Archive silhouettes are the latest sneaker game obsession

Between re-editions, new versions or simply reiterations, the nostalgia factor has become one of the main drivers of the sneaker game. While brands are scrambling to bring old more or less known silhouettes back to life, collectors have begun to give more prestige to collecting and archive, pulling little-known sneakers out of the closet to rethink the future of the sneaker game. Halfway between the educational purpose and the pure business, pages such as Obscure Sneakers, adisight and Curation Education Sales are the ideal meeting point between old and new, sharing (and often selling) rare and forgotten sneakers.

Between Rugrats sneakers and others from Toy Story, there are Nike and adidas kicks never seen before, mules and boots in Goretex signed by Salomon and New Balance boots for basketball. A parallel world, in some ways an alternative universe in which brands have decided to dare, to pull the most absurd and crazy silhouettes out of their hat. The truth is that we are facing the past and the future of the sneaker game, a temporal short circuit in which creators are free to look for any kind of inspiration to create the sneakers of tomorrow. Like the Yeezy 500, released in 2018 and inspired by the design of the adidas KB8 3, Kobe Bryant's sneakers released during the 1999-2000 season. Steven Smith himself, Yeezy's own designer, in his interview with nss magazine had indicated among his favourite sneakers the Nike Crib Mary Jane, a Nike model for babies certainly not at the top of the desires of collectors in search of the latest release hype.

It is precisely the hype culture the point of origin of this phenomenon, the Big Bang that has given rise to the desire to go beyond that wall of weekly releases that now dominates the industry. Interviewed by Complex, Lil Yachty, rapper but above all collector, had talked about his desire to discover and look for forgotten sneakers as an antidote to a world of releases in which hype prevails over originality. Nothing new, if not the natural reaction to a sneaker game firmly fixed on his few certainties, reworking the same silhouettes with minimal design and colour variations without being able to offer anything really new to fans. If the past can teach us anything, if pages like Obscure Sneakers or adisight can tell us anything, it's the importance and richness of the archives not only for fashion brands but also for sneaker brands. If Stone Island and Moncler seem to have understood this, now it's up to Nike and adidas to do it, transforming phenomena such as the sneaker archive into a weapon to shape the future of an industry that could unexpectedly find in the past the key to its future.