Only Y-3 Could Create a Luxe Leather Military-Level Stealth Boot
Fall is combat season. Not literally, but it’s when boots have to go to war with rain, sidewalks, and the city’s mood swings.
That makes Y-3’s new GSG9 HI feel perfectly timed, a counter-terrorism boot reimagined for the urban battlefield.
This isn’t random. Yohji Yamamoto has been mining military codes since the early 2000s, experimenting with canvas combat silhouettes and purposeful distressing, but his Fall 2019 men’s show stands out.
The finale delivered “ornamental military” pieces that nodded to battlefield aesthetics while staying poetic, not aggressive.
The GSG9 itself was first built in the late 1970s for Germany’s elite counter-terrorism police unit, designed as tactical footwear tough enough for raids and rescue missions.
The GSG9 HI picks up that thread, transplanting Germany’s tactical heritage into glossy leather, suede tongues, brogue perforations, and a laser-etched signature.
Combat boots have always carried cultural weight. Dr. Martens 1460s were punk’s marching orders, Prada’s Monoliths turned lugs into luxury, and Rick Owens’ Tractors stretched the silhouette into sculpture. Yohji’s boot sits in that lineage but with archive-driven precision, rebellion reframed, uniform recoded as luxury.
At ¥79,200 (about $540), dropping September 1 at Y-3’s online store, the GSG9’s heavy enough for seasonal weather, sharp enough for Yohji’s tribe, and proof that real edge sometimes lives in uniform.
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