By pushing a distinctly ultra-ordinary flavor of footwear, Autry has found surprisingly secure footing in a business where reversals of fortune come for brands both large and small.

And yet, there's something admirable about its sneakers suddenly going weird.

In a left-field collaboration with Maison Mihara Yasuhiro, Autry's otherwise unassuming Medalist shoe gets a surprise personality injection.

What was once a chunked-up hybrid of Reebok's Club C and Nike's Dunk is now a pre-dirtied squashed-sole situation, and so much the better.

Why do these exist? Unclear. But it's a nice change of pace.

This is a collaboration with Yasuhiro's General Scale imprint of more affordable, approachable shoes. Whereas Yasuhiro's mainline footwear is fitted with a specially warped sole unit inspired by a shape that the designer himself formed from clay — or are just straight-up insane — General Scale sneakers are comparatively approachable.

It's a good fit for Autry's almost painfully approachable offerings.

In fact, it downright elevates them, turning an ordinary sneaker into something actually intriguing. And nothing else had to change, really, meaning that all it takes to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary is just a little bit of lived-in flavor.

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