When I worked in the insurance industry year’s back there were constant lay off’s and so to lighten the mood a friend and I used to joke that one day we’d be sitting there as senior citizens mumbling to ourselves “I’ve seen’em come and I’ve seen’em go.” These days I find myself mumbling those same words for fashion trends and design elements from my child-hood which brings me to Virgil Abloh’s recent shoe for Louis Vuitton.
Image Via DON C
Almost immediately I received tags from some of the most die hard OG shoe enthusiasts on IG and comments of how he clearly borrowed certain design cues from a brand that most kids these days would relegate to their local Kohl’s at 39.99 -on sale for 24.63- and how crazy it is that individuals that might for a better word “doo doo” on someone for wearing Avia, will probably pay over a grand for a very similar design because of the LV & Abloh affiliation. Truth be told it is quite mind-boggling and initially I was a little “in my feelings” after seeing them. After analyzing the shoe I could see design elements not only from the Avia 880
but also the 870,
AVIA 830 (someone is still really trying to sell game worn Parish 830’s for for $19,000.00)
and the AVIA Transport.
It didn’t end there though because I thought back to the Reebok ProWorkout
and even L.A. Gear’s Court Slammer
and could see design characteristics from those shoes in Abloh’s Louis V shoe as well. The more I analyzed the design though the more and more it was beginning to feel like a tribute shoe instead of a blatant rip off and a win of sorts for those of us who are die hard about obscure brands that most average customers would scoff at. Case in point, years ago there were talks within the industry of someone licensing the Avia name and bringing back the old styles. Ultimately though the realization was that although many of the shoes were dope and Avia was ahead of its time in many aspects (think the Cantilever sole and even possibly a predecessor to what is now known as Nike Shox ) few people would buy these shoes and the idea was abandoned –atleast for the time being-. Then you have brands like British Knights and L.A. Gear who’s retro’s have disappeared and re-appeared scarcely over the years and whom have struggled immensely at re-connecting to a younger generation. Troop or SPX anyone? All brands by the way that were notorious for “borrowing” design features from other brands of the day. Then there is the retro basketball market in general which has found itself in a bit of a slump and a long comes this shoe. Abloh’s shoe may not only reinvigorate (shout out to Carlito Brigante) the high top retro basketball segment (come on Nike Flight 89 High) but also possibly re-launch brands from years past and set a benchmark of quality for other brands to follow suit and for that we should salute Abloh.