Vans' Authentic Ease ditches traditional sneaker hallmarks like a structured eyestay and pronounced collar in favor of 2-eye laces and a raw-edged opening.

So to say the Authentic Ease is pared back would be quite the understatement. Instead of the typical thick cotton laces that are all but synonymous with skate shoes, the Authentic Ease wears thin, flat laces that bolster the sneaker's unassuming disposition. 

The leather upper’s crepey wrinkles add a layer of delicateness to the already delicate design.

In fact, the only real structure comes at the outsole, where Vans' signature rubber platform affirms the shoe's position as a true skate sneaker. 

Despite its lightweight presentation, the Authentic Ease sneaker, available on the Vans website for $80, should still be able to hold its own at any skate park. It’s just that the Authentic Ease's upper is so simple, it transcends time. It looks like it should exist in a age before skate sneakers, more like the concept of a sneaker than an actual functional shoe. 

Maybe it's what you'd get if you asked someone to draw a sneaker from memory with no reference material. There are no frills to speak of, and in an era where overdoing it is the norm, the simplest Vans sneaker still stands out.

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Up until now, though, the Karintha has just looked like an adidas shoe. It’s been made distinct for its wavy thin sole and Wales Bonner’s signature high-texture fabrics, but it’s always recognizable for its sportswear influences.

The Spring/Summer 2026 Karintha, however, is unrecognizable. 

The all-new Karintha isn’t a three-striped sneaker but more of a sandal informed by leather hand-woven in Brazil. But the wavy and sporty sneaker sole remains, creating a point of contemporary contrast against the handmade upper. 

That tension has always permeated throughout Wales Bonner’s excellent adidas sneakers, where rustic handstitched details and crochet stripes jar against mass-market adidas sneaker classics. And you see more of that across the SS26 selection that releases on April 27, from Wales Bonner’s pony hair Gazelles to Adios runners with a handwoven tongue. 

But the clash between contemporary adidas sneaker and old-fangled handwrought embellishments peaks on the woven Karintha. Which is to say, the most Wales Bonner sneaker of them all got the most Wales Bonner treatment. 

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Kapital's Century Denim is perhaps the Japanese brand's single most prized material, a bespoke sashiko-stitched cotton denim often dyed with traditional persimmon or ink treatments that leaves it rigid, ready to be broken in. The process of making Century Denim is so intensive that, legend has it, Kapital has to enlist four separate factories just to produce it.

It looks unlike any other raw denim on the market because it is unlike any other raw denim on the market. Though sometimes still offered in indigo, Kapital's Century Denim is more frequently earthy and brown, its countless little stitches creating three-dimensional texture exaggerated through wear. Even as Kapital's tastes have evolved — although, folks, let's be clear! The LVMH deal changed nothing in the brand's day to day — Century Denim has been a constant (as has its prices. That extra processing costs a pretty penny).

Even its application has hardly changed. Until now, Kapital almost exclusively deployed Century Denim in conventional trucker jackets and jeans, never anything weirder than an overall. These giant jorts represent a radical departure for a radical textile.

About time, really. Kapital has evolved to centralize the goofy, fun — but always well-made — stuff that used to be a blip in its huge collections. But enough smiley-face camo and bandana tees! It's about time that Kapital's signature material followed suit.

These shorts are part of Kapital's typically gigantic Spring/Summer 2026, which includes everything from XXXL rugby shirts to palm tree-printed chore coats. The overarching theme is beachside livin' (mind you, the collection's title, "Isla Bonita" is probably not a Madonna reference) and the shorts are a direct homage to the cropped pants worn by rice farmers who toil on Japanese islands.

And they're good, too! Kapital gets a lot of hype for a lot of reasons but it really is great at making clothes.

These shorts could've just been oversized jean-shorts made of Century Denim and still been a big deal. But they're instead thoughtful cropped trousers fitted with pleats on their front and rear that reign in the volume, while deep angled pockets keep necessaries from tumbling out. The shape, combined with the fabric, really makes it clear that these are the final boss of jorts — these things simply do not get cooler or wilder (or wider).

