5 things to know about Rick Owens' relationship with sneakers Did someone say Proto-Dunk?
UPDATE 25/05/2021: The video-essay History of Rick Owens Sneakers by Geocasket was one of the primary sources of many of the notions and opinions reported in this article and it was culpably omitted by the author. The following article is an updated version of the original one, with the correct crediting.
The whole nss magazine's team is deeply sorry for the serious mistake, as we try to apply journalistic higher standards to the content production by fact-checking and crediting our sources. We are sorry it didn't happen in this case, and we will make sure to use this inconvenience to improve and get better.
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To be a designer who has built a huge part of his fame on sneakers, Rick Owens designs them only because he needs them – the designer has a passion for sports and physical activity. In a 2016 Footwear News interview, Owens said: «Sports shoes were never my thing. The only reason I started making them was because they frustrated me. They were a little too prosaic. I wanted to exoticize them». In this sentence you could enclose the paradox behind all the most famous sneakers designed by Owens: the ambition to be able to elevate even normal and "prosaic" objects to artistic design. All of Owens' design is, after all, a very personal rereading of the world and its phenomena (ambition that even extends to furniture and table cutlery) and it is obvious that, in the face of a huge phenomenon such as that of sneaker culture, the designer has decided to test himself. He did not imagine, however, that precisely those designer sneakers, the first of its kind, designed to be a reaction to the banality he perceived, would end up fueling the same hype that they wanted to contrast with.
To deal with the complex mythology surrounding Owens' sneakers might not be enough for a book, but for anyone at the entry level there are basic facts to be established to understand its genesis and evolution. That's why we've listed 5 things to know about Rick Owens' relationship with sneakers.
Rick Owens doesn't even like sneakers
Dunk were the first sneakers of its kind. Before them there were no luxury sneaker designers, with a price that exceeded a thousand dollars. Not that fashion brands had ever produced their own sneakers, but until then they had been "low" category products and the same most famous luxury sneakers in those years, prada's America's Cup, were all in all very accessible to the general public – an entry point. The price and quality of the Dunks, combined with the air of legend surrounding their "first edition", fueled their fame within avant-garde fashion circles and paved the way for a series of extra luxury iterations of many other silhouettes in the years to come – especially after Owens' partnership with adidas that lasted from 2013 until 2017.
