BAPE Star

I’ve been an adidas guy for years. Superstars mostly. That’s the most minimal thing you can do with a shoe, and I like that about it. Before some anniversary campaign turned them into the unofficial footwear of every Berlin teenager, I was already wearing them. Stan Smiths too. The logic is the same: minimalism, nothing you don’t need.

Then A Bathing Ape drops the BAPE STA and I’m stuck looking at them, trying to find a real reason not to want them. The white soles are huge. The laces are pale. The leather sits there clean and blank. And there’s a star—gold or silver—that’s almost apologetic, like it’s saying I’m a statement and I’m nothing, have fun processing that.

That’s the Japanese design move that gets you. They understand the balance between restraint and presence in a way that makes you feel stupid for wanting it. For knowing it’s good. A Bathing Ape nailed it here. This shoe could pull someone away from Nike or adidas without even trying, and you’d call it a choice instead of a betrayal.

Undefeated has them, or there’s the fifteen-year-old sneaker dealer around the corner who somehow dresses better than most adults and definitely knows it. There’s something about that kind of arrogance that becomes appealing after a while.