Ballerina shoes are back in style thanks in part to nostalgia - plus Gen Z shoppers who are even pairing them with running shorts
Brands like Crocs, Puma and Ugg have rolled out mash-up designs that incorporate the flat into their own signature footwear.
Ballet flats are back in vogue, and that's prompted some unlikely companies to hop on the bandwagon with their own riffs on the classic shoe silhouette.
Brands like Birkenstock $(BIRK)$, Crocs $(CROX)$ and Ugg (DECK) have rolled out mash-up designs over the past year that incorporate the flat into their own signature footwear, as they try to cash in on the "balletcore" and "sneakerina" trends that have blurred the boundaries between fashion and function. Similarly, new ballet-sneaker crossovers from Adidas (XE:ADS) (ADDYY) and Puma (XE:PUM) $(PUMSY)$ have been popular.
Footwear executives have credited these sorts of items for helping to drive sales in recent quarters. And even as consumers cycle through fashion trends more quickly thanks to social media, some analysts say there's still room for more gains.
Birkenstock CEO Oliver Reichert highlighted the trend during the sandal and clog maker's quarterly earnings call on Thursday. He said that a collaboration launched last month with Parisian shoemaker Repetto - to make a new footwear collection combining Birkenstock's orthopedic cork-latex footbeds with flourishes like laces and printed leather from Repetto - would help "capture the increasing global demand for ballerina."
The offerings go for around $500 on Birkenstock's website. The ballerina collaboration, Reichert said, would be part of the company's efforts to hold consumers' attention with new shoes and sandals in the years ahead.
"Don't forget this: This will be the trend for the next three to five years," he said. "The ballerinas, for ladies."
Late last month, Crocs CEO Andrew Rees said that the clog-maker's own ballet flat - which looks exactly like a cross between a classic Croc and a flat - "continues to see notable sellouts globally, particularly in Asia." That shoe, which hit shelves this year, represented "another opportunity to further diversify," he said. Deckers Outdoor, in May, also said its Ugg Zora line - which has the fluffy interior an Ugg boot in roughly the shape of a ballet shoe - had also appealed to customers.
Ballerinas have been a topic of conversation among sneaker executives as well.
"For her, we have the hottest shoes and silhouettes in the market," Adidas CEO Bjorn Gulden said on the company's earnings call last month. "Many of them have been stretched into new silhouettes of the Samba, for example, into both ballerinas, into mules, into Mary Janes."
Wearing ballet flats for purposes other than ballet itself is a trend that first emerged in the 1940s. Since then, the likes of Audrey Hepburn, Princess Diana, Kate Moss and Alexa Chung have helped further the style's popularity, according to a summary on fashion publication The Zoe Report. The shoes have endured because they're comfortable and go well with formal and casual attire.
They became a staple of the indie scene through the 2000s, and fit in with the broader, decluttered millennial aesthetic that emerged in the 2010s. Like skinny jeans, they eventually became unavoidable - and thus a bit stale, giving way to looser fits and bulkier "dad" sneakers. But by 2022, after Miu Miu's (HK:1913) $(PRDSY)$ satin ballerina flats went viral, they were more or less back in focus within the fashion ecosystem.
Sky Canaves, an analyst at eMarketer, said that nostalgia has played a role in the shoes' current appeal. But she also noted that Gen Z was pairing them with running shorts, or otherwise finding new ways to wear them.
"There's a lot of appeal to younger consumers in a style that is still fairly fresh to them, because maybe they weren't shopping when ballet flats were last popular," she said. "There's a lot of refreshing of how the shoes can be worn."
Today, ballet flats make up a small slice of the U.S. women's footwear market. According to data from Circana, they comprised 1.6% of women's total footwear sales for the 12 months ending in June; that was a bit up from 1.4% a year ago. However, sales of ballet flats jumped 16% over that time, according to the firm, while high heels have lost market share.
Beth Goldstein, a footwear- and accessories-industry advisor at Circana, said that flats go well with other clothing and are more adaptable than sandals.
"I think there is more runway for the silhouette in the next year or two," Goldstein said in emailed comments. "Women are gravitating to the style because it provides a more tailored look while remaining casual and comfortable. They also pair well with the more relaxed, wide-leg pants and jeans that are popular."
Elsewhere, running-shoe maker On Holding $(ONON)$ said during an earnings call in March that its own ballet sneakers - launched in collaboration with the experimental pop artist FKA twigs last year - were "highly sought-after" and "pushing the boundaries of what sportswear can be." Capri $(CPRI)$, in May, said its Jimmy Choo Elisa ballerina flats were strong performers over the spring. Footwear chain Genesco $(GCO)$ this spring also called out ballerina shoes as an emerging trend.
Similar mash-ups and shoe collaborations have come and gone. But Canaves said that that even if consumers move on to new styles, the biggest companies in the industry still have the size, and thus the financial cushion, to experiment.
"A lot of these big brands that have seen a lot of growth in classic styles in recent years are now starting to see that taper off," she said. "The fashion industry, fashion consumers, always reward novelty."
-Bill Peters