200 years later, Clarks is peaking. The British footwear label may be two centuries old, but you wouldn't know it from the series of thoroughly modern collaborations it's been releasing over the past few months, which all look far more future than past. Clarks has always been good. But it's never been quite this good.

For this celebratory year, Clarks opened the floodgates, inviting a host of international collaborators to rethink its archival shapes. English rockstars, Parisian creatives, Korean clothing brands, and Chinese bagmakers all uprooted traditional Clarks shoes, and the results speak to a centuries-old company acting not even half its age.

Take inventive Taiwanese retailer INVINCIBLE's take on the Clarks Wallabee, Clarks’ signature shoe that debuted back in 1968. This hairy suede boot is adorned with misshapen trims intentionally cut with sloppy meandering edges, unmistakably a classic Clarks Wallabee but one that looks as though it was constructed in the dark.

On the same day that the INVINCIBLE Clarks shoe raffle closes, Topologie’s Clarks shoe releases.

A maker of hardy climbing-inspiring bags and accessories, Topologie slapped a complex web of climbing ropes and carabiners atop the Clarks Torhill Hi — a close relative of the Wallabee with a chunky, ribbed sole — creating puzzling medleys of overlapping knots and loops.

Again, it’s a Clarks shoe but unlike any Clarks shoe you’ve seen before.

A few weeks prior, Kith turned beige suede Wallabees into bizarrely sporty shoes by crossbreeding them with bouncy athletic adidas soles. And mere days before that, technical fashion label Post Archive Faction tried its hand at the same model, producing a Vibram-soled outdoorsy suede boot.

That was a single month. This entire year was rich with impressive Clarks collaborations, including the customizable Wallabee boot created by French studio Adaptism with over two billion variations (!) and Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher reviving his favorite long-forgotten Clarks model. 

These are back-to-back bangers by any margin but they're also demonstrative of a 200-year-old brand’s ambitious adventurousness. 

Clarks typically releases a handful of strong collaborations each year, often dressed in zany fabrics or made rugged by outdoor brands, but these new examples all arrived back to back, without fail or flaw. It's good stuff. it's innovative stuff. And it's not the kind of freshness you expect from a brand that's older than some countries.

No one in fashion lasts forever. And hardly anyone lasts more than a decade or two.  A two-century legacy puts Clarks in league with rarified peers like Goyard and Brooks Brothers, and yet Clarks is hardly showing its age.

Highsnobiety has affiliate marketing partnerships, which means we may receive a commission from your purchase. Want to shop the products our editors actually love? Visit the HS Style Guide for recs on all things fashion, footwear, and beauty.