Balmain Found Its Unicorn: a Future in Footwear
"What I love about the Balmain creative process is that Balmain is a laboratory, and I approach all our categories in the same way, whether it's a couture dress that will cost 100K or a simple pair of jeans and a t-shirt," Olivier Rousteing, Balmain's creative director, said to me.
With Balmain's creative reigns in hand, Rousteing is constantly thinking ahead while also considering what's Balmain yesterday and today. Balmain's footwear line perfectly encapsulates this ethos, wrapping up the house's past, present, and future in unique designs that turn out more like wearable art pieces filled with that Balmain attitude.
The footwear market is booming right now, especially the sneaker scene. New faces are joining established labels in dishing out everything from the wild to the understated. Still, Balmain's sneakers manage to catch the spotlight amongst the crowd.
"If you think about today's sneaker and footwear landscape, there are so many offerings on the market. It's difficult to stand out with something that feels really special," Rousteing told me.
"When it comes to Gen Z — or even the generations after — they feel and appreciate the amount of work, dedication, and emotion behind a project. No matter how many sneakers there are on the market today, the one that has been crafted and thought out and created with emotion will be the one to stand out."
Enter the Balmain's Unicorn sneaker. It definitely checks the "thought-out" box. But it's also very much Balmain in more ways than one.
There have been other Balmain shoes that felt ahead of their time. Recall the brand's chunky B-It slide and those BBall shoes that were everywhere. Looking at the Unicorn, you wouldn't be wrong for thinking this is Balmain's most distinct and futuristic shoe yet.
While meeting Balmain's upcoming Cloud shoe may change your mind, right now, we're talking about the Unicorn sneaker because it's a pretty important part of the Parisian brand right now.
After hitting the Paris runway, Balmain's Unicorn sneaker finally launched in 2022. The Unicorn offers the feel of a chunky runner from the year 2906, finished with an elevated multi-sectional sole and a unique matte lace system connected to translucent brands wrapping around the shoe.
When cooking up the Unicorn sneaker, Rousteing had several ideas and inspirations floating through his head. But one key component toppled all others: creating art rather than just another sneaker.
Working with Safa Sahin, Balmain's head of sneaker design, the team ended up with that and more. The Unicorn not only eternalized the house's legacy craftsmanship and present vision, but it was a clear step into Balmain's future with footwear.
"We wanted details, moldings, textures, and materials that we could play with and mix together. We wanted to create a shape that would be timeless yet iconic: something unusual, something unexpected, and something that reflects what Balmain stands for," Rousteing says.
And what does Balmain stand for, you may ask? Rousteing breaks it down to me in four simple parts: attitude, confidence, strength, and feeling powerful daily. Specifically, it's for those Balmain-ians who "aren't afraid and are ready to be a winners' — like famous fans of the brand, Beyoncé and Michelle Obama.
"Nothing leaves the Balmain offices without many hours of thought and work put into it because we want to make sure that each piece will remain iconic. Highlighting that craftsmanship is very important to me. We want this shoe to be remembered in 50 years and for people to look back and say: 'Oh, that was the Balmain laboratory.,'" Rousteing adds.
Since we were talking about all things the future, I had to ask Rousteing: What does Balmain footwear look like years from now? The answer is, well, a little complex.
"We have had these incredible years where sneakers were really complex and complicated. In the future, I think we are going to maintain this complexity, but it won't be as obvious," Rousteing says.
"It becomes something a bit more subversive, with complexity and detail that you might not notice or even understand at first. I imagine this sneaker would look more like a statue — a piece of art cast in that singular mold — than anything we have seen before.
"I'm really excited about that new chapter for sneakers because it will present an exciting challenge for all of us designers."