Available at stores like Blue In Green for around $500 in both kakishibu and sumi variations, the Century Denim jorts are just plain good. They don't really need to be justified. What a beautiful way to flip the script on a well-established Kapital klassic.

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To mark a century of rugged tool watches and horology that punches above its weight, Tudor is reviving a forgotten wristpiece. The Monarch, a sports watch line central to Tudor’s offering in the early 2000s but overshadowed by the Black Bay launched in 2012, is finally back.

The 2026 Monarch boasts the new calibre MT5662-2U movement, which is Master Chronometer certified by METAS and helps justify its price ($5,875) at the top-end of Tudor’s range. And the newness continues onto the outside, featuring a steel bracelet and 39mm case with sharp angles unlike the Monarchs that came before, yet the 2026 Monarch still carries the vibe of an early-2000s sports watch. Much of this retro feel comes from the yellow champagne dial with its textured, vertically brushed finish Tudor created to evoke old papyrus paper.

The dial matches that of Tudor’s first-ever moonphase watch, released last year, and its unveiling has been met with equal levels of surprise at this year’s Watches & Wonders. 

The Rolex-owned watchmaker was expected to bring out limited-edition takes on fan favorites for its centennial. And Tudor did just that at the watchmaking convention, presenting several Black Bay designs like the first fully blacked-out ceramic and a sapphire blue Black Bay 54. 

But those were expected, somewhat, whereas the Monarch’s revival was a left-field choice. This isn’t a widely-known watch nor one that’s been building a buzz among vintage collectors, yet its few small tweaks made it arguably the standout from Tudor’s big 100th-anniversary moment. 

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The lookbook leans into layering with field jackets, light down gilets, and washed nylon shells and parkas made to slip in and out of, rain or shine. And as we deserve, the campaign is fronted by actor Jamie Dornan — a man both meltingly hot (he was Christian Grey in the 50 Shades films, after all) and notably Irish, coming from a land of all manner of weather conditions.

With Moncler’s spin on summer staples comes a more seasonal color palette: the women’s selection is flush with pastel pink and Creamsicle orange, florals, and gingham, while the menswear is rife with grass greens, sky blues, and sunset-ready deep reds. 

As we’ve come to expect from a brand as famed for its outerwear as its lavish events, Moncler’s Summer collection isn’t dropping without a few stunts up its puffy sleeves.

The brand’s new collection is bringing an entire zoo of larger-than-life animals to boutique locales around the world. 

Milanese shoppers hungry for grilled polpo may be compelled to scale 10 Corso Como to reach a massive inflatable octopus wrapped around the boutique’s inimitable facade for Milan Design Week, while whales, seahorses, crab, lobsters, and flamingos can be found everywhere from Dover Street Market Ginza through to Miami’s Design District. 

Call us crazy, but these lighter layers and pleasantly puffed-up animals have us convinced that we actually do need to pair our favorite summer shorts (or shin-sheathing pants) with a flash of Moncler. 

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Since this collaboration-crazed farm-affiliated fashion brand started in 2022, it’s done it all from workwear to sportswear to streetwear. One category has remained elusive, though, and an upcoming Sky High Farm Goods x The North Face collaboration will plug that gap. 

“This is our first foray into truly functional outdoor apparel,” Daphne Seybold, co-founder and CEO of Sky High Farm Goods, tells Highsnobiety. “Our ultimate goal has always been to produce performance-driven garments that meet the demanding utility needs of farmers and other tradespeople, while straddling fashion and culture. This capsule is a direct reflection of our identity as an impact-led brand committed to generating net positives for both people and the planet.”

We got Sky High Farm Goods double-breasted suits (in collaboration with Denim Tears) before we got Sky High Farm waterproof outdoor gear. Which is kinda wild because the latter is the kind of stuff you actually need in the great outdoors — like, on a farm, for instance.

On April 23, the duo launches a range of what Seybold calls The North Face's "time-tested icons," like weatherproof mountain pants and a shell jacket (“an essential layer for wet-weather farming,” according to TNF’s press release). Sky High Farm Goods’ interventions are ensuring the materials are 100% recycled and decorating the all-black outdoor gear through fuzzy appliqués and all-over prints of the brand’s moon and strawberry logo. 

