“Performance sneakers” used to mean something. Namely, that you could perform feats of athleticism while wearing them: running, leaping, etc. But this line of thinking feels antiquated lately. It’s no longer hip to be square; it’s no longer cool to be securely fastened. 

Take the sneaker-mule, one fully Frankensteinian style befitting this very wackadoodle era of footwear. The style — an athletic shoe, sans heel — first bubbled up in the post-pandemic era, when it felt like everyone, and everything, was learning how to walk again. Suddenly, backless versions of everything from Air Jordan 1 golf shoes to the chunky Balenciaga 3XL appeared. 

Now this hybridization, once (mostly) relegated to the realm of more casual sneakers, has infiltrated the full-on athletic shoe space. What’s more inconceivable than a running shoe coming without a supportive back to stop you from flying out of them? A running shoe without a supportive back actually being more desirable than a fully functional one.

On’s first-ever sneaker-mule proves the point. Released as part of an ongoing collaboration with singer FKA twigs, the Cloudmonster 3 Mule chops the heel off the Swiss brand’s flagship runner, instantly giving it a fresh edge. It’s the same playbook that Saucony, a far older but surprisingly popular shoemaker, used to juice up its own signature ProGrid V2 model (ditto the ASICS GEL-1130, chopped and ready to briskly walk). The thread is that all these footwear brands saw the appetite for a runner reimagined for everyday use — with a form factor just odd enough to stand out — and said, “Let them eat.”

The Cloudmonster 3 Mule might be made for “post-performance restoration,” per the press release, but it also feels aligned with the tectonic shift in footwear. Athletic shoes have been having a moment, thanks largely to the many valiant shoemakers like adidas and HOKA that’ve found ways to make them significantly less ugly. Seeing brands now follow the well-worn trail of mule-ifying their signature styles feels like a natural next step in the journey. 

As rules loosen and brands experiment with form, running shoes have finally been given an opening to shake up the stale form, chop by unweidly chop.  

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