The Most Multicultural Shoes Ever Made

These might be the most multicultural shoes in the world. They were created by an English brand based on a German design named after an Australian animal, born in Ireland, and popularized by Jamaica. Pretty crazy, right? Their story is fascinating, and it starts in the early 1960s. Clarks was already a well-established British shoemaker known for practical, conservative footwear. But while traveling through Europe, the Clarks team got inspired by a German moccasin worn by the locals known as the Grasshopper. So, they acquired a license to manufacture their own version and put their own spin on it. They used natural crepe rubber outsoles, a soft suede upper, and finished them with the classic moccasin construction with the stitched, rolled-up vamps. And then one night, during an informal meeting over a few beers, the team was brainstorming a name for the shoe. The general manager of the factory suggested the kangaroo. And then another team member shouted, "No, the smaller one. " Referring to the small native Australian marsupial, the wallaby. And that's how the legendary silhouette we all know today was born in 1967, the Clarks Wallabee. But the initial release was a failure. At the time, the British consumer wanted sleek leather shoes, and the Wallabee was seen by many as clunky and borderline ugly. Many critics mocked it, calling it an orthopedic shoe that only a grandma would wear for comfort. However, there is one place where the shoe was successful, and that is Jamaica. In the '70s, a subculture of rebellious, stylish young men from the ghettos of Kingston, known as the rude boys, adopted Clarks as their unofficial uniform. The made-in-England tag, combined with the high price point, made them a massive status symbol. In the dancehalls, Wallabees were the ultimate flex. More formal than a sneaker, but more street than a dress shoe. The connection to the streets was so strong that at one point, the police even used Clarks to profile suspects. There's famous stories of police raiding dancehalls and separating the crowd based on their footwear. And if you were wearing Clarks, you were immediately suspected of being a rude boy or a criminal. But the story doesn't end on the island. In the '70s and '80s, a massive wave of Jamaican immigrants moved to New York City, bringing their Wallies to the streets of Brooklyn and the Bronx. And it was here that the shoe found its next champions, the Wu-Tang Clan. Growing up in NYC, rappers like Ghostface Killah and Raekwon saw the older generation wearing them and adopted the style. Ghostface even dubbed himself as the Wallabee Champ, and the shoe became the unofficial footwear of '90s golden era hip-hop. This quote-unquote ugly shoe from England became the coolest thing in America. And this global hype eventually traveled back across the Atlantic, finally conquering the UK through the acid house rave scene and British pop legends like Oasis and The Verve. And today, the Wallabee is an undisputed icon from the streets of Kingston to the fashion weeks of Paris. Not bad for a shoe that everyone thought was for grandmas back in the day.