“We were deliberate in how these graphic elements showed up across the collection, creating a system of dress appropriate for the outdoors,” says David Whetstone, The North Face's director of global collaborations and energy. “While Sky High brought a lightheartedness, when [the logo is] applied on black, the intensity of The North Face is present.” Ensuring this branding is legible is vital because it carries Sky High Farm Goods’ vital message. 

Seybold, a former marketing executive at COMME des GARÇONS and Dover Street Market, started the brand to both raise money for Sky High Farm, a New York agroecological farm, and to spread the word about food equity. After all, as she previously told Highsnobiety, “If you look at the media impressions between fashion, food, and beauty — the categories we've decided to enter into — those media impressions dwarf [the ones for] climate talk.”

The hope isn't just that you wear these outdoor clothes embellished with a fun strawberry and moon, but that they inspire you to dig into Sky High Farm Goods' greater calling.

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This isn’t the first place the Haitian-Canadian superstar has rented in Los Angeles, and it won’t be the last. “The curfews were terrible in Quebec,” he says, lounging on the couch where he now makes a lot of his beats, remembering the early COVID lockdowns that inspired his move. “I was like, ‘Lemme get the fuck out of here.’” But right now — as he bides his time before another tour, another album cycle — it’s as good a place as any to hide. 

Kaytra, who was born Louis Celestin 33 years ago in Port-au-Prince and grew up in Montreal, moved to LA right as the world was slowing down and his life was speeding up. His second album, the lush, propulsive Bubba, released at the tail end of 2019, netted him a pair of Grammys (for Best Dance/Electronic Album and Best Dance Recording, the latter for the Kali Uchis–assisted “10%”). The record industry that had once seemed so distant was clamoring for more of his time, more of his attention, more of him. Still, the journey west was less part of a master plan than it was a fit of restlessness. 

The impulse to flee must have been strong, because in person, Kaytranada does not read as antsy or nervous. He’s slight and reserved but poised: He will stand stock-still and explain why The Infamous might be the best rap album ever made. The house where he lives is free of clutter but full of equipment: on a kitchen island, a coffee table, wherever there’s space. It gives the impression of someone who, on one day, might immerse himself so fully in work as to forget anything else exists — and on the next, might simply tweak drum sequencing on the way back from grabbing a glass of water.

This half-decade in America has seen Kaytra become bigger — in terms of sheer commercial leverage and the expansiveness of his influence — than anyone could have reasonably expected for a shy kid obsessed with pushing the limits of rhythm in FL Studio. Kaytranada seems to agree. “You could do this, you could do that so you can become bigger,” he says, ventriloquizing the people who pull him into meetings and point to spreadsheets, slideshows, and marketing decks. “And I’m like, ‘I’m fine.’”

So today, in midwinter, exactly halfway between the release of his fourth solo album, Ain’t No Damn Way!, and a summer tour in Europe, Kaytranada is burrowing back underground. It’s the opposite of the trajectory followed by virtually every popular artist. But it’s what Kaytranada believes he needs to do to stay tapped in with what made him fall in love with music in the first place. He says he’s been telling people this next album will be the “last serious one” before a flood of more idiosyncratic projects: “Mixtapes, beat tapes, EPs.” 

He concedes that he’s said that before, only to go back on the decision. But dating back at least to the press cycle around 2024’s Timeless, Kaytranada has seemed exhausted with the overdetermination of modern blockbuster rollouts. “Prince would just put out an album every year,” he says, leaning forward for emphasis. “Madlib would put out projects whenever he wants.” The artists he admires from the past weren’t so precious, basically. “For me,” an album should be “just a document of what you went through — you look back at it and you’re like, ‘Okay, that’s how I felt.’” 

The retreat is nothing new; relative isolation is Kaytranada’s natural state. Where hip-hop was once a strictly social endeavor, his earliest forays into the genre were online. When he was 15, he fell in with about a dozen other aspiring producers who would upload their beats to YouTube. “We were the only ones watching,” he jokes, “giving each other props.” Spurred on by the tantalizing amount of music one could torrent — and by a particularly gifted 13-year-old of whom all the others were jealous — Kaytranada threw himself into the depths of The Pirate Bay, combing through old German prog-rock LPs, obscure disco, new wave, library music, anything with a synthesizer. He was modeling himself, as both a producer and crate-digger, after Madlib and J. Dilla, prizing the inscrutability of source material.  

