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Some sneakers are easy to love: simple shape, white laces, and off you go. They suit every occasion, no questions asked.Others look like a running shoe, a hiking boot and a piece of medical equipment were thrown into a lab together — only to emerge with a luxury price tag (no complaints here!). And here is the funny part: those are often the pairs fashion remembers.

Which is exactly why we are back with The Sneaker Talk, the Sandy Times podcast, for Episode 2: a trip into the gloriously confusing world of ugly sneakers. These are shoes that ignored the rules of proportion, colour and even what a foot is supposed to look like.

But what we really want to know is how our eyes learn to adjust. First it is ridiculous. Then it becomes weirdly intriguing. Before you know it, it is everywhere — and you can't quite remember why you hated it in the first place.

So who makes that happen? Designers? Celebrities? The fashion crowd? Or do we just need to see something often enough before strange starts looking good?

What is inside Episode 2

The second episode looks at how unconventional footwear moved from strange to desirable through some of its most recognisable examples:

  • adidas Ozweego — the technical 1990s running shoe that Raf Simons later exaggerated into a fashion statement.
  • Vibram FiveFingers — the toe shoes created around barefoot movement rather than conventional ideas of beauty.
  • Balenciaga Triple S — the oversized luxury sneaker that helped turn the chunky dad shoe into one of fashion’s biggest trends.
  • HOKA, Crocs, Birkenstock, On and New Balance — the comfort-first names that show how practicality itself became fashionable.

You will also discover why seeing the same strange silhouette again and again can change our perception of it, how wearing something divisive became a form of status and why fashion tends to fall in love with the things it once rejected.

Listen now

Listen to Episode 2 of Sneaker Talk on STR — and decide whether ugly sneakers are actually ugly, or whether we have simply changed the way we look at them.