What’s Trending Now In Sneakers Versus Five Years Ago?
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By Stadium Goods |What’s Trending Now In Sneakers Versus Five Years Ago?
Our first “trends” report takes a look at how we got from Off-White’s “The 10” collection to… Crocs?
Matt DeSciora
Just as life is far from static, the sneaker world is constantly changing, with trends shifting at an accelerated pace like never before. If you compare what’s hot in the culture now versus, say, five years ago, you’ll see that, yes, fads come and go, but the more things change, the more they kind of stay the same. Hang with me here for a second, but the Off-White x Nike “The 10” collaboration from 2017 may very well be a precursor to the Crocs wave sweeping through sneakers right now.
Along with Sean Wotherspoon’s Nike Air Max 1/97 collaboration and the adidas Yeezy Boost 700 “Wave Runner,” “The 10” was one of the biggest trends of 2017. Where the “Wave Runner” made “dad shoes” acceptable by “sneakerhead” standards, Wotherspoon’s Air Max 1/97 and Off-White’s “The 10” introduced a do-it-yourself, reconstructed design philosophy that is still impacting sneakers in 2022. In many ways, this was the beginning of what I like to call the “modification” era.
Sean Wotherspoon’s Air Max 1/97 from 2017, like Virgil Abloh’s “The Ten” collection, put a custom spin on a classic model.
The dramatic redesigns of Nike’s most essential shoes by Off-White and Wotherspoon opened the door for Sacai to combine elements of classic Nike running shoes like the LDV and Waffle Racer together to create the LDWaffle in 2019. Around the same time, Union released its Air Jordan 1 High OG project that fused original Jordan 1 colorways together on one shoe. This kind of customization had to have played a role in the rise of Crocs in sneakers.
Whether intentionally or not, the Union x Air Jordan 1 High seemed to be a direct descendent of Abloh’s Nike collabs.
There may not be a million different ways to modify a pair of Crocs, but that doesn’t mean all of the brand’s offerings are the same. Jibbitz, otherwise known as shoe charms, are offered by the boatload by Crocs, and allow you to customize your pair in whatever way you’d like. This type of modification may seem elementary, but is no different than the Diamond Supply Co. x Nike SB Dunk Low “Black’s” interchangeable velcro Swooshes. Or Off-White’s Air Jordan 5, which came with die-cut circular panels that can be cut out depending on the wearer’s preference.
Beyond Jibbitz, Crocs have been customized in a different way of late by arguably the most popular sneaker designer in the game right now: Salehe Bembury. His Crocs Pollex Clog collaboration changes the design of the cozy slip-on shoe to resemble something akin to a fingerprint with its deep grooved ridges. The change isn’t so much drastic as it is a move to make a widely accessible shoe a little more personalized.
Salehe Bembury x Croc Pollex Clog “Urchin”
When you think about it, wasn’t that the idea behind “The 10,” anyway? To take shoes that were already popular and readily available, and modify them with a personal touch? Yeah, people wear Crocs because they’re comfortable, of course, but there’s still many who find appeal in them because they’re so versatile in regards to customization and modification. “The 10” and Crocs have more in common than you may have thought.