Vans' Suave Skate Loafer Turned Into a Pure Loafer
What would you do if everyone around you started to look like you? That's exactly how Vans felt, probably, and thus Vans' next move made much sense.
Once high fashion came for its signature skate shoe, Vans came for the loafer, arguably one of the most precious silhouettes of luxury shoe craft.
From LOEWE to Prada and, most recently, Dior, everybody and their mom's trying their hand at Vans' iconic lace-up skate shoe.
And while some are more intent on adding their own touches, others lean comfortably into the imitation-flattery paradigm here, merely swapping the sneaker's characteristic name tags for their own labels.
With luxury houses competing for who can make the best Vans dupe, the Californian brand itself is busy elsewhere, steadily growing its arsenal of semi-fancy footwear.
Transforming its slip-on skate loafers into, well, actual loafers has now led to these supple black grain-leather slippers, as fit for the half pipe as they are a dressy night out.
The Skate Loafer is not the first of its kind but perhaps the simplest and most stylish, refraining from the faux-fur and chainlink add-ons of its predecessors.
Just like its perfectly preppy seafaring moccasin counterpart, this particular shoe takes the best of Vans and the best of the penny loafer blueprint's influence, to make one great chimera sneaker.
At $89 a pair, the Vans Skate Loafer is a great bang for you buck. That is, if you can even get it anywhere, as it's otherwise hopelessly sold out as we speak.
Luxury copied Vans, so Vans copied luxury — and might've done an even better job at it. You reap what you sow, eh?
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