From Sneakers to Slides, Why Comfort is the Key to Streetwear Styling

If you don’t own a pair of slides, then get to know. With the popularity of the slip-on shoes skyrocketing since the beginning of the pandemic, slides have become more and more difficult to get a hold of, despite being a casual, originally cheaper, alternative to high-heat sneakers. From UGG to Yeezy and the infamous Croc, we’re going to take a deep dive into what caused this comfort phenomenon and why Ye’s sliders in particular now resell for extraordinary prices on the resale market.

Making their debut in 2018 in Kanye West’s and Lil Pump’s music video for “I Love It”, the original Yeezy Slipper looked a little different to the slide we know and love today. Dissimilar to the one-piece mould we are familiar with now, the Yeezy Slipper was less futuristic and forward-thinking, and more ‘pool-side couture’. Constructed with a thick sole and Velcro closure, the slide looked no different from what others had produced before. You may remember Mr. West went viral (no surprise there) for wearing the slippers with a Virgil-designed mint-green suit to 2 Chainz’s wedding. Not only that though, social media flocked to mock Ye for wearing ‘Kim’s slippers’, as the pair appeared many sizes too small for him. Nevertheless, this was certainly the beginning of making socks and sandals cool, and not just for embarrassing dads, despite the backlash.

In response, Kanye took to Twitter to educate followers on the geta: a traditional Japanese shoe that looks like flip-flops. According to West, your foot should hang 1 - 2 cm off the back of the sandal. Vogue contacted the Centre for Japanese Studies at Berkeley to get the low down on Kanye’s defence. They qualified that he’s not wrong to say this is often the style in which the geta is worn, but they’re unsure why this is the case.

Fast forward to December 2019 and the first time Yeezy and the Three-Stripes brand drop the ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) slides we’re familiar with today. Making their debut in the earthy colours that are synonymous with Ye’s brand, we were treated to the “Desert Sand”, “Resin” and “Bone” iterations. The monochromatic colour palette was to be expected, but the entire slide being made from lightweight EVA foam equipped with a grippy, serrated outsole was new. Now the best-selling Yeezy silhouette on StockX, what is it exactly that made the Yeezy Slide one of the most popular styles from adidas of all time?

When looking at the sentiment analysis from the past two years, there’s a clear shift from confusion and finding the Yeezy Slide laughable, to a love and desire to get a pair. Using data taken from Facebook, we can see that after the slide’s debut, a whopping 51% of people found the silhouette funny, likely meaning they couldn’t see the trend taking off any time soon. It’s no surprise Kanye’s latest invention had been met with mockery: Crocs weren’t cool, remember? Taking a look at the next year, many people’s opinions had changed, with 71% of people giving a positive affirmation when it came to Yeezy’s slides. In the past six months, this figure increased again. 85% of the reactions collected shared a love for the chunky silhouette. What changed?

Originally made fun of, the Yeezy Slide still flew off the shelves despite endless memes and a collective hesitancy. As you’ll see in the below graph, the average weekly price of Yeezy Slides on one popular resale market shot up after the pandemic; notably when we all took to our homes for months of uncertainty, banana bread and TikTok dances. Locked down and lonely, it’s apparent we were all craving comfort. And if there’s something the slide is undoubtedly good at, it’s providing unrivalled comfort. The pandemic changed the way we worked, the way we socialised and indeed the way we dressed. An increased amount of time spent inside meant that we seriously needed an upgrade when it came to our house shoes. Whilst one side of Instagram was flexing the sheepskin UGG sliders, the other more ‘streetwear’ side opted for the Ye x adidas slip-ons. Whilst having a sleek and understated design, the Yeezy Slide managed to tick the box when it came to the chunky trainer trend that’s taken over recent years, appealing to street-style fans across the globe, and suiting the current situation we were all stuck in at that moment.

The minimalist design meant that the sliders were easy to style in a time when loungewear was the only thing making it out of our drawers. Supermarket shop? Yeah, you can absolutely get away with wearing your slides. People have bigger problems than paying attention to what you’re wearing to pick up your milk that day. Their durable, easy-to-clean material meant that hours spent in the garden weren’t a problem for the humble slide either. No wonder resale prices were through the roof! Sorry Crocs, but despite your supposedly cool partnerships with Balenciaga and Justin Bieber, people still aren’t ready to ‘rock the Croc’ to Sainos. We were in desperate need of a clog update, and the Yeezy Slide delivered.

