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Following an ankle injury, New Yorker Victor Netland needed the perfect pair of tailoring-friendly trainers; he found them on the feet of his friend Chad Senzel, a vintage clothing dealer. The shoes were the Mojito by Scarpa, a 90-year-old Italian mountaineering brand with little to no interest in fashion. But they spoke to Netland, a twentysomething men’s style blogger and fashion consultant. Elongated and low-profile with a suede upper, reinforced nose, and laces that run all the way from tongue to toe, the Mojito (£160) is an archetype of what the climbing community calls an “approach” shoe.
“I saw him wearing them and I fell in love,” says Netland. “It’s a weird-looking shoe. People look at the laces and they’re like, ‘what are those?!’”
Combining the comfort of a hiker with the grip of a climbing shoe, approach shoes are suitable for both but specific to neither. They are for the approach.
“I love how they are purpose built for a thing, yet – like a lot of things that are purpose built – can be adapted into other lifestyles super easily,” says fashion designer and consultant Aaron Levine of his TX4 approach shoes by Italian alpine brand La Sportiva (from €196.90). He likes how tough they are – even “over-engineered” for the rigours of the city – and how the tongue-to-toe lacing makes the shoe hug the foot. “I think they look chic as hell,” he adds, noting how the low-profile shape works especially well with a “fuller” pair of trousers and a double-breasted blazer.
Technical clothing and accessories have firmly insinuated themselves in contemporary fashion, with Arc’teryx, Salomon and Hoka becoming popular with fashion types. Salomon’s chunky XT-6 trail runner went a long way to helping the French Alps-founded brand sell more than $1bn worth of shoes in 2024.
But as the trend for understated, slimmer, retro-skewed trainers such as the Adidas Samba builds momentum, demand for the approach shoe is on the rise. Josh Rothery, buyer at outdoor equipment boutique Outsiders Store, describes it as “the ideal daily driver”, comparing his Mojitos to an estate car that can go anywhere and do anything. “Even the long laces feel like the roof going all the way back.”
The codes of the approach shoe can be found elsewhere. Swedish cult label Our Legacy has the Gabe trainer (£340), a chic, asymmetric climbing shoe/trainer hybrid. British shoemaker Grenson has Sneaker 70 (£260), an any-weather city shoe with mountain-ready lacing. Italian brand Diemme offers a litany of low-profile, long-laced versions including the Movida and Ampezzo (€344.26 and €318.85 respectively). And Adidas recently unveiled a long-lace version of its famous Superstar trainer (£120), made in collaboration with Australian streetwear brand Song For The Mute (complete with a collapsible upper).
Keen, the Oregonian maker of the popular Jasper approach shoe (from £110), has also been quick to capitalise on its new fashionability; the Jasper has been the subject of collaborations with various cool affiliates including Highsnobiety and Korean fashion brand Eastlogue.
Others take a more purist approach to their product. “We don’t follow trends,” says Josh Herr, global senior director of footwear design at Arc-Teryx. They will launch a new version of its Konseal approach shoe this summer (£170). And the target market remains “mountain athletes”.
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