Have we entered the era of monochromatic sneakers?

Regardless of brand, season or designer, monochromatic silhouettes are proliferating endlessly in the fashion system: from Pharrell x Humanrace’s rainbow-colored adidas Samba to Supreme’s Nike Air Force 1, A Cold Wall‘s green and navy converse* to JJJJound’s Rebook Classic Club.

For some reason, despite not being something new or the incorporation of a disruptive type of design for the sneaker scene, monochrome sneakers are being reimagined even from the high end sphere by cult creatives like Wales Bonner with his silver Samba.

LUXURY NORMCORE

The two factors that might connect or unify all of these one-color sneakers is that they are collaborations, usually between some outside designer and a sneaker or sports company, and they are all dyed in a coordinated fashion from the upper, to the tongue, to the sole, and usually the laces. Otherwise, the material, shape and shade vary greatly.

Design teams and factories are thus developing these versions of the trend, based on their identity, in order to meet a growing demand for monochrome, as a collective movement that could be linked to the silent luxury boom or the rise of luxury normcore.

Stealth wealth thus renews the widespread interest in simple and elegant shapes, leading shoe designers to lean towards creating such designs, most of them centered on the adidas Samba, which continues to be the shoe of the moment for its accessibility, and even more so, when, as with Pharrell‘s -in pop art version-, contrasts or details are removed from the equation.

All these monochromatic sneaker collaborations thus speak of a common desire for ease and a feeling of belonging to the status quo and/or following the aesthetic norm.