By the time he released his debut album, the thunderous-yet-shimmering 99.9%, in 2016, he had already blown up online with a Janet Jackson remix, opened for Madonna, and signed to XL. Just as tellingly, he’d seen his style widely imitated, but never truly replicated: legions of producers across genres pushing drums forward, trying to blend soul, funk, and R&B with myriad dance genres, yet never quite matching the Kaytranada atmosphere, one that’s both totalized and totalizing. 

Rap was always the organizing principle. No matter what other influences come flooding in — new jack swing, classic boogie, the krump music he’s been tinkering with lately — Kaytranada comes back to the same question: “What is the hip-hop version of that?” That first album featured MCs from different cities, subgenres, and eras (Phonte from Little Brother, Anderson .Paak, Vic Mensa, GoldLink). Even the songs without a guest verse, like the Karriem Riggins–anchored “Bus Ride,” would not have been out of place on a Slum Village LP. 

Kaytranada quickly distinguished himself as an adept, adaptable collaborator, meeting guests somewhere between their native styles and his funhouse version of them. But for a long time, these working relationships existed only in the digital world. “I would get vocals back, I would get the entire Pro Tools session,” he recalls of these early days, assembling his first two albums mostly in Montreal. “There would be millions of takes. But I had the patience to go to every take and eventually go, ‘This is the right one.’ That’s why it kind of sounds very homemade. It was definitely not studio, definitely made at home on my laptop.”

**

By the time the initial COVID lockdowns lifted, though, things had changed. For one, the industry writ large returned to an in-person session model; for another, Kaytranada had hit a new stratum of fame and was finding himself in studios with artists whose work he grew up studying. The move to LA in 2021 made some of the logistics easier, but it also took him far out of his comfort zone. When he recounts these stories, you can see his shoulders tense, the stress of interference still weighing on him.

The idea of going through the entire creative process with another artist — or, worse, A&Rs and executives — lingering behind him made him freeze up. (Later on in that rented home in the Hills, we talk about the story, famous in producer circles, of 9th Wonder being flown to New York while Jay-Z was recording The Black Album, given an R. Kelly sample, and told to flip it on the spot.) The Quebec cocoon was gone. 

And then, during a session with the Angeleno soul singer Georgia Anne Muldrow, an epiphany. “We were just vibing, going through these beats,” Kaytranada explains. “I was very shy to make beats in person, too shy to express myself. I was used to people doing their own thing.” Muldrow clocked this, and wasn’t having it. “She was like, ‘Come on, Mr. Producer, whatcha gonna do, Mr. Producer? Whatcha gonna do?’ And then that fucked me up in a way! It was like, damn, this shit is serious. I had to be more serious than that.” 

“I’m very shy, too,” Muldrow says. “It’s the shy ones who get a chance to know their surroundings more and understand the human condition; we take the extra time to take it all in before engaging. That’s gold in translation for being a producer. And so seeing that type of quality in Kaytranada, I just loved to encourage him. It’s the very same shyness that is the source of his versatility in style and groove. 

“Really, he’s a sponge. That’s the only reason I kept” prodding him, she adds. “I wanted him to assert what he observed in real time, and make it fun.”

The encouragement set Kaytranada off in the right direction. But it’s one thing to literally make beats in front of an audience. It’s another still to assert your style and sensibility. “It’s definitely something you become obsessed with,” he says, “the sense that they’re never going to get it.” He describes the pressure he felt, early in his career, to “turn the swing down sometimes” — to make beats more pop than R&B if he imagined that’s what an artist wanted, a deflating process made all the more frustrating by being self-enforced. This only abated when he realized there would be no pleasing everyone, no matter how far out of his preferred pocket he went. 

“Of course some people are not going to get it,” he says of his current mind state. “But it’s still what I want to express. It’s still coming from the heart. It’s still 100 percent me.”

