Rosalía's "Walking Shoes" Are Not Recommended for Anyone Who's Not Rosalía
The “football boots as fashion” trend has officially gone too far.
On May 4, Spanish singer Rosalía stepped out of a black SUV in the Upper East Side of New York wearing New Balance 442s. No, not the Samba-fied pair with lush suede uppers, but the actual studded football boot (or soccer cleat, as onlooking New Yorkers would call them).
The New Balance 442 PRO FG V2 is not made for the hard asphalt of the Big Apple (obviously!). Instead, Rosalía's $134.99 shoes, which she paired with a billowing white skirt and graphic tee (reading “protect me from what I want”), are made for soft grass.
And if you’ve ever had the displeasure of having to wear such studded shoes on a hard floor, you’ll know how annoying it is: The series of platformed studs are awkward to walk on and they make an annoying clanking noise behind you.
So, why would Rosalía choose to wear this inconvenient, entirely sport-focused shoe in New York, where she was reportedly attending a fitting for the Met Gala? In fact, why would anyone choose to wear this kind of shoe outside of the context of a kickabout? Honestly, I’m at a loss for answers, but this isn’t an isolated case.
On the same weekend as Rosalía's confusing pre-Met Gala footwear decision, I spotted a new trend buzzing on TikTok: #bootsonlysummer. Yes, there is a movement dedicated to switching out regular sneakers for studded boots this summer.
People are wearing baggy jorts with adidas F50s, pairing miniskirts with Predators, combining jeans with Nike Mercurials… There’s been a steady stream of unconventional pairings over the past few days.
It’s all a bit of fun, and since the concept of wearing studded football boots as sneakers is so absurd, it's reached minor virality. But I don’t expect that anyone is actually wearing these boots beyond when filming these video clips. Well, except for Rosalía.
Last year, when a series of luxury labels were turning football boots into studless fashionable sneakers, I proclaimed that their obsession with the sport was getting a bit weird.
And I wasn’t alone in my confusion. “You’re getting people wearing these [football] shoes who would never kick a ball in them. 10 or 20 years ago, there’s no way I would have thought this kind of crossover would happen,” Daniel Jones, senior editor at SoccerBible, told me at the time.
Well, if nobody a decade ago could’ve predicted that studless adidas turf boots could become a fashion trend, imagine showing them Rosalía's new outfit.
