Suddenly, Sporty Sneakers Are Sprouting Flowers
Super sporty Salomon and ASICS sneakers are suddenly sprouting flowers, bringing the outdoors indoors and the organic to the technical. It's a floral bouquet, except it's ready for a run.
Niche but exquisite, the customized sneaker movement has finally spilled over from the adidas Samba, perhaps the shoe of 2023, to Salomon and ASICS... possibly the most vital shoe brands of 2024?
If it's not their own sneaker innovations driving the hype, then it's down to the way that young shoppers crave the shoes and, even then, crave to make them their own. There's a desire for distinction that remains rooted in the shoe shapes of today and DIY redesigns are, for some, the outlet of choice.
Philippines-based crochet genius @ilyang.ilyang is at the core of it all. The brainchild of designer Daphne Chao, its hand-stitched floral appliques are so widely appreciated that Salomon itself tapped the artist to spread the word about its relaunched Speedcross 3 sneaker (Chao accented it with a blossoming floral sock).
The enthusiastic social media spread of @ilyang.ilyang's latest project, the adorably named "Bolomon" — a handmade removable flower that attaches to shoelaces — only more deeply demonstrates demand: the people want flowers on their shoes.
This dovetails with the floral ASICS revealed by Cecilie Bahnsen in February 2024.
Part of the Copenhagen-based designer's Fall/Winter 2024 collection, these tech-y single-tone runners are rendered delicate by minute floral appliqué.
Storied bootmaker Dr. Martens harvested its own crop of garden-fresh shoes only shortly after, dappling one of its new-season black oxford shoes with plastic flowers of the Bahnsen variety.
This is customization meets feminization and it's starting from the ground-up in the same way that balletcore is gently becoming more rugged.
It's just that, now, rugged sneakers are becoming more gentle.
The specificity of the flowers isn't the only indication of the way things are sprouting, shoewise.
Fashion's recent girlhood fixation is broadly affecting footwear that was once anything but dainty.
It's legible in Simone Rocha's Crocs, laden with faux pearls, and Japanese jeweler Tasaki's ASICS, laden with real pearls.
It's legible in Salomon's recent in-line footwear offering, where the ever-popular XT-6 sneaker is remixed with pastel hues and a recovery slip-on transforms into a single-strapped mary jane.
Now, shoes planted with 3D florals, knit or not, are obviously a hyper-specific micro niche.
Whereas the DIY Samba sneakers of yesteryear were shaped from the ground-up by TikTok-aged young people seeking to stand apart without entirely avoiding the crowd, these floral shoes are rolling out more purposefully, driven by top-down creativity.
There's enthusiasm for them, to be sure, but their appeal is narrower and more indicative of broader inclinations than a singular trend. That is to say, though they'll always have their fans, the power of flower footwear is relatively limited.
Even if Instagram fame does bloom only briefly, though, at least these flowers won't wilt.
