Five Stages of A$AP Rocky's Sneaker Style Evolution
It’s been a big week for A$AP Rocky. Not only has he released his latest album, Testing, but he also finally unveiled his first signature shoe with Under Armour (during a performance art piece, no less).
When the rapper announced last year that he was signing with UA, it’s safe to say many of us were taken aback. Pretty Flacko is known almost as much for his fashion acumen as his rhymes, so expectations were high. Whether or not you agree with Rocky (that his shoes are ‘jiggy shit’), you can’t deny that he’s pushed the envelope.
So let’s go all the way back and look how A$AP's sartorial sensibilities have evolved.
Before he was a Fashion Killa, Rocky rocked sneakers; though, even back then, they were the designer kind. Circa 2011, he could be seen rocking Jeremy Scott’s Wings, even featuring them in his first video, 'Purple Swag'. The love was apparently mutual, and the designer signed Rocky on to design his own pair of blacked-out Wings in 2013.
By the time Long. Live. ASAP dropped in 2013, the rapper was on his way to fashion (and rap) stardom. No surprise then that high-fashion sneaks were front and centre in his music videos. The clip for ‘Goldie’ featured a pair of Margiela Gold Mirrors (get it – gold?) and, in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it shot, he rocks Raf's Super Trekker in the 'Fashion Killa' vid.
It would be remiss of us not to spend a little bit more time on Rocky’s love for Raf. Not only does the rapper rock the Belgian designer's Stan Smiths and Ozweegos on the reg, but he weaves references to the fashion visionary into his raps almost as often. Oh, and did we mention he wrote a whole song about him?
Like all of us, Lord Flacko jumped on the chunky sneaker trend and, in the months leading up to his own signature release, he took a fancy to Dior’s hulking B22. Now, whether there is a direct cause-and-effect relationship at play here, we can't be sure, but looking at A$AP's as-yet-unnamed Under Armour shoe, it's pretty clear that he's a big fan of the bulk.
And so, we arrive at his Under Armour colab – and it looks nothing like we expected. The bulky silhouette is more 90s skater than high fashion, so much so that people initially thought Rocky was trying to bring back the Osiris D3. Part of us wonders what the hell he's doing, but the other part thinks that he knows something we might not. We’ll have to see how this one plays out.