The DTC Brands Driving the Men’s Loafer Boom

Chris Echevarria noticed this second coming.

It was 2017, and after streetwear’s years of domination, menswear shoppers had been wanting to decorate up extra. Echevarria had an thought for a shoe that bridged the hole between a Nike Air Drive One and a traditional penny idler. The end result, a idler with a thicker sole and uppers in dramatic materials like zebra prints and embossed snakeskin, is the hero product of his shoe model Blackstock & Weber, which he based that 12 months.

“I felt like folks weren’t telling the story of the flexibility of the idler in the suitable approach,” Echevarria mentioned. “I simply needed it to really feel enjoyable. I needed it to really feel exploratory.”

Six years later, Echeverria’s wager on males’s loafers has come to fruition. Blackstock & Weber’s gross sales had been up 300 p.c 12 months over 12 months in 2023, and in Could, Echeverria opened a retail retailer known as 242 Mulberry in New York’s SoHo neighbourhood, the place Blackstock & Weber’s wares are prominently featured alongside Oxford shirts and denim chore jackets from Echeverria’s clothes model Academy.

Loafers are a perennial menswear staple courting again to the mid-twentieth century. However in recent times, the model has penetrated the zeitgeist amongst youthful menswear customers who have graduated from graphic tees and sneakers to a preppier, dressy-casual aesthetic, pairing loafers (and different slip-on kinds like boat footwear and slippers) with five-inch shorts and excessive socks or flared denim. Google searches for males’s loafers have elevated 25 p.c 12 months over 12 months since 2023, and there’s at the moment greater than 12 million views for males’s loafers on TikTok, rising at round 130,000 views per week, in line with analysis agency Trendalytics.

“We’re residing in a post-sneaker increase society,” mentioned Chris Black, a columnist for GQ and the founder of brand name consultancy Executed to Demise Tasks, which works with firms like J.Crew and Thom Browne. “A idler is a really approachable model for many guys … It appears to be like good with denims; it appears to be like good with shorts. You’ll be able to’t actually mess it up.”

Youthful customers, who can’t shell out as a lot as $1,800 for loafers from legacy labels Church’s or Crockett & Jones, are as a substitute shopping for loafers from direct-to-consumer manufacturers like Blackstock & Weber, in addition to Swedish footwear model Morjas, which sells $400 handmade pairs and noticed its gross sales develop 50 p.c 12 months over 12 months to $8 million in 2023. On June 4, it opened a five-day pop-up in New York to extend consciousness in one in every of its largest markets.

Even manufacturers that don’t concentrate on footwear are seeing a raise. Made-to-measure menswear label Stòffa’s slippers are driving visitors to its flagship retailer that opened in Could. Todd Snyder — which has offered loafers and slip-ons via collaborations with manufacturers like Alden and Sperry for the previous eight years — has seen loafers go from 14 p.c of footwear gross sales to 24 p.c previously 12 months. This 12 months to this point, idler gross sales are up 126 p.c versus 2023; Todd Snyder plans to launch its first in-house idler in 2025, mentioned chief product officer Alejandro Rhett.

“Getting a luxurious expertise at a kind of modern worth level may be very interesting to lots of people,” mentioned Jake Woolf, a former GQ employees author who now doles out males’s styling recommendation to his 230,000 followers on TikTok. “[These brands have] discovered a extremely good, candy spot the place they’re providing a mode that individuals need [and] they’re providing a top quality that individuals are intrigued by.”

The upstarts are marking the loafers’ present success with distinctive design — Blackstock & Weber with its chunky soles and funky uppers; Morjas with its Swedish minimalism; and Stoffa with its slippers. They’re additionally tapping into the zeitgeist with buzzy collaborations, and including in complementary classes to drive long run model constructing.

Assembly the Second

Within the early 2010s, fashion-obsessed males had been fixated on Italian tailoring and kinds like double monk strap footwear had been a standing image.

However as we speak’s idler customers aren’t limiting themselves to conventional choices. Silhouettes that problem gender norms, reminiscent of Bode’s home shoe, Lemaire’s flat-piped slippers and Margiela’s Mary Jane Tabi loafers, are dominant as effectively.

“Loafers have turn out to be similar to one other template for nevertheless you wish to see your approach via this factor we name model, or only a canvas for designers to kind of riff on it in one million other ways,” Woolf mentioned.

Stòffa’s $600 slippers — made with vegetable tanned calfskin connected to a pure latex sole that moulds to the wearer’s foot — are supposed to encapsulate a softness that appeals to fashionable male customers. The slippers, and an offshoot with an open lacing element, account for 70 p.c of shoe gross sales.

“Guys have gotten far more adventurous and open when it comes to how they gown,” mentioned Nicholas Ragosta, Stòffa’s co-founder, including that they’re extra “prepared to put on slip-on or open footwear.”

Manufacturers are additionally placing their spin on different well-liked slip-on staples just like the boat shoe, and bringing in collaborators that resonate with the plugged-in menswear client.

In June, Morjas partnered with the popular culture podcast How Lengthy Gone — which is co-hosted by Black, together with the DJ Jason Stewart, and instructions an viewers of well-to-do cosmopolitan males — on a $350 boat shoe made in navy bushy suede with a black sole. The model, and collaboration, matches with Morjas’ pursuit to replace traditional kinds whereas assembly the cultural second, mentioned Henrik Berg, Morjas’ founder and chief government.

“We’re doing issues that permit ourselves to be artistic and never take ourselves too severely,” Berg mentioned. “That’s the sort of model that I wish to construct in the long term. It’s a superb, superb stability between doing what we do after which on the identical time including some spice to it.”

Constructed to Final

Loafers could also be coveted now, however provide could also be beginning to outpace demand. In line with Trendalytics, the variety of males’s loafers obtainable available in the market jumped 35 p.c previously 12 months, whereas searches for the model grew 25 p.c.

Lots of the manufacturers benefiting from “loafermania” have already begun diversifying their assortments. Morjas launched a lace-up sneaker in canvas in Could, and its climbing boots carry out reliably effectively within the fall and winter. London-based Duke + Dexter, recognized for its penny idler embellished with cheeky graphics like scorpions or cocktails on the shoe’s higher, additionally carries sneakers and lace-up wallabee-style boots.

Nonetheless, penny loafers are Morjas’ bestsellers, accounting for greater than 20 p.c of total gross sales. The model will not be in a rush to scale back that share.

“We’re not planning for the downfall of the penny idler,” Berg mentioned.