Sneaker-boots should not exist. These freakish hybrids were born of an ill-advised "What if?" design experiment and have almost never looked good. To be clear, I'm both talking about sneakers blown up into bigger sneakers and conventional boots fitted with sneaker soles — either way, it never works.

Well, it almost never works.

Comoli's Guidi boots are the extremely rare sneaker-boot exception. Here, chocolate meets peanut butter by way of Guidi's typically sumptuous Italian suede slotting neatly atop a curvaceous rubber Vibram "sneaker" sole.

It's so simple that it feels almost silly to hyperbolize. But this is tricky territory. Other boots that use this Vibram sole — it's a stock design available to any maker — sometimes slide into knobbly baguette territory. But a thicker number risks upsetting the sleek perfection of Guidi's back-zip silhouette. And anything sleeker leans towards Guidi convention. This is the golden ratio.

To be fair, Comoli doesn't deserve all of the credit for getting it right.

Guidi already produces this style of back-zip boot in black leather for $1,400, with a Vibram sole to match. But Comoli's update is a crucial twist: the Japanese brand tweaked the upper's materials and the tone of the sole unit, softening the feel to yield a plusher product (albeit with a slightly inflated price).

This is the right way to sneakerize a boot. Lean into the boot-ness of the design to emphasize the beauty of the shape. Allow the sneaker of it all to underscore, rather than alter, the appeal. Keep those lines intact and proportions in check. You don't wanna get tactical with it. Never get tactical with it.

Comoli was this close to landing a place in the Good Clothes Index but the enigmatic Japanese label declined to participate, preferring its veil of secrecy. This is a brand that only just began using social media a few months back, despite being nearly 15 years old. Comoli would rather be judged by its all-organic monochrome wardrobe, much like how Guidi. a centuries-old Italian leather tannery turned artisanal shoemaker, epitomizes a product-first focus.

It's pretty perfect that Comoli would only retouch a Guidi boot, rather than imagine an all-new style (something it did with Guidi in previous seasons, too). When you're working off of a framework this strong, it only takes a touch to attain perfection. And on a sneaker-boot, no less.

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