Huge news everyone: it’s the future. Today is the latest day in recorded history, and every moment is new – but that’s not for lack of trying. Since human beings began to understand time as a concept we’ve imagined what the future will hold, and many of the dates associated with those imagined futures have come and gone, spawning an entire aesthetic known as Retrofuturism. It’s a way to understand how the past thought the present would look. Remember 2015? Did it look anything like how it was supposed to look according to Back To The Future 2? That’s Retrofuturism. In the past couple of years, we’ve seen a number of retrofuturist sneakers that sell innovative nostalgia, and each one would make an incredible gift.
Union LA x Air Jordan 4 Off Noir
Some of the most fun examples of retrofuturism appear on contemporary TV, especially shows like Black Mirror and Stranger Things that are heavy into video gaming and pop culture that was obsessed with looking to the future riding a wave of optimism. While the Union LA Jordan 4s in both colorways feature contemporary innovations, their aesthetics are deeply retrofuturist. On the Off Noir CW it’s the eggshell white sole, the black Durabuck with contrast stitching and translucent plastic detailing. The sneaker is practically an OG Nintendo, the paragon of interactive imagination, turned into a sneaker.
Union LA x Air Jordan 4 Guava Ice
The retrofuturist vibes are a little harder to see on the Guava Ice Union LA Jordan 4s, but they’re still there. That same eggshell white sole that looks like an oxidized gaming system sets the base, along with translucent plastic detailing, but the pinkish suede is less a reference to arcade culture and more about the explosive and exuberant fashion of the 80s. That 80s’ optimism, connecting with the technological innovations that made narratives like Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey, Weird Science, and even The Terminator, underscores the same colorful expression that we see on these collaborative 4s.
Nike MAG Back to the Future (2011)
The most obvious retrofuturist sneaker of all time is the Nike MAG. When Marty McFly raced into the future of 2015 he got a beautiful jacket, a hoverboard, interactive 3D advertising, and self-lacing sneakers. Since the release of Back to the Future 2, sneaker fans have pined for those imaginative sneakers that were impossible given the technology in the 80s, but over the last 30+ years, the teams at Nike have worked hard to make them a reality. Back in 2011, Nike teamed up with The Michael J. Fox Foundation to auction off a number of Nike MAGs that became automatic grails, and then in 2016, the Nike MAG got a new self-lacing system resulting in another release. Shoes still don’t look like we imagined they would, but self-lacing is finding itself in more and more sneakers throughout the culture.
Reebok Alien Stomper Bishop 40th Anniversary
Not all visions of the future are optimistic. In fact, one of the most popular sci-fi franchises of all time, the Alien series, offers a bleak vision of a future that places corporate interests and bioweapons profits over human lives. Which isn’t a huge shocker. With that series came a deluge of incredible characters, lines, stories, and some epic fashion. Reebok outfitted Ripley and crew during the production of the films, and over the last few years has offered a number of releases from the movies. While there are pairs that are more recognizable than Bishop’s Alien Stompers, none are more popular. Ripley wore a much higher version of the “Bishop Edition,” but this lower profile silhouette makes for a sneaker that is much more wearble.
adidas Futurecraft 4D Ash Green
When considering how the past saw the future, that’s now our present, it’s impossible to not consider how we’re seeing our future. Every year, we see innovations that could change the way sneakers are made and used, but very few of them stick, or they’re subtle enough that they disappear into the manufacturing process, offering incremental improvements. But when adidas’ first Futurecraft 4D sneaker dropped in early 2018 it signaled that the industry was ready for scalable 3D printing. adidas has continued to release 3D soles while other sneaker brands, like Reebok, have experimented with 3D printing. It’s innovations like 4D that help us imagine what the future of footwear will be. Even if we’re totally wrong.
