BLACKPINK’s JENNIE Just Reinvented the Adidas Superstar as a
Ballet Flat – And It’s Surprisingly Chic
The sneaker that traded its laces for a ribbon.
Photo by LEE JEONG MU/Imazins via Getty Images
Somewhere in 1969 a basketball player laced up a
low-slung leather shoe with a rubber cap over the toe, and the
Superstar began a career considerably longer than
his own. It passed from the court to the sidewalk, then into the
hands of Run-DMC, who rapped it into the canon in
1986 and made the shell toe a form of identification. Its newest
custodian arrived from another kind of stage altogether, since
JENNIE of BLACKPINK has spent the
summer teasing her first co-created collection with adidas
Originals and has now revealed its opening argument, a
Superstar taken apart and rebuilt as a ballet slipper, christened
the Superstar Square Ballet.
When the Shell Toe Learned to
Point
The intervention is more surgical than it first
appears, since the laces have vanished along with the tongue,
leaving a slip-on construction and a wide, foot-baring opening held
in place by a tonal elastic strap across the midfoot. A leather
ribbon sits tied over the forefoot, borrowed straight from the
vocabulary of the pointe shoe and applied with a lightness that
keeps the whole thing from tipping into costume. Underneath, the
outsole has been squared off and given a hybrid tread of
herringbone and circles, a reminder that the shoe still intends to
be walked in. The branding stays discreet, with JENNIE’s custom tag
and the Trefoil tucked onto the insole, visible
only to the wearer, which is the most confident placement
available.
Two Colorways, Zero Hesitation
It comes in a crisp off-white and an inverted black,
both resolved in premium leather with the tonal rigor of a
well-edited wardrobe, and both landing on September 1. The timing
is immaculate, since fashion has spent the season dismantling the
boundary between the sneaker and the flat, sending lace-ups down
runways and turning dancewear into daily uniform. This particular
hybrid answers the question with unusual clarity, keeping the
heritage silhouette recognizable while removing everything that
made it feel athletic. Style it as JENNIE would, with something
abbreviated and high-waisted, or let it do the quiet work under
wide denim, where the ribbon becomes the only detail anyone
notices. The result belongs to that rare category of collaboration
in which the celebrity name explains nothing, and the shoe explains
itself.
