Issue #386 | How Dad Shoes Left “Cool” Sneakers in the Dust

How Dad Shoes Left “Cool” Sneakers in the Dust

“By 2020, Hoka was cool because it wasn’t cool. Nike was cool. Hoka was for dads. Which is what made Hoka cool.” What Highsnobiety is trying to say is, sometime around the turn of the decade, the idea of what made a sneaker “cool” shifted dramatically. Wearing sleek, sexy athletic shoes was for virgins, while duddy, sometimes-gargantuan-soled sneakers absolutely f*cked. As if trying to explain how up became down, Highsnobiety untangles the rise of the dad shoe.

Highsnobiety

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From Tiny Shorts to Inexplicable Chinos: What Your Gym Wear Says About You

We once heard of a guy who wore Chelseas in the gym to do squats. So basically elevated heel squats, with the aid of the boot. Was it so he could cover more ground while wearing them outside the gym? Shape his musculature to that specific footwear? It isn’t totally clear, but one thing is certain: a commitment to smart casual dressing we haven’t yet seen. Whether that’s you while getting in reps, or maybe you’re a tiny-shorts-tiny-shirt person, here’s what what you wear to the gym says about you.

The Guardian

Can This $13 Walmart T-Shirt Save the American Garment Industry?

Earning the made-in-America label is a tough racket these days. For starters, local labor is expensive. “That’s one reason why a six-pack of Kirkland Signature white tees costs $34 while a single American-made Buck Mason pima classic tee costs $45,” GQ points out. But the price for a shirt is coming down, thanks to a handful of companies that have invested in producing locally, with cotton grown on American soil. Here’s why the one American Giant now sells at Walmart for just $13 is a good sign.

GQ

Flipping Watches With Mike Nouveau, Who Strikes Six-Figure Deals in His DMs

“Ninety percent of the vintage-watch business in the whole world—like even mega-million dollar deals—goes down in Instagram DMs,” Mike Nouveau, the unofficial king of WatchTok, tells GQ. It’s a far cry from Gordon Gekko’s Wall Street corner office, but Nouveau could care less about the kind of decorum that once typified big-money deal making. Here, Cam Wolf follows the vintage reseller around NY for a glimpse into how he leverages Instagram and TikTok to share his love of watches  and make some real cash in the process.

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