Of All The Football-Inspired Sneakers, FILA’s Is The Most Absurd
FILA’s KM 2 sneaker builds onto one of the biggest trends of this year, sneakers inspired by football boots (or soccer cleats, to use the American lingo). However, FILA’s KM 2 sneaker takes the trend to new heights, literally and figuratively.
To make a football boot appropriate for everyday wear, we’ve seen some inventive creations. Nike Frankensteined together its classic Tiempo with an Air Max sole, Reebok played a similar trick through climbing shoe soles, and a growing number of cobblers are adding Vibram soles to worn-out boots.
However, FILA is the only brand to have created a sneaker with football studs attached. Yes, long studs (also known as cleats), designed to stick into soft grass, poke out from the bottom of the FILA KM 2 — however, they are enshrouded by a more typical sneaker sole.
From the side, you can see the useless studs slotting into the shoe’s sole, creating a clunky, stacked shape.
Above the unconventional sole unit, the football inspiration continues onto a huge flappy tongue, a feature normally used to help strike a ball but is increasingly being brought onto sneakers of every variety.
At a time when football and fashion are increasingly intertwined, the sport’s footwear is becoming increasingly popular.
“You’re getting people wearing these [football] shoes who would never kick a ball in them. 10 or 20 years ago, there’s no way I would have thought this kind of crossover would happen,” Daniel Jones, senior editor at SoccerBible, previously told Highsnobiety. “But I don't think many people would have predicted the level of interaction that football culture and fashion currently enjoys.”
For football fans, seeing functional boots made exclusively for matchday become fashionable is a strange phenomenon. And football-inspired sneakers don’t get much stranger than the FILA KM 2.
