Why do some formal shoes have sneaker soles? Behind the appearance of the "sneafers" hide perhaps generational reasons

Since the beginning of 2020, a new trend has been highlighted that has seen the downsizing of the streetwear phenomenon in favor of a return of a formal and sartorial aesthetic but with more imaginative and relaxed tones. At the heart of this buoy tour were the sneakers, the main vector of the soaring streetwear, which in the 2020 collections have returned to be more discreet, minimal and, above all, less present on the catwalks. In recent years a product, in particular, has begun to appear, which in a previous article, nss magazine had defined "sneafers", half sneaker and half loafer – a type of hybrid footwear difficult to place that on the one hand takes advantage of the classic leather formal shoe while on the other it enriches it with the volumes and silhouettes of a sneaker sole. The appearance of these shoes occurred from time to time in the past (two possible examples are the Derby Shoe Black/Camouflage of the FW13 by Dries Van Noten or the Lace-Up Boot of the FW16 of Undercover) but in the last two years, these have appeared with increasing frequency produced mainly by Prada, Alyx and Maison Margiela but also by Rick Owens, Louis Vuitton, Raf Simons, Thom Browne, Jil Sander and Com. The latest incarnation of the trend is Versace's Black BDSM Straps Leather Derby Shoes, but it won't be the last.  

It could then be assumed that designers such as John Galliano, Miuccia Prada, Matthew Williams, Rick Owens or Jun Takahashi tried to find with the "sneafers" a compromise solution: on the one hand rejuvenate the codes of the formal shoe with the tech and subversive elements of the sneakers, on the other hand, get out of that forced youthism to which the omnipresence of sneakers forced them. It is well known how problematic the symbiosis between fashion and youth is in many respects, not least commercial ones. The "sneafer" can then become if not a real trend that helps to bring the collective culture of fashion closer to overcoming the concept of sneakers as we know it.