Why are designer shoes are becoming so "ugly"? From cyclopean sneakers to furry mules, weird has become the new beautiful

The trend of so-called "ugly shoes" is perhaps one of the longest-lived in contemporary fashion. Looking at the footwear seen in the main fashion shows, in fact, we notice that footwear has been moving further and further away from conventions and classic tradition: from the feathery shoes of Bottega Veneta, passing through the slides of JW Anderson surmounted by gargantuan gold chains and for the colorful and excessive footwear of Gucci, Sunnei and Marni up to the tanks-for-feet of Prada and Rick Owens,  it almost seems that the new rule has become the disproportion, the baroque, the strangeness. All characteristics highlighted by Jacob Gallagher in a recent article on WSJ and related to the psychology of the market, as the psychologist Carolyn Mair told Vogue a few years ago, about Balenciaga's sneakers and the sculptures of the same created by Diana Rojas: 

«Psychologists have established that we don’t pay attention to what’s ‘normal,’ usual, or familiar because it presents no danger. However, when we encounter something novel, our attention is drawn to it. So, in addition to the comfort and utilitarian value of these shoes, perhaps it is the desire for attention that motivates wearers». 

Even the most minimal brands, in fact, have not anonymously followed the tradition, but have recovered the idea of the dad shoe, elevating it and making it also the signifier of an identity, of a social belonging based on cleanliness, sobriety of shapes and colors and, in some ways, nostalgia for a recent but also less chaotic past. In this sense, Justin Saunders' work with JJJJound is indicative: his latest collaboration with Padmore &Barnes is a lace-up of black leather deliberately demodé, but for this reason eloquent as a statement of aesthetics. The same could be said of the canadian designer and curator's recent collaborations with Vans and Dr. Martens as well as his personal releases such as a pair of suede hiking boots, but also a coffee blend, reading glasses and a set of dryer balls – all objects that ten years ago we would have found in the house of a hipster, so predictable, analog and traditional as to result in quirky, which, however, testify to the alignment and adherence to a lifestyle and, therefore, that say something about those who choose them. 

In neither case, however, can we escape from the dynamic that is leading contemporary footwear to become increasingly "ugly" – in the sense of eccentric, bizarre, original. Even the traditional, very soft shoes of JJJJound are, in their own way, eccentric compared to the basicness of the original models; even the very popular Boston Clog of Birkenstock, which until a few years ago would have been seen only in a bowling alley, today are co-signed by Stussy and Jil Sander and have become indicative of an inclination, an identity. We should therefore perhaps talk about an upward evolution of the very idea of footwear, which has gone from a social tool differentiated by intended use (the gym shoe, the one to go out, the one for the office and so on) to a commercial-cultural phenomenon and a sign of social belonging.