The Wicked Game of Sneaker Designs "Copying" Each Other

Are new sneaker designs all just a rip-off of other sneakers? The artist formerly known as Kanye West might not be the only one who feels like his designs are being stolen these days. Take a quick look around the sneaker game at upcoming releases and you will see one trend that seems to be coming from every brand making footwear. No, I'm not talking about everyone bringing back heritage styles from the 1980s like the Nike Dunk or New Balance 550. Although, we could go down that rabbit hole pretty easily based on how many people I see on the street wearing all the same shoes. However, I'm actually talking about something that, in theory, has a lot to do with the progression of technology: molded foam shoes.

Yep, that's right. Crocs took making house shoes for your mother and grandmother and somehow shifted the entire direction of footwear. Twenty years ago, Crocs served two simple purposes: provide comfort and be easy to slide off and on. I'd even be willing to bet that the orginal creators had absolutely zero thought about aesthetics. Well actually, in true footwear industry fashion, Crocs was originally created by a company called Form Creations, who sold the design of the original boating shoe (aka the Classic Clog) to the company that would become Crocs. And yes, as a boating shoe, it did have a very important third purpose: the shoe floated. 

Twenty years later, billions of Crocs sold, the rest of the footwear industry has become obsessed with foam injection molding. Converse, Jordan Brand, and adidas all have new releases on the calendar that feature an injection molded foam design that appears to use a removable sockliner. Ye even called out the adidas CEO on Instagram when the latest version of the adilette 22 Slide was unveiled. Although I can see a similarity in the shape of Ye's slides to the adilette 22, it's important to remember that the adilette has been around since the 1960s and there have been countless variations along the way. Despite Ye's frustration with adidas and their latest adilette Slide, the issue to me, is much bigger than Ye right now. It is unfortunately, not the first time we've seen this type of trend in footwear. In fact, it happens almost every time a new technology emerges.

Right now, the footwear industry feels like an entirely closed loop of thought. Take 3D printing, injection molded foams, "sustainability," and collaborations, for instance. Each of these things has become a focal point for nearly every brand in some way or another. As people within the industry suround themselves with the same goals and people, ultimately, the ideas and creative naturally paralllel eachother from brand to brand. It's a regular thing for footwear: Running shoes in the '70s and their heavy use of nylon uppers and waffle outsoles, visible cushioning systems throughout the '80s, lightweight synthetic upper materials throughout the late '90s and 2000s, printed knit materials like Flyknit and PrimeKnit, and even Boost-like cushioning in the past decade.

Technology, although it is new and innovative in many cases, also takes away the creativity for designers that are (more than likely) forced by executives to push a particular hot "tech" talking point to fit into market trends and capitalize off consumer demand for that trend. It has to be done because the money needs to be made. So when Crocs, the oddball cousin of the sneaker game steps into the market and becomes one of the hottest brands on the planet, the rest of the footwear industry scrambles to gain back a part of that lost revenue. They do so by embracing the "new technology" (and frankly, who wouldn't want to work with the latest and greatest of innovative materials?), but that in itself prevents them from expanding into truly innovative work. Instead they combine a couple of the aforementioned buzzworthy themes from the industry and re-present something that isn't quite new, but somehow feels that way to consumers.

It's a wicked game. While Ye, aka Kanye West, is absolutely right that the adilette 22 has a similar shape to his YEEZY slides, his YEEZY slides also took their shape from the adilette's original design. 

Rinse, recycle, repeat. That said, I really like this Jordan System.23, so maybe it's our fault as consumers for getting hooked by the marketing and aesthetics of new sneakers. It is a wicked game indeed.

For more on the evolution of footwear design, check out my conversation with Reebok Pump Creator, Paul Litchfield.