How Wild Can a Sneaker-Loafer Get?
The sneaker-loafer arms race isn’t letting up by any means, and GANNI is amping up the competition with an eccentric spin on New Balance’s formal sneaker slip-on.
The canvas here is the New Balance 1906L, a sneaker-loafer that almost single-handedly ignited the hype around this ilk of hybrid shoes.
It’s half dad-runner, half dress shoe, with those springy ABZORB SBS pods at the heel and a shape that somehow always looks like it has somewhere formal to be. That was already a recipe for chaos, but then GANNI stepped in.
The Danish fashion house’s version feels like a mutation of a mutation: snakeskin uppers, glossy black straps, and a chunky silver sole that’s ready for cardio. It’s giving corporate goth at track practice. The OG made no sense but somehow worked. GANNI’s version?
Even messier, louder, and funnier. And it tracks. GANNI’s whole thing is flipping Scandi motifs on their head.
It’s basically the Danish brand that said “nah” to Scandi minimalism. Instead of all-black fits and muted tones, it goes full ruffles, leopard prints, and flowers. It's the fun cousin at the family reunion who refuses to wear beige.
In a hybrid sneaker space that’s only getting more absurd, with new entries from HOKA to Vans upping the ante, few have slithered into New Balance x GANNI 1906L’s lane. The Clarks Wallabee-style moc-toe New Balance 1890 comes close, the only other shoe bold enough to cozy up to this kind of wildness.
Wherever you land, these are some of the most undomesticated sneaker-loafers we’ve come across (in the best way possible, of course). And they’re expected to arrive online on September 24 on GANNI's website.
A brand that already loves breaking rules, linking with New Balance to make an already wild sneaker-loafer even wilder just makes sense.
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