This reserved streak is noted even by rap’s most elusive living artist. “When I met him, it seemed to me that he was a man of few words,” says Mach-Hommy, the acclaimed rapper whose face is always masked and whose name has never been revealed. “After a few months of working remotely on a little house music album, K slowly began to communicate in more and more detail. He eventually shared his origin story with me, what it was like growing up in Quebec... He told me how electronic music was never his real aim, and how his real passion lay in the creation of dark and moody sample-driven hip-hop. Montreal shit, as he so succinctly put it. I think he described his success in the electronic music scene as a ‘happy accident.’”

The pair’s first collaboration, a single from Kaytranada’s 2021 EP, Intimidated, was a nod to their shared heritage. “$payforhaiti,” part of the proceeds of which benefitted Mach’s Pray for Haiti Trust Fund, is a bright, skittering cut delivered partially in Creole; “#RICHAXXHAITIAN,” from Mach’s album of the same name, feels even closer to how that nascent house LP might sound. “Two Haitians in a post-apocalyptic Tinsel Town,” Mach says of their chemistry. “What could go wrong?”

When Kaytranada was a teenager, he paid close attention to the battle between Lupe Fiasco and Atlantic Records over what would become the Chicago rapper’s third album, Lasers. It was a catalyzing event for Kaytranada, who decided to make whatever contractual concessions were necessary to retain creative control over his career. It’s something he’s demanded in all his recording contracts — and extends to his attitude about sampling. “A lot of people are skipping sampling; they just don’t want to go through the bullshit and the lawsuits, or even [calling rights holders],” he says. “But I’m a hip-hop head. I’m a purist when it comes to that.”

And yet any career that includes a string of arena dates across Europe, as Kaytranada’s will this summer, suggests an enterprise so big it would be difficult for one person to steer. There are trucks to take monitors and pieces of a stage from Berlin to Warsaw (and to Zurich, then Munich…) and an unending string of interchangeable hotel rooms where Kaytranada will take his production equipment but, he anticipates, rarely touch it. When he tours, he says, “all my creativity is just poured into when I perform.” There will be tens of thousands of fans dancing every night, tracking the minute changes he likes to make to the studio versions of his songs. He says the sheer scale will never stop being a little surreal. 

Still, Kaytranada knows that sometimes the best thing you can do is wait. So for now, he’s biding his time, working on beats from the couch — some presumably the krump mutations he teased — while movies play quietly in the background. 

He works most nights between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m. Otherwise, he’s rediscovering things that never got their moment. “I was always a fan of Raphael Saadiq,” he says, “but I never really listened to his second record,” 2004’s G funk-inflected Ray Ray. “Now, it’s one of my favorite albums.” Back then, he shrugs, it just wasn’t the time. And so until the perfect moment, Kaytranada will be here: tinkering, listening, conjuring something unlike anything that came before.  

Ray-Ban and Meta have been a fundamental part of said innovation. Through its ongoing partnership first brought to life late last year, we’ve been given a front-row seat to what the future of eyewear actually looks like, and this time, it's getting personal.

For a while, AI glasses were a flex reserved for those with perfect vision. Not anymore. Meet the Ray-Ban Meta Blayzer Optics and Scriber Optics Gen 2, two new optical-first styles built specifically for prescription wearers. 

Slimmer and more customizable than ever before, the new frames come with interchangeable nose pads, adjustable temple tips, and overextension hinges offering an extra 10° of rotation. Translation: you'll wonder how you ever left the house without them.

Ray-Ban Meta Blayzer Optics - Gen 2

Meta AI is keeping pace, too. Live Translation now covers Japanese, Mandarin and Arabic, and hands-free food logging and nutrition tracking have been added for those who want their glasses to do more than look the part. They’ll do that too, don’t fret.

Ray-Ban Meta Scriber Optics - Gen 2

New seasonal colorways, including Shiny Transparent Grey and Shiny Transparent Peach, are available for order now, with the full collection expanding globally later this year.

Blurry vision? No problem. The future's finally in focus. 

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The collection draws on the original western aesthetics Benetton has been tapping into since the ‘70s, but it’s far from being “just” a nostalgia trip. The focus is on comfort and ease, which basically means no stiff fabric or break-in period; It’s like finding your favorite pair of comfy, worn-in jeans straight off the rack. There’s bootcut, regular, and carpenter cuts for men and cropped, bootcut, and turn-up options for women. Most importantly, everything is designed to have that relaxed, lived-in vibe that makes denim a wardrobe staple in the first place. 

