The new life of boat shoes

Classic men's shoes are big this year. We didn't need Miu Miu's viral show to tell us, but after years of streetwear and collaborations, the only thing a sneaker signals is its tendency to heed the sirens of marketing. The leather shoe, seen everywhere, has returned not only as a sign of timeless authenticity but also as a renewed proposition by designers of price-for-value, of a product whose preciousness and materiality can be appreciated. The result has been the emergence of a new style that combines preppy aesthetics and the relaxed proportions of streetwear, and has seen the resurgence of what were once "leisure shoes," primarily the classic boat shoe made famous by Timberland, which have replaced the canvas sneakers and slip-ons that occupied the scene a decade ago.

Both the London, Milan, and Paris fashion shows and the new series of Timberland collaborations in recent years have marked the return, in a fresher and dare we say "liberated" version, of a shoe that has been held hostage by the milieu of rich kids, young financiers, and trust fund bros since the 1980s and is now showing, in the hands of new, less cautious generations, all its versatility. The latest shows and modern appearances of the boat shoe have played with the preppy undertone of the model without embracing it—instead, making it even more informal, beautiful as all subtly outmoded things are, fresh because worn in a fresh way. This, in short, is the year we free ourselves from the combo of boat shoes and slim-fit jeans to pair the shoes with parachute pants, white socks, shorts, leather jackets, and basically everything one would normally imagine above a simple sneaker. But how did boat shoes come about?

History of Boat Shoes

After becoming standard footwear in the U.S. Navy, the life of boat shoes changed forever thanks to Timberland. The brand entered the boat shoe market in 1978, marking the beginning of the "rugged casual" footwear category. The fusion of the rugged lug sole of the boot and the handcrafted upper of the boat shoe created a new icon and a spring must-have. Known for their sturdy yellow boots, Timberland sought to capitalize on the factory's low production period by producing warm-weather footwear. Timberland's boat shoe line quickly gained traction, and thanks to the book "The Official Preppy Handbook," they became a staple of the East Coast elite's summer wardrobe in the 1980s, often paired with khakis and polo shirts. Despite their association with the elite, boat shoes have periodically returned to fashion. For example, in the late 2000s, the preppy style was revisited by both hip-hop culture and indie bands. Notably, in 2009, Kanye West designed a line of white boat shoes for Louis Vuitton, and bands like Vampire Weekend adopted the preppy look, incorporating boat shoes into their style. After the era of hipsters and their vintage and retro looks, the classic boat shoe resumed its role in the 1980s aesthetic wave, which viewed it as a "classic" shoe in a world obsessed with non-classic styles—until the definition of classic was changed.

Boat Shoes Today

Miu Miu SS24

Bally SS24

Fendi FW24

Ferragamo FW24

Giorgio Armani FW24

Drole de Monsieur FW24

Noir Nei Ninomiya SS24

Kolor FW24

JW Anderson SS24

Our Legacy Workshop x Paraboot

SS Daley FW23

The Row FW23

White Mountaineering SS24

Whether we call it grandpacore or quiet luxury, a new wave of collective fascination has generated an entirely new style in our years. The exuberance of colors and materials of streetwear, the abundance of innovative details and constructions that nevertheless scarcely innovated the basic components of the men's wardrobe has been responded to, after the lockdown setback, by the search for less transient, more mature aesthetics. As the original streetwear fans landed in their thirties and the pillars of that style and its brand-symbols were quickly relegated to high school and teen culture, a new path to innovation was found. New in a manner of speaking-the name of the historic styling technique one sees being applied is “dressing down”: imagine Jackie Onassis freed from the stiff suits of representation walking around Capri in a sundress and handbag; imagine her husband, John F. Kennedy, shedding his jacket and tie and sailing on the Agnelli's yacht in a shirt, chinos and Rolex on view.

In short, the new style is a formality made comfortable, a classicism that finds its meaning again. What has happened is that , with the hype culture dead, admittedly a bit toxic and unsustainable, but above all with the fixation on novelty at any cost somewhat dropped, young fashionistas have gone in search of authenticity in a sea of commerciality, true value among a thousand often misleading proposals. The first sign, which came as early as the fashion weeks of January 2020, was that of a return of the formal aesthetic, but also of a new appreciation paid to the classic leather shoe that, even today, shows no signs of stopping. Ahead of everyone, it was The Row and S.S. Daley who first included them in the men's FW23 collection, in an extremely low, pointed, and slim version; recently, however, the boat shoe appeared in the collaboration between Our Legacy and Paraboot, in a somewhat hippy version; on the runways of Fendi, Ferragamo, JW Anderson, and Giorgio Armani but also, in a hyper-delicate version, at Bally and Bottega Veneta. Then recently, the Timberland 3-Eye Lug appeared in the form of a collaboration in the lookbook of cult brand Aimè Leon Dore and was employed in the styling of the latest lookbook with which 545 presented its latest summer collection.

What fashion showed at this juncture was not so much the reassuring aspect of formality but its more versatile variations. Above all, after the invasion of astronomically priced sneakers and hoodies, the desire to find a firm foothold in a fashion culture in which the cycle of trends is increasingly like a crazy wheel, flowing too quickly to be followed or taken seriously. This is how the new life of the boat shoe began.