Why is the division boat shoe again trendy

There was something in the water behind the scenes of the parades of spring 2024. Otherwise, how would you explain how three very influential European fashion brands would both approve a style of division shoes most associated with white men in summer with CAPE COD?

Jonathan Anderson planted the seeds of JW Anderson with a series of Souchy boat shoes with exaggerated vamps in a range of colors, alongside fishing sandals and nautical dishes. Then, during her beginnings for Bally, Simone Bellotti (now by Jil Sander) established a soon favorite vision of the publisher focused on refined childcare foods that did not feel stifled, dressed in baseball caps, intelligent superposition, a touch of occasional color and a flat shoe – which included black leather shoes, an adjusted blue blue button. Shortly after, the division silhouette would receive the Miuccia Prada approval stamp in Miu Miu (on a Troye Sivan, no less), and there was no return.

“What Ms. Prada and the Miu Miu brand have done so well is to invigorate the classic and the familiar, really understand that the style and the combinations are what makes a trend in heroes,” explains Linda Cui Zhang, director of associated fashion at Nordstrom. “It certainly pointed out to me.”

Zhang was a champion of the renewal of boat shoes. She grew up in North Carolina, where she was very anchored in the coastal lifestyle that many associate with the silhouette. “It was part of the Preppy uniform,” she says. “I do not think that I am alone – so much of my peers said the same thing, as:” I understand it as the collar polo shirt, the kakis, the twin cardigans, the vineyard vines. “”

Indeed, boat shoes have always been linked to the exit of the water. This is what Paul A. Sperry had in mind when he designed a bridge shoe with an unlisted rubber sole in 1935, with grooves inspired by the cracks on a dog’s foot pads so that you did not fall on board. (Because, yes, it happened to him. The necessity is the mother of the invention, as we say.) The original was made of canvas, but two years later, he created a leather version which would become the signature of his brand of homonym, the authentic original top-sider. Two years later, he obtained a patent for them. At the start of the Second World War, they were named the standard shoe for the occasional uniform of the American navy.

The property of the company has changed hands over the years. (Sperry sold it to Us Rubber Co. in 1940. It has since belonged to Stride Rite Corporation, Collective Brands and Wolverine World Wide. It is now part of Authentic Brands Group.) But its characteristic style has proven to be so popular that the brand name “Sperry” is now interchangeable with “Boat shoe” – a lot like “Kleenex” and tissue, “Chapstick”.

“In the 1960s, whoever was considered a” preparation “or a preppy person wore them,” said Ellen R. Lynch, shoe teacher and accessories design at Fit. The look was particularly widespread among the members of Yacht Clubs and Madison Avenue Ad Men, which saw it both as a symbol of status and an option of more comfortable and less stifling shoes for daily use. “No one wanted to wear a liaison shoe-that’s what their fathers wore,” she explains. “They wanted something that could designate the fact that they succeeded in themselves, but that it was not so Staid. It was the boat shoe.”

Famous people ranging from JFK and Martin Luther King, Jr. to Paul Newman and Sal Mineo to the members of the folk generation only increased their popularity as a shoe on leave, especially among young people. (Lisa Birnbach Went On To Immortalize Them in Her Seminal Book, “The Preppy Handbook,” in 1980.) and While Sperry was the original, it was no long the Only Player in the game: “Everybody Had Some Form of Boat Shoe, Including People Like Kenneth Cole and Ralph Lauren; Hist Advertising Campaign and Entire Look was that Straddling Between What Should Be a Suit and Tie and Lace Shoe (With) A Suit and Tie and Boat Shoe, A Suit and Tie and Mocassin, “explains Lynch.

The dawn of the “relaxed Friday” transformed boat shoes into an essential of the uniform of a corporate brother – a more comfortable alternative, but always respectful of dress codes and adapted to work with shoes with steep lace and moccasins. This is what gives it a lasting attraction, according to Lynch: “It is a universal, generic, completely comfortable, relaxed but semi-red shoe.”

It is strange to brandish an article that has existed for almost a century as a “trend”, but this recent renewal of the boat shoe was different. On the one hand, it is stuck longer than other trends in spring 2024. The Lyst shopping data platform says that demand for boat shoes increased by 19% in annual shift, both among men and women’s clothing. What makes this moment different – and very current – is the emphasis on personalization.

“When we think of the track, there is this tension to take the boat shoe and make you yours,” explains Zhang. “It was something with which I really resonated – this almost discordant or surprise in style, like wearing your boat shoe with a sequined cocktail dress or your flower dry pants.” It has also become more agnostic of the season: while sandals are still mainly a spring / summer article, boat shoes can be “winter”, as Zhang says, with large socks. (Despite the launch of the collaboration in “The Winter Dead”, she says that the Nordstrom client adopted them as something they can wear all year round.)

At a time when the charms of bags are a personality trait, it also means personalizing the shoes of your boat. When she bought a pair of sperry at the beginning of 2024, Zhang sat on them for a while, reflecting on the way they could integrate into his wardrobe. Then she held the laces with Disco pearls and worn them at Copenhagen fashion week.

“It stimulated a conversation on:” I see the boat shoe in a new light, “she recalls. “So many people asked,” Where did you get them? ” This has also stimulated a conversation with the brand, which has transformed into a collaboration of pearl styles that we now sell at Nordstrom. »»

The retailer presented a boat shoe capsule in February. Sperry, for his part, has maintained a fashionable presence: he provided shoes for the shows of spring 2025 and the fall of 2025 in Monse, as well as for the run 2025 Collina Strada, where designer Hillary Taymour covered them with glass clippings. He is also collaborated with brands like Beams Plus, Todd Snyder and, more recently, Aritzia. This last collection has become so viral that it sold in five hours, according to the brand. But don’t be afraid, replenishment arrives on Aritzia.com on April 26.

More broadly, the current moment of the boat shoe is part of a greater trend in accessories “becoming more relaxed and softer”, says Zhang. “We have seen it in bags with these rounded and unstructured forms. In shoes, it is the prevalence of this soft, Squishhy and unstructured ballet and now the boat shoe becomes, making the line between (something) that they can get away with the port to work and then not have the pain of a pointed and polished loaor.

Another position in which it slides: the neutral shoe of the rotation of your shoes. It is the Go-TO for any outfit and any occasion where you want to be comfortable-consider yourself a sporting alternative to a ballet or a broken moccasin. You will be surprised to see how transparent an exchange it is, whether it is adding a touch of preparation to a large tea skirt or a dress to slung or amplify the American sensation of your blue jeans and your white t-shirt. The preceding of the boat shoe track offers a starting point for brainstorming, presenting its versatility. Now it’s in our hands – or rather on our feet.