Couture Sneakers – High End Brands Drop Sneaks

Published on January 6, 2012 by Sincerely Smith · No Comments

Marketing and fashion must have a great marriage in order for brands to be successful. Much of a brands notoriety is due to the credit of its marketing and branding team. It’s obvious that urban life plays a major role in every aspect of life from film, music, and yes, fashion. Higher end brands, like Christian Louboutin, Louis Vuitton, Dolce & Gabbana, and all the other fancy names you secretly don’t know how to pronounce are tapping into the urban sub-culture that has risen from the back alley’s of 1980′s NYC and taken their rightful place on the main stage of mainstream fashion.

With that being said, sneakers aka gym shoes, have forever been a part of American urban culture–euro brands are finally getting the revelation that in order to cross over they must cater to this relentless market–a crowd that will rock a tuxedo with a pair of Jordans and not think twice about it.

Recently, in the last few days, a few major brands have dropped some couture sneaks that are worth a mention. Check them out below.

Pictured above: Giuseppe Zanotti studded sneaker. These will hit you for a cool $850 and feature a metallic leather on the upper with the studding made popular again by Christian Louboutin’s line of sneaks. The best feature is the zipper on the back that adds a little flair. The shoe bottoms out with a white sole.

Marc Jacobs is dropping these sleek new-school wing-tipped high tops in an off-white suede upper with the super popular royal blue design rolling along the midsole. You can snatch up these Luxe kicks for a cool $545.

Balmain, made uber popular as the designer responsible for most of Michael Jackson’s military jackets, has dropped a sneaker, which, for its brands name sake, is rather simplistic. It comes in two colorways–black (shown above) and a starch white. This high top sneaker features tonal color blocking of black and white with ribbed upper design. The shoe can be yours for just over a $1000. The white version, which incorporates a zipper design, can be yours for just over $900.

The peeps over at Dolce & Gabbana decided to get in on the fun too. Well, actually, they’ve always offered a sneaker of some sort. This time, they capitalize on the all black everything – even down to the shoe lace eyelets. The alternate the design between quality black leather and suede with a perforated design around the ankle. These $400 sneakers are available at retailers now.

Luxury brand Balenciaga presents this amazing color blocked Gymie featuring a combo of premium leather, suede, mesh, and textured leather. Im into it! Unknown now exactly what these will run for, but I’m sure they will be in the $800+ range.

Check out this Pierre Hardy high top sneak which features not only a unique design, but also a unique snakeskin-esque material. This show, the Water Snake Sneaker, as they call it, will hit you for $800.

Now that you’re all caught up on Sneaker fashion for the 2012 season (at least as we know it for now) go start saving up your coins so you can make one of these amazing pieces of footwear your own.

-Smith