Jean’s West isn’t just about the denim, though (even though some may argue that’s the best part). The tees, sweatshirts, and accessories also take heed from the wild frontier, with western-inspired graphics and small details that are just as home in an everyday look as they are down on the range. Embroidered caps, colorful bandanas, and statement pieces like a denim trench coat or a paneled skirt top off the western look—and just like that, you’re one step closer to channeling your inner cowboy.

The collection is available from the end of February on benetton.com and in 40 selected stores where you get the chance to dive into Benetton's western world even more.

Enter the sports jacket. No, not the blazer. We’re talking about the pitch-side kind, embossed with a certain badge of honor, if you’re into that kinda thing. 

Besides its practicalities against the rain, wind and any other elements thrown at you (beer spillages perhaps), a team's jacket is a symbol of unity when a kit can’t be. Plus, there’s the added bonus of actually being able to wear it beyond match day, after all, it’s a solid jacket at the end of the day.

With this in mind, we’ve compiled our favorites that adidas has to offer right now. 

If you were watching in 2006, you already know. If you weren't, this is your chance to catch up. adidas has brought back the iconic Argentina away track top from the 2006 World Cup, one of the most beloved kits in tournament history, and its double blue looks just as striking two decades later. 

Contrary to belief, not every World Cup jacket needs to scream to be heard. The adidas Denim Graphic Track Top takes a quieter approach, with denim-inspired details, embroidered linear branding, and a relaxed, loose fit that sits somewhere between terrace wear and something you'd actually want to wear on a night out.

Sweden's track top is the one for people who care more about how they look than who wins. Butter yellow and royal blue, they didn't come to play. The funnel neck, Trefoil branding, Sweden crest, and fun graphic on the back make this one of the cleaner fan pieces going right now. Wear it to the match, wear it after. Either way, you're winning.

The most important tournament in the world deserves its own jacket, and this is it. The FIFA World Cup 26 Official Emblem Windbreaker is as close to a collector's piece as outerwear gets, carrying the official tournament emblem on a lightweight plain-weave shell that's built for whatever mood the weather's in. Football optional, of course. 

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We've all seen a fancy Birkenstock or two in our time, right? Birkenstock has worked with so many luxury labels on high-end shoes that it's basically a luxury label in its own right. In fact, there's even a dedicated line of luxury Birkenstocks, Birkenstock 1774, which only just debuted Danielle Frankel's bridal Birkenstocks.

And though Song for the Mute did give some high-end Birkenstocks a new coat of paint — again, literally — this was not as simple a process as it sounds. Song for the Mute took the hard way to no-brainer products, leaning into the storytelling that informs its mainline collections to define advanced shoes that're nonetheless approachable.

Before sampling a single Birkenstock, Song for the Mute dreamed up a quartet of creatives who might be clad in Birkenstocks as they live their lives. These figures informed the shape and styling of shoes that were perfected over the course of three years and release in-store and on the Birkenstock 1774 website, accompanied by complementary apparel.

One of the key touches is a bespoke rivet that's emphasized on the outside of otherwise familiar forms like the London shoe and Amsterdam clog, marking the first time that this critical piece of Birkenstock infrastructure has ever been meddled with in this way.

These kinds of small touches do not impose. Quite the opposite: they're not obvious at all. But they are important, because they reveal the human touch that informs the entire endeavor, like brushstrokes on a canvas or the tone of a guitar.

Simply, why Birkenstock?

Melvin Tanaya and Lyna Ty: Birkenstock was always there. Since the beginning of Song, it's always been a brand that we’ve wanted to collaborate with. We’ve styled our look books throughout the years with Birkenstock!

Having worked with other footwear brands on special-edition shoes, what made the Birkenstock experience unique?

Our vision for this collection was clear from the beginning. Through our three-year collaboration with Birkenstock’s team, they allowed us to push on materials and execution in order to see our collaborative vision fulfilled.

