These days, there is no sin in appearing like another brand

Why have a single lace on each side of a pair of sneakers when you can have two? Miu Miu offered a unique answer in their collaborations with New Balance: contrast and quirkiness. Theses days, peculiar can, of course, easily go mainstream, and what would elicit a frown from your mother before is now easily the touch that would win her approval. This is more the case if both mothers and daughters are exposed to the same rate of the trickle down effect, as it is these days. Footwear is not suffering from a crisis of generation gap, which likely explains why brands, regardless of their positioning, are so eager to sell their own version, plucked from the redwoods of fashion. Deja vu, but keep the interesting elsewhere.

The Miu Miu tribute has officially landed in the heartlands. Recently, we spotted a pair of low-profile, flat-soled, nylon ‘Softe Sneakers’ from the seven year-old Singaporean brand Anothersole, and we’re still recovering from all the charm it radiated. What caught our eye was not the trending slenderness of the silhouette, but the unmistakable two, contrasting shoelaces on each side of the shoe: one that is flat and the other, two-tone braided nylon (as popularly used in hiking boots). It immediately brought the Miu Miu X New Balance 530 SK suede sneakers to mind. While an echo of this collaboration reveberating through footwear retailers is not surprising, we were not expecting an unimaginative whisper of the original thought.

Miu Miu, in fact, understood the need for collaboration to create something authentic, working with New Balance to ensure that their distinct offbeat sensibility didn’t simply jump the queue. But for brands that choose to arrive at the party belatedly and alone, their message is singular: “We, too, have swallowed Miu Miu’s healthy dose of peculiarity.” While this behavior is understandable from a fast-fashion giant like Shein, it’s more telling when other, equally responsive brands do it. It shows that in the sneaker business, operating in the grey area of “design inspiration” is often a traipse in the park. Shoelaces are, after all, the unsung heroes of sneakers. Employing them in contrasting styles requires little more than a trip to the haberdashery, a minimal fuss with a negligible financial outlay. Simply lace it up, and the job is done.

Photo: Chin Boh Kay