Remarkable Rise of ugly cool: Retro sneakers are ruling the street and gym

An enduring myth about Fila, the Italian sportswear company, is that its name is an acronym for “Finally I Left Adidas”, coined by a disgruntled former Adidas employee who thought himself competent to start a rival outfit. But, fascinating as this alleged back story may be, it is entirely apocryphal. Fila was, in fact, founded by one Giansevero Fila in the northern Italian town of Biella in 1911, some 38 years before Adolf “Adi” Dassler decided to change the name of his shoe company to Adidas. And since we’re on about backronyms, do note that Adidas is not short for “All Day I Dream About Sports” but a portmanteau that came about from the founder’s name. 

The K Swiss X Gary Vee 003 Clouds & Dirt kicks

Its beginnings may be disputed but what is not is Fila’s contribution to the sneaker industry. It’s impossible to think ’90s fashion without the Fila Disruptor, the chunky white, verging-on-platform sneaker that grabbed eyeballs wherever it went. Fila released an upgrade last year, the Disruptor II, which went on to be named Sneaker of the Year by shoe magazine Footwear News. “What has always worked for the Disruptor is its clean silhouette with limited experimentation in terms of texture and fabric. It will always be iconic,” feels Abdon Lepcha, creative head at Fila. 

Puma Cell Venom

A two-decade-old silhouette claiming the year’s top shoe prize is reason enough to believe that the retro sneaker has not only made a comeback, but its popularity is perhaps peaking like never before. The retro shoe is now what the plain white sneaker was a few seasons ago — it’s impossible to walk down the street without spotting one.

The somewhat belated success of the Disruptor is seeing a number of shoemakers taking us back to the ’80s and the ’90s. Puma released the RS-X series earlier this year, a bold, wackily attractive collection that uses the “running system” technology that the company first employed over 30 years ago. Skechers has similarly reintroduced the D’Lites from the 2000s — the American shoemaker, in fact, fancies itself as one of the originators of the bulky shoe trend, mainly owing to its ’90s hits such as the Stamina and the Energy. In the US, two “Dad sneakers” by Nike, the “M2K” Tekno and the Air Monarch, have been flying off the shelves the past few seasons.

The reasons for such a surge are many. Abhishek Ganguly, managing director at Puma India, believes that fashion is cyclical and consumers like to go back in time. Lepcha believes that the current consumer landscape is probably the most unique in decades. “Different people from different age groups are taking inspiration from each other,” he reckons. Moreover, with more premium brands taking note of their popularity, reinvented heritage sneakers have at their disposal a huge audience.

Skechers D’Lites

One of the remarkable things about retro sneakers is how grossly unappealing they may seem to the average shoe wearer. They are classically “ugly”, with inordinately fat soles, tongues or grooves. But that’s precisely what makes them tick — for youngsters seemingly sold on the idea of nostalgia, they make for the kind of cool throwback modern footwear doesn’t offer.

“People were initially reluctant, but now they’re in love with the trend because retro gets everyone talking,” says Soumen Das, senior marketing manager at Skechers. “The retro sneaker available today is deeply rooted in the history of the brand, and sneakerheads value the stories behind the adaptations they see,” adds Lepcha.

Another plausible explanation is the blurring of lines between casual and athletic. A lot of new drops are so-called crossovers that are built around comfort and are crafted in a hybrid manner that makes them suitable for both street and gym. For instance, the RS-X Trophy, though heavy, has such a snug midsole you can actually run in it.

Puma RS-X Toys Hotwheels

A burgeoning underground culture of rappers, break-dancers and graffiti artists has also contributed. A common thread between them is sneakers, which, apart from being a unique style statement, invokes a sense of “brotherhood” in the community.

The difficulty for designers here, though, is rebooting an old design keeping in mind modern preferences. Shoes have become lighter and more comfortable. But such innovation has also made them preposterously expensive (most retros cost somewhere between Rs 8,000 and Rs 12,000), deterring people from buying shoes as regularly as they once did. Which makes delivering the perfect pair of kicks a challenge. 

Fila Disruptor II

Fila, for example, doesn’t like messing with the basic design. Its latest retro range, the “MasalaBox” Mindblower, launched in collaboration with popular sneaker store VegNonVeg, is a riot of yellow, red and silver, but it features the same silhouette that we saw in the 1995 original.

Puma has taken a slightly different approach, tweaking silhouettes and fusing them with contemporary versions of its trademark technologies. “Our designs are reinvented and updated with modern elements to create sport-inspired street styles,” says Ganguly. “It is actually about imagining the future and setting the trend.” The future — the foreseeable one, at least — belongs to fashion’s fascination with all things deliberately ugly, a shift increasingly being marked by the hulking sneaker. “Ugly is beautiful” never seemed truer.