Why Is Every New Sneaker a Sandal? And Why Is It Awesome?
Today's shoe market demands a lot from sneakers. They have to be stylish, comfortable, versatile, and ... sandals?
Sneakers that have the wearability of a sneaker but the foot-baring quintessence of a sandal are exploding beyond the already packed hybrid shoe sphere and they look shockingly great.
Most fusion footwear, like un-corporate sneaker loafers and much maligned (and loved) sneaker heels, mash up the athletic draw of a sneaker and the refined steeze of a more formal shoe, making for something that's not quite either.
But sneaker-sandals, which combine two already casual shoes, are actually handy and quite cool, as stylishly trend-resistant as any of their trek sneaker predecessors.
Sneaker-sandals are a seamless team-up, a naturally outdoorsy fusion born of the trail but cool enough for the streets.
The Nike Air Rift, a split-toe Tabi style sneaker sandal was years ahead of its time, released in 1996 to capitalize on the barefoot running movement and became a fan-favorite shape in Japan. It's been recently revived, riding a wave of newfound tabi acceptance.
But, for the most part, sneaker-sandals keep their toes together.
New Balance, whose 1906 loafer pioneered a new era of curious combo shoes, is also flexing its sneaker sandal muscles with airy New Balance Breeze sneakers that land somewhere between a classic dad shoe and a mary jane.
Speaking of mary janes, the strappy shoe style has become an unlikely muse for Vans. The skate-shoe brand knows its way around more sophisticated shoe builds and has no problem trading in thrasher realness for pearlized refinement.
Case in point? Vans Premium's leather Style 93 mary jane shoes dotted with pearl embellishments across its delicate, open-air upper. Maybe it's not as much a sneaker-sandal as a timely lace-free shoe, but still.
Want a pure sneaker-sandal? Seek the king of stylish hiking shoes. Salomon has outdoorsy sandal-shoes to spare, from Juntae Kim's collaborative Marie Jeanne, which looks more like an on-foot work of art than a mountain-ready stepper, to its in-line Udara Advanced and XA Pro 3D Amphib, a sort of water shoe-turned-sandal.
The latter sandal-shoes are stylistically similar to the HOKA Hopara, maybe the the modern sneaker biz' first cool sandal-sneaker.
But whereas the Hopara earned attention for launching in gorpcore's golden age, ASICS' Gel Filimy, Saucony's Cradle MT, and Oakley's Aquaterra Hybrid are very much of the here and now.
Blame it on the core-ification of fashion or the general amalgamation of once-siloed style genres, but full-coverage footwear fatigue is here.
The streets yearn for breezy blended footwear, and daring sneaker brands are happy to deliver.
