What Does It Mean That Even the King of Giant Shoes Has Gone Flat?
Not even Rick Owens' footwear is exempt from the persuasive thrust of diet culture. Yes, the OG of thick, chunky, and borderline intrusive sneakers is slimming his own inimitable shoes down.
Rick Owens' established style codes lean towards exaggerated silhouettes. Just take a look at his signature non-Converse sneakers or even his actual Converse for obvious thick-soled proof.
Despite its sleek shape, Rick Owen's Minimal leather sneaker thus stands out quite starkly among its comparatively massive siblings.
Fitted atop a crispy-thin outsole, Owens' Fall/Winter 2025 Minimal sneaker looks more like a retro runner than a modern Rick Owens shoe.
Because besides its adherence to Owens' signature color schemes and material inclinations, the Minimal sneaker exists in direct contrast to Owens' status as the man who did so much for thick shoes that he's attempting to have them trademarked.
Even when compared to other low-profile Rick Owens shoes like the Vintage sneaker, which sits on a chunky outsole, the Minimal sneaker falls quite flat. This aligns it with a handful of other high-profile designer shoes, which is pretty unusual for Owens. Usually, his label pioneers notions that're borrowed by his peers — this time, Owens is riding an established wave.
Consider Givenchy's Slim sneaker, a nylon doppleganger for Rick Owens' Minimal sneaker, Prada's Collapse, Bottega Veneta's Orbit Sneaker, or Margiela's Sprinter shoes.
But whereas this deluge of ultra-trendy silhouettes at least aligns with famously modest luxury brands like Prada and Bottega Veneta, this lean into streamlined silhouettes is quite atypical for Rick Owens, a brand famed for huge boots and huger heels. The $800 Minimal leather sneaker thus reflects the sheer universality of slimmer sneakers.
This trend was predicated a few years ago by the rise of adidas' Samba, established by Miu Miu's New Balance collaborations, and solidified by a mass of likeminded (and quite approachable) sleek sneaks.
That Rick Owens, a label that's always gone its own way, is also joining in merely demonstrates the inescapable fate of sneakerdom: the bigger they are, the harder they fall... flat.
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