Mizuno’s Wildest Shoe Is the Original Sneaker-Loafer Hybrid
The return of Mizuno’s Wave Prophecy Moc sneaker comes at a fitting time.
An evolution of the Mizuno Infinity Moc of 2012, a blend between a running shoe sole unit and a leather moccasin upper, various iterations of the Wave Prophecy Moc have sporadically hit shop shelves over the years.
Every time Mizuno plays this trick of mixing the upper of a traditional formal shoe with the sole unit of its athletic models, the hybrid sneaker is an outcast — a bizarre mash-up of designs, the type of which hardly exists anywhere else. They are niche models made for the real avante-gard sneaker nerds.
However, in 2024, the Mizuno Wave Prophecy Moc looks more normal than ever.
The footwear industry has caught up with Mizuno’s futuristic formal shoes and we’re almost used to seeing disparate footwear designs cross-breeding.
Next week, the Junya Watanabe MAN x New Balance 1906L is finally expected to be released, undoubtedly the most viral of the recent sneaker-loafer hybrids.
The Junya Watanabe MAN collaboration immediately took over social media, fashion blogs, and tabloid newspapers when it was first revealed on the runway, everyone trying to wrap their heads around this odd sneaker concoction.
That this collaboration managed to get so much attention is somewhat surprising considering how many other sneaker-loafer hybrids (as well as the Mizuno Wave Prophecy) have been released: Cottweiler x Reebok in 2018, GmbH x ASICS in 2020, the PUMA Nitefox in 2022… the list goes on.
Between all these releases, and a few others from this year, we’re living through the normalization of the wild sneaker-loafer. And the Mizuno Infinity Moc, released on October 11 in all-black with two suede-crafted versions in the pipeline, is the forefather of them all.
Although other sneaker-loafer hybrids existed before, namely the Nike Vagabond from 1982, Mizuno’s line of moccasin sneakers took this footwear genre to the next level thanks to Mizuno’s unorthodox wave-shaped sole unit. And, although we’re getting used to seeing these types of formalized sneakers, their eccentricity is still pertinent in 2024.
