The World's Most Controversial Shoe Finally Got Its Toe in the Door
Toe shoes. Instant revulsion. And, believe it or not, style points to match.
Toe shoes are one of the unholy garments, along with fedoras and cargo shorts, that activate an instinctual fight or flight response. It's like staring at the sun: You can't really put into words why it hurts your eyes, it just does. Well, maybe you can put it into words.
Toe shoes have been called "foot condoms," even "the most embarrassing footwear ever designed."And, as society's Overton window shifted to normalize formerly divisive footwear like Crocs clogs and Birkenstock sandals, the humble toe shoe has remained verboten.
Or has it?
The world's most controversial shoe finally got its toe in the door of fashion. That's quite a feat. Especially for feet.
The Vibram Five Fingers shoe was unleashed upon the world in 2002 in a bid to create a minimalist shoe for barefoot runners. The market was there, the fans are still buying, and the rest of the world hass continued to recoil in horror.
Proponents of the Vibram Five Fingers (VFF) posit that there's scientific or natural benefit to wearing toe shoes, though science doesn't often back those claims up.
So, you're left with the looks. To VFF truthers, that's a plus.
"People are 'abhorred' by 'freaky' toe shoes," says Dirk, a Netherlands-based VFF collector who, appropriately, goes by @VFFcollector on Instagram. "Whenever a child tells me I have weird shoes, I ask them why they think I have weird shoes. 'Because they have toes.' Then I go: 'Don't you have toes?' 'Yes.' '...So then it's you wearing weird shoes.'"
Balenciaga, which once specialized in redeeming the irredeemable, likely thought the same. It released knowingly weird toe shoes in 2020 for $1,300, about 13 times as much as the average VFF model.
Japanese footwear label Suicoke has been pushing streamlined iterations of Vibram's toe shoes for nearly a half-decade. It's even taken toe shoes to the gonzo extreme with Midorikawa (painted toenails) and Takahiro Miyashita The Soloist (dad-toe-shoe hybrid).
None of these efforts changed toe shoes' reputation much, even among existing VFF heads.
"I do like the Suicoke shoes, because of the original coloring and also the exclusivity. I do wish they were cheaper, of course," says Dirk.
But we now exist in a post-irony age, wherein JNCOs are genuinely cool and football boots are fashion. Nothing is sacred — or, perhaps, everything is, toe shoes included.
An uptick in toe shoe acceptance has been driven by enterprising designers like art endeavor turned clothing line OTTO 958 and Los Angeles sportswear label Brandblack which both recently issued toe shoe collabs, following in the visible footsteps of some of the more stylish VFF models (they do exist!).
And the VFF is finding a newfound toe-hold with young people uninterested in prior generations' stylistic stigmas.
Perhaps this is the result of widespread tabi acceptance or a squashed footwear suited to a post-balletcore world, but there's a clear hunger for something flat, flashy, and freaky.
I'm seeing Vibram's ballet flat-style toe shoes making waves in fashion-forward New York, for instance. Rosalía-approved designer Zoe Gustavia Anna Whalen recently called them "the future."
A pretty far cry from the VFF's formerly frosty reception. It makes you wonder: What ma toe shoes so upsetting in the first place?
"This 'original' body image with 'toe feet' instead of 'amputated hooves' is what evokes a strong sentiment," suggest Dirk, the VFF superfan. "For some, evidently, the confrontation between their corrupted body image and nature is 'too much.' For more open-minded people, it evokes curiosity and wonder."
Not to step on toes or anything.
