winter 2024 collection. In a collection indebted to Japanese pop culture icon Doraemon (?!), Reebok's signature squishy '90s running sneaker was literally blown up to cartoonish scale.
Anrealage was unsurprisingly focused on shapes for the collection, reshaping sweaters and jackets into spheres and pyramids as it so often does, matching the sculptural clothes worn by drones to real garments draped on models. One standout piece: a quilted jacket that looked like it was made of a stretched-out Instapump Fury sneaker's shell.
The collection as a whole has a sense of sporty play, much like the original Reebok Pump sneaker, first released in 1989. Anrealage designer Kunihuiki Morinaga, born in 1980, paid tribute to his childhood with the looks, according to a statement from the label.
Even alongside Anrealage's typically artsy fashion — umbrella-like outerwear, metallic gold collarless jackets, "melted" leather jackets — nothing stood out quite as hard as the bright blue and neon yellow pieces that transform the Reebok Instapump Fury sneaker into a semi-wearable jacket.
And, appropriately, all of the models walked the runway in a geometric, flattened Pump sneaker of Anrealage's design.
After falling out of popularity in the late '90s due to oversaturation (there was a Reebok Instapump with a theme from almost every children’s show at one point), Reebok has recently breathed some new life into the retro sneaker style thanks to forwards-thinking collaborations with the likes of Maison Margiela and retailer-turned-digital brand Opening Ceremony.
Anrealage’s take on where and how a Reebok Pump Fury functions in its world is clearly in very good company.
Who knew that the Pump Fury would go from Power Rangers to high-concept art about issues inherent in the fashion industry? It’s a good look for them.
