The Tom Sach's Nike Shoe
On May 29th, a popular artist/sculpture, Tom Sachs, posted about a new shoe collaboration he's doing with Nike on Instagram.
The shoe is ostensibly a "general purpose" shoe that prioritizes functionality & simplicity. The adverisement reads it best, "Your sneakers shouldn't be the most exciting thing about you. They are tools, and what matters about your tools is that they work. They do their job so you can do yours." The shoe itself is plain as you'd expect. A bit of a nike running shoe meets a Sketcher shape-up, but in a stylish way. I think they're cool looking shoes.
When I first saw the ad I had the same response I assume most people had. "Yeah! I want more simplicity in my life. I don't need flashy shoes. My shoes are tools to get me from point A to point B". The sentiment of the ad is a postivie one a lot of people can identify with. It continues by calling it an "A do-more sneaker" and an "own-less sneaker". Now some red flags are finally showing their wings. This shoe is a perfectly congealed trophy of minimalism meets hustle culture meets a blue collar "working-man" asthetic. Yes, I'm going to complain about a shoe. You're welcome to stop reading now, I won't mind.
I'm what you might call a Tom Sachs fan. He was one of the first artists that I found whose work made sense to me. Tom's work in my mind stands as the opposition to the "art museum" artists that make me feel like I'm a moron (Sach's art is also in museums, by you know what I mean). Anyways, I like the guy, I'm not trying to take shots at him, but I think the advertising of the shoe deserves some criticism. I'm going to split my critiques into sections titled using quotes from the advertisement.
"They are tools." ... "They do their job so you can do yours."
Based on the way people are reacting to this shoe release, you'd think it's a novel idea to create a general purpose shoe.
A shoe that is built to sustain yard work AND trips to the grocery store? That's unheard of!
The novelty here is obviously not in the shoe itself. The novelty is in the ad campaign. This ad is just a car salesman earning your trust by telling you they don't use any sales tricks. It's the Geico ad winking at you saying "you're watching an ad right now." It's very clear to me the ad is sneaker-head culture putting on a "i'm just a boring shoe" facemask to continue selling shoes.
An actual "boring" sneaker that accomplishes everything the Tom Sach's shoe set out to be without a gimmick of an ad campaign is the Nike Monarch.
This baby has been reliably serving midwestern fathers for the better part of two decades. Does it have a billboard saying its boring? No of course not, because the shoe is actually fucking boring. The shoe sells itself because the people buying it want a reliable shoe, not the asthetic of one.
"It took us 10 years to make a sneaker this simple, as simple as can be and no simpler."
First off, ten years to make this shoe?
The 10 year thing really didn't bother me it's just kinda funny. The second part of this sentence is what I take issue with. Now I love simplicity. It's like my favorite thing in the whole world. As some noteworthy person once said, "If I had more time I would have written less". I love that. Give me more simplicity. But what on gods green earth is more simple about these shoes than the Converse Chuck Taylors on my feet right now? Also, hypothetically, how would it even be possible to simplify shoes any further? How are you gonna undersimplify a vans slip on? It can't be done. Look at this thing.
I am not saying the Tom Sachs shoe is complicated. Sure, it's a simple looking show. But its no simpler than what exists in every other shoebox, yet it's claiming "simplicity" as a dependent on its tax returns.
"An own-less sneaker"
Nothing like the irony of offering minimalism in the form of a product.
Summary
Holy shit you read the whole thing. Thanks for listening to me gripe about nothing. It's not the first disingenuous advertising campaign and it won't be the last. I'm gonna buy a pair of Nike Monarchs in protest.