Did the silhouettes you landed on inform the archetypes you paired them with or vice versa?

Definitely vice versa. Once we created our four characters, we wanted to make them as believable as possible.

We picked out our silhouettes based on what would really fit these characters and their settings. We also wanted to explore the concept of indoor and outdoor shoes, so we picked styles that we would either suit or clash with their traditional form.

Similarly, how did you land on the specific styles?

The style of shoe was influenced by the character and what silhouette we imagined they would wear. For the Gardener, we landed on the Super Birki 2.0, an outdoor gardening and work clog. We even printed grass onto the insole. For the Artist, we pictured a soft suede shoe aged from time and wear, marked with paint splatters — the London matched this.

What was your process for recontextualizing these existing silhouettes in new materials?

We trialed different materials that would disrupt the traditional Birkenstock silhouette whilst keeping the overall execution restrained and true to our narrative. We wanted to design a collection that contrasted visually and to design the shoes to look lived-in by their characters.

Similar to the choosing the shoe models, the characters also led the selection of textiles and finishings. So, for the Artist, we used custom paint splatters and an aging treatment that reflects the life and setting of its owner.

To wrap up, what's the Birkenstock difference?

Its history as an orthopedic shoe brand makes it so suitable for everyday life and the shoes' functionality and form transcends gender and age. People from all ages and occupations pick Birkenstocks as their everyday shoe and so, it fit perfectly into the creative world of our characters.

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But now, Vans is turning its simplest colorways into an elevated gem that can stand on its own — no references needed.

On a topical level, Vans' "Antwerp Fade" Authentic sneaker is just another all-black skate shoe, something that you’d think would be a dime a dozen for the skate maison. This shoe isn’t luxury on accident either. Named after Antwerp, the north Belgium stomping grounds of fashion legends like Raf Simons, Martin Margiela, and the Antwerp Six.

Though not as obvious in its referential fashion status as some of its counterparts, the Antwerp Fade Authentic sneaker still knows ball.

But this Authentic sneaker is far from a regular-degular black skate shoe. This is a GOAT in the making.

The upper is made of a luxe pebbled leather that gives the sneaker the same elegant status attributed to leather handbags. You can tell these stunners are luxe without even touching them. The textured leather upper hits a wall at the toe, where a suede composition takes over and really underlines the material delectability oozing from this sneaker.

All of this is rounded out with a chocolate brown outsole that pushes back against the dated style notion that suggests black and brown should never mix. Whoever said that must have never seen the "Antwerp Fade" sneaker, available on the Vans website for $80, really get down. 

If anything, the chromatic juxtaposition just further adds to the Authentic's existing intrigue. 

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It's not even the wearing of other people's shoes that makes bowling shoes so strange. The design itself is just off the hook.

Mismatched uppers, cork-based outsoles — the shoes are intentionally kitschy both for functional and anti-theft purposes. Yes, the kooky look of bowling shoes is an intentional design choice to discourage people from running off with them. 

Funny enough, though, it's this clunky disposition that has made the lane-friendly sneakers the ultimate muse for adidas.

adidas’ bowling collection features three different bowling shoe-inspired sneakers, including the delectably neutral brown and pink Changle Bowling sneaker where the smooth leather upper is layered with light pink paneling, laces and a matching Three Stripes.

The cork-style outsole enhances the sneaker's quirky disposition, making the shoe look less like an adidas sneaker and more like a true strike-getter.

adidas' bowling sneaker series also includes a wavy black and red Predator sneaker that brings some urbane football contradiction to ye old bowling alley. For the calm shoe lovers out there, the Anfu bowling shoe brings an air of tranquility to the program with a full cream upper that's certainly the most "normal" part of adidas' bowling saga.

Available on the adidas website for $190, the Changle sneaker sits most comfortably at the intersection of lane-inspired stepper and typical adidas sneaker. It’s the best of both worlds, if you will. So strange that it’s almost circled back around to being just another sneaker. Though these bowling sneakers can’t take all the credit.

In fact, intentionally ugly shoes have been the footwear industry's playground for a while now. Convention is out, strange is in, we know the drill. Thankfully, though, these shoes are categorically clean — no antibacterial wipe down needed.

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