Win or Lose, Prada Is Forever the America's Cup Champ
Prada is the America's Cup. Pole position or not, no other company is nearly as singularly intertwined with the art of high-speed sailing as Prada.
As Prada's Luna Rossa racing team surges towards the top of the leaderboard in the 2024 America's Cup, one of its signature corresponding products has quietly matured to meet the times.
Put simply, the Prada America's Cup sneaker has evolved.
Famously made of leather and technical mesh, Prada's original America's Cup shoe is a retrofuturist masterpiece, sleek and shapely like it was created by Zaha Hadid. The retooled America's Cup, which rolled out in August exclusively on Prada's website and a handful of flagship stores, is somehow even sleeker, now entirely inorganic and even lighter.
First worn in 2000 by the Luna Rossa Team, the Prada America's Cup was always, to burn a cliché, as functional as it is fashionable.
Actually, it's at the hyperbolic ends of both spectrums: The America's Cup sneaker was built from the ground-up in 1997 with technology designed to serve the needs of the world's most skilled sailors.
At the same time, it's merely another example of Prada's incredible prescience, a tremendously forward-thinking luxury sneaker released in an era when those things simply did not yet exist.
The America's Cup sneaker was an icon from the get-go but it's since become a proper legend as its reputation swelled and countless imitators followed. It remains a staple in Prada design language to this day, informing contemporary footwear designs similar to how the overarching Luna Rossa collection still casts a long shadow over the realms of luxury and sportswear.
And, at least here in America, Prada's America's Cup shoe is more recognizable than the actual America's Cup sport itself, though to describe the latter as prestigious is to undersell it.
To the uninitiated, imagine a waterlogged F1 race and you're mostly there. The America's Cup has the honor of being the world's oldest still-active trophy sport, predating the modern Olympics by nearly 50 years (America's Cup: 1848; Olympics: 1896).
And the America's Cup has got the luxury leanings to complement its pedigree, with a host of the world's most well-heeled companies endorsing the teams. Prada's Luna Rossa team, for instance, also works with Italian tire firm Pirelli and luxury watchmaker Panerai, which produced a watch with Prada Luna Rossa.
But it's Prada's show, at least in New York, where the America's Cup sneaker is as much a classic as a Timberland boot, complete with its own fan pages and collectors.
The shoe is a masterpiece that's ensured that the term "America's Cup" is synonymous with Prada, even in regions entirely unfamiliar with the race.
Whether or not its team places first in the race (at time of writing, Prada Luna Rossa has been bouncing between the top three slots), Prada will forever be the America's Cup champion.