Despite demand increasing rapidly in the early part of 2020, the next Yeezy Slides to drop didn’t until the autumn of that year. Keeping fans on the edge of their seats, the limited drops have definitely played into the desire that surrounds these Yeezys. The “Soot” and “Core” releases scratched the itch for some, but lots were still left without - and we’d been locked down for a long time by this point. Desperation was an understatement. With such large gaps between drops, as with the rest of the Yeezy brand, StockX advises purchasing your resale slides within the first four months after a release to get the best price.

What Kanye and adidas had managed to do with the slide was expand the brand further than the sneakerhead community, however. Appealing not just to those cargo-wearing, beanie hat fanatics, but also that unsuspecting primary school teacher in her mid-20s that just needed something for around the house and garden. With an increased amount of social media mentions and search volume, as well as an influx in page views and sales, the Yeezy Slide made it to the number one spot on Lyst’s Index for Q2 2021. A whole year and a bit after their debut, Kanye’s wild slide had taken precedence over everything else when it came to streetwear and luxury fashion.

If you own a pair of Yeezy Slides, then you’ll know that they’re incredibly comfortable. Ours don’t leave our feet from the minute we get home to the minute we go to bed. So regardless of their design and whether Kendall Jenner has worn them or not, the immense comfort is the primary reason we all love ours so much. However, having such a simplistic exterior makes West’s slides an obvious contender for duplicates, meaning fakes can easily weave their way onto the market. If you’re suspecting your slides are fake, take a look at the rear part of the insole - is the adidas Trefoil logo ingrained into the part where the ball of your foot would sit? Often fakes come without this logo. Next, take a look underneath the band. The thickness of the text on the inside should be almost impossible to feel. The indent shouldn’t be dramatic or leave a mark on your skin. Generally, you can tell the difference between the well-constructed Yeezy Slide and a fake from its flexibility, durability and comfort.

Related article: How Do Yeezy Slides Fit?

After the initial surge of popularity within the early stages of the pandemic, Ye took comfort up a notch in June 2020, with North West debuting the Yeezy Foam RNNR; the alien-esque rubber clog that released primarily in the monochromatic “Ararat” colourway. Drawing inspiration from the popular 700 V3, the oval cut-outs and ridges make for an even more futuristic silhouette that was ridiculed more heavily than the slide was six months before.

Once again, however, fans of Ye flocked to try their hand at getting a pair of the never-seen-before Foam Runners. Mockery followed by sell-out after sell-out followed by insane resale prices seems to be a theme here… Only a year ago, 79% of people reacted with laughter to the Foam Runner, and even six months ago the silhouette remained incredibly divisive. Only in the last month have people warmed up to the Foam RNNR with 69% of people reacting with love. Perhaps it’s its associations with summer on these grey January days that have suddenly made the silhouette all the more appealing to people?

With sustainable construction, too, the Yeezy Foam RNNR is reshaping the future of footwear by combining algae and EVA to create a vegan option that’s doing its bit for the planet whilst looking cool af. No doubt the Foam Runner will overtake the slide as the go-to comfy shoe option this summer.

Whilst adidas x Yeezy is definitely at the top of the food chain when it comes to slides, there are so many other brands jumping on the slider bandwagon and delivering comfort as well as style. Now, we don’t want to speak too soon, but with the pandemic coming to an end it appears that ‘comfort being key’ is not going anywhere. Infact, more than ever we’re craving styles that allow us to be at our most comfortable but are acceptable to leave the house in, too. If you’re on TikTok as much as we are, there’s no way you won’t have seen endless styling videos for Reebok’s Beatnik, but we have to say we’re suckers for The North Face quilted mule. Let’s leave Y2K in 2021 (whose idea was it to bring back low-rise jeans?); comfortable homewear-cum-outerwear is the vibe we’re feeling for 2022. Thanks Ye.