How the Achilles kick started the luxury sneaker trend.

It’s official: 2018 is the year of the steroid-enhanced sneaker. Hot on the heels of last year’s Triple S by Balenciaga, the model that kick-started the “ugly sneaker” trend, we’ve seen a succession of increasingly high-concept kicks emerge from the design studios of luxury brands such as Gucci, Maison Margiela, Valentino and Versace.

This autumn, Balenciaga releases the follow-up to the Triple S, the Track, an amped-up trail-running shoe that echoes the design language of walking sneakers from Salomon, ROA and Hoka One One and is set to push sneaker design even farther into uncharted territory. Pre-launch reactions to the shoe have been divided, but the same was true of the Triple S. If the past 12 months are any indication, we could well be looking at the shape of things to come. Where Balenciaga goes, the rest inevitably follow.

Well, not all the rest. While the luxury sneaker market pivots away from its minimalist roots and embraces a more-is-more aesthetic, the one brand that started it all – Common Projects – has remained steadfastly true to itself.

Common Projects, or CP to its fans, began life in 2004 as the brainchild of Messrs Peter Poopat and Flavio Girolami, two New York creatives brought together by a shared love for simple, elegant design. Their first product was the Achilles, a tennis sneaker reimagined in high-grade Italian nappa leather and stamped with a gold serial number that has since become a cult symbol among sneaker aficionados.

It’s impossible to overstate the effect this one product has had on the luxury sneaker market. It was released at a time when sneaker fans and followers of fashion were seen as separate consumers rather than two sides of the same coin. Before the Achilles, there had been a handful of attempts to unite these two markets, perhaps most notably by Prada with its Linea Rossa America’s Cup sneaker in the late 1990s, but nobody has done it as successfully as Common Projects.

The release of the Achilles opened the floodgates. Within a couple of years, Lanvin’s iconic patent-leather and suede Cap-Toe sneaker hit the market, the first real example of an established designer brand throwing its weight behind sneakers as a luxury item, the sort of thing that could be worn with a suit or even a tuxedo. It’s worth remembering that these were less liberated times for men’s style. The idea of wearing sneakers with a suit was still considered avant-garde at best, ridiculous at worst. Over the course of the next decade, everyone from major fashion brands to heritage shoemakers such as John Lobb and Berluti were producing their own elevated takes on this once humble piece of sportswear. And it can all be traced back to the Achilles.

Were Messrs Poopat and Girolami simply in the right place at the right time? Perhaps. There’s no doubt that the acceptance of sneakers as multi-purpose, everyday shoes has mirrored larger, more significant changes that have taken place over the past few years. It’s worth remembering that the Achilles arrived while Facebook was still headquartered in a Harvard dorm room. Its founder, Mr Mark Zuckerberg, was yet to shock the business establishment by showing up to investor meetings in a hoodie and T-shirt. The idea that something as inherently casual as a pair of sneakers could be smart wasn’t just ahead of its time, it was downright bizarre.

Even if Common Projects did ride a wave of social change, even if it did benefit from being first to market, that doesn’t detract from the power of its original product. You only need to look at the many other luxury sneakers that have come and gone in the time that the Achilles has been around to see that. And of the ones that are still here – the Lanvin Cap-Toe sneaker, for instance, or the Valentino Rockrunner – none has remained so relevant for so long.

When we talk about classics, we talk about things that have stood the test of time. In the sneaker world, that means the Nike Air Max, the Converse Chuck Taylor, the Vans Old Skool, sneakers we’ve been rocking for decades. Surely, after 14 years, it’s time to start talking about Common Projects’ Achilles in the same terms.

But in light of the sneaker’s return to a bulky, 1990s-inspired silhouette, is Common Projects, the archetypal minimalist sneaker brand, in danger of being left behind? Place the Achilles next to Versace’s Chain Reaction and it looks weird, jarringly simple, like an iPod next to a Walkman. It just doesn’t look like a 2018 sneaker.

It doesn’t look much like a 2004 sneaker, either. It could just as easily have been designed in 1994 or 1984. If it hadn’t already been made, you get the feeling that it wouldn’t look out of place in another 10 or 20 years. There’s a timeless quality to the Achilles and, in a larger sense, to everything that Common Projects does that makes it immune from trends and detached from the hype cycle that dictates the silhouette of what we should be wearing on our feet at any given time.

That’s one explanation, anyway. The other is that we’re just suckers for CPs.

To highlight the enduring appeal of Common Projects, here is a selection of the latest styles from the brand, available on MR PORTER.

Shop the entire Common Projects collection here

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