The Big Boot Battle Royal Is Well and Truly Underway

Larger-than-life puddle stompers have cast a long shadow over pop culture of late. Led by MSCHF’s interplanetary Big Red Boots and its cheese grater sequel with Crocs, the advent of 3D printing has also seen brands quick-fire bold designs with incredibly short lead times (the Zellerfeld x Yeezy Boot for Season 9 was printed just one week before its debut, for example). But the big boot battle royal is not only confined to the physical world. This month, Ralph Lauren launched their P-Wing boots on Fortnite, another virtual signpost for things to come in the industry.

Let’s take a look back at some of the more seismic moments so far.

Yeezy Season

Debuting as part of the Yeezy Season 9 show in Paris, Ye’s 3D printed boot no doubt helped stomp a path for elephantine footwear everywhere. A partnership with Germany’s Zellerfeld – frontrunners in all things 3D printed – Ye swooned over the boots for months, even waxing lyrical about wearing them in the shower (‘wear these Yeezy boots everywhere, even in the shower today,’ he rapped in the song, ‘Eazy’). With 3D printing expediting footwear manufacturing all over the world, the Yeezy boot was manufactured just one week before its Paris debut. In what turned out to be a portentous sign of things to come, the boot also featured a distinct lack of adidas branding.

For his part, Ye was seen almost exclusively in Brobdingnagian boots in 2022, from the Balenciaga x Crocs rubber Wellingtons to Red Wing’s 3049, so it comes to no surprise that Ye took the plunge later in Paris.

Here Comes the RAIN

Another intergalactic collaboration from Zellerfeld, Scandi lifestyle brand RAINS revealed their 3D printed boot for Paris AW23. Dubbed the Puffer Boot, the silhouette was inspired by the brand’s signature puffer jackets and also incorporated organic shapes designed to appear ‘reminiscent of a stone carving’.

The first-ever 3D printed footwear from the Danish outfit, the boot was made up of 90 per cent air within the printed structures – another homage to the label’s classic puffer.

MSCHF in the Making

Perpetual Brooklyn provocateurs MSCHF took things to a whole new level at Paris Fashion Week in June. Estonian rapper Tommy Cash crashed the Rick Owens show dressed as a mime and wearing the Crocs x MSCHF collaboration dubbed the Big Yellow Boot. Punctured with ventilation holes reminiscent of classic clogs, the model also featured a ‘Sports Mode’ strap placed around the heel. The sequel to the zeitgeist-devouring Big Red Boot, the Big Yellow Boot surely represents the apotheosis of gratuitous footwear, although your guess is as good as ours at this point…

The Big Boot Battle Royal

With the increasing mashup between footwear and digital worlds, it was only fitting that a luxury brand like Ralph Lauren would enter the online fray. Loading the Polo x Fortnite P-Wing boots into the Battle Royal video game (for 1500 V-Bucks or around $15), Ralph Lauren later listed the physical chunky red and black boots on the brand’s website for $250 – and limited to 300 pairs. On August 3, the label also launched its own island within the video game, ‘Race to Greatness by Polo Ralph Lauren’.

Extremely fertile grounds for luxury footwear across the globe, expect more and more brands to follow suit in the digital battlegrounds.

For more on the future of footwear, make sure to check out our latest material matters on 3D printing.