Loud Shoes, Italian Light

Italy occupies more space in my head the further I get from it. The light does something there that doesn’t happen anywhere else. The food tastes like it was designed on purpose. People move through their days without the constant feeling that they’re already late. I’ve thought more than once about the retirement fantasy—small place on the coast, mornings like that, nothing else. It’s good to think about when you’re somewhere that doesn’t quite have that energy.

Fila and Naked released the Italy Pack. The V94M Low, Vista Blue and Gray Violet—these big chunky dad sneakers that just exist loudly and visibly without much apology. The tie-in is simple: Fila’s Italian, so here’s Italy in a shoe. But I can’t figure out what actually makes them Italian beyond that. The colors could be from anywhere. The shape’s generic retro. It’s the kind of marketing move where you shrug and accept that the story is thinner than the product.

But there’s something good about a shoe that just doesn’t retreat into subtlety. Takes up space. Doesn’t try to fit into somebody else’s idea of what a sneaker should be. That’s a kind of honesty.

The Italy fantasy is still better than any shoe could be—that light, that pace, that feeling that someone thought about how things should work. But these sneakers point in that direction somehow. Not the thing itself, but something in the way of it. That confidence that it’s okay to just be what you are. That counts for something.