Love them or loathe them, the leading summer fashion faux pas was the old-school pool slider, which saw a resurgence in popularity, becoming this season’s ‘it’ shoe. No longer confined to the poolside, plastic slip-ons originally designed by Adidas became the go-to footwear item for fashion influencers. The rise of utilitarian athleisure coupled with high-fashion innovation saw sliders re-enter the fashion narrative.

“The orthopaedic rubbery sandals, now embellished with floral prints, feathers and rhinestones have been paraded on catwalks globally”

Originally designed in the 60s, the iconic Adidas Adilette sandal was created for use by the German national football team as an après-sport slide. Consisting of a contoured footbed with a synthetic textured bandaged upper, the slide was developed to protect players from the less than inviting floors in communal changing rooms and showers. The original navy blue and white Adilette slide was first released for public consumption in 1972.

Today, the slide is a footwear essential for not only professional athletes but has become ubiquitous at festivals, in university dorms and gyms everywhere. The Adilette slide is probably one of the most recognised footwear items, yet this popularity has encouraged numerous copycat versions, from the likes of Italian fashion house, Gucci, with their less than subtly named Pursuit ’72 slides.

Utilitarian athleisure, the amalgamation of sportswear and casualwear, has been experiencing a renaissance that few could have predicted, and world-renowned fashion houses have capitalised by turning a fashion taboo into a fashion essential. Despite a lack of aesthetic appeal, sliders have received a high-fashion reinvention. The orthopaedic rubbery sandals, now embellished with floral prints, feathers and rhinestones, have been paraded on catwalks globally.

The beginning of the ‘ugly shoe’ phenomenon can be traced back to Christopher Kane’s super-luxe interpretation of the humble pool slide. His metallic leather and jewel-embellished slides set a precedent; the fashion narrative was moving away from uncomfortable towering stilettos to comfortable, chunky and un-aesthetic sandals.

Then, if we look at Phoebe Philo’s collection at Paris Fashion Week in 2013, Philo presented a mink-lined version of the slider. Despite entering the fashion consciousness in 2012, the introduction of sliders into mainstream fashion can perhaps be attributed to Barbadian singer, actress and more recently, fashion designer, Rihanna.

After signing on as creative director for Puma in 2014, Robyn Rihanna Fenty launched her Fenty x Puma fur pool slides. Producing a more wallet-friendly take on the class slider silhouette, Rihanna’s luxe faux-fur design sent the fashion world into a frenzy with her collection, selling out in a matter of seconds. In a press release prior to the release of the Fenty x Puma collection, Puma acknowledged that Rihanna designed the sliders “with comfort and style in mind, having to travel extensively as part of her busy lifestyle”.

Following the success of her debut collection of pool slides, the Barbadian’s burgeoning design career took an experimental turn with a jelly and satin bow-inspired version of the pool slider. Then, Rihanna and Puma released a lightweight design of the slides with F.U. (Fenty University) branding in a collegiate font.


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Once the summer shoe of choice for dads and granddads alike, the rise of pool sliders did not come as a surprise. The fashion community has been renowned for reinventing ‘ugly fashion’ to spark trends and grab attention, when in reality the results are not so easy on the eye.

Granted, a high fashion makeover can add a sense of class, but is it worth parting with hundreds for pool sliders which are undoubtedly more impractical than cheaper, less attractive versions of the silhouette? As ‘ugly fashion’ continues to have its say in the fashion narrative, we can certainly expect more of these trends to come and go