Source: ellesse
The late 80s and 90s have come back in a big way. If I had kept my sets from that time, I would be fresh as … actually I would look uncomfortable as hell because I weigh about 40lbs more than I did then. What I’m saying is that a number of brands are reappearing.
Ewing made a return… although I never really understood why. The shoes weren’t really rocked outside of the NYC area, and there have been drops from Diadora, but most notably adidas has become more prominent than ever.
Something funny has happened to the culture though. There really isn’t much diversity. Dudes are all Nike or all adidas. They don’t venture off the beaten path unless it’s a collaboration of some kind. Puma has come back very hard, but women’s footwear is driving that growth. There isn’t anything wrong with that, but Puma for men hasn’t been relevant since Vinsanity (Vince Carter wearing Puma and even that wasn’t relative).
I guess it makes sense that one of my favorite brands from the 80s and 90s hasn’t really come back to the US. ellesse was my go to for rocking tennis styled sets at the beach in San Diego. I would jump in my little T-1000 crank up DJ Quik, hit Mission Beach and cruise. I’d park, pop the hatch and style in an all white ellesse fit. (I won’t mention that I’d copped the entire set from Marshalls.)
ellesse was dope and while other brands have made a comeback, there isn’t one retail outlet in the US carrying ellesse and there probably won’t ever be one to do so. That’s because sneaker diversity is a thing of the past. Kids are too afraid of being clowned and really that’s a shame. Being different has always been what sneaker culture was about. It’s the reason we bought thirty sets of laces. We wanted variety although we couldn’t afford it. ellesse is still around, check out the source link if you’re interested.
ellesse presents #ellesseexplores a documentary exploration of pioneering spirit in contemporary urban expression and style, featuring contributions from Andres Branco (Wavey Garms), Juice Gee, Nick Bam (License 2 Trill) and Jimi Crayon.