Are shoes like this pair of Mephistos considered as geriatric? Or is the style fast becoming a Gen-Z must-have? Photo: The New York Times
Since Brian Procell first chanced upon Mephisto’s wide-set sneakers at his local suburban New Jersey mall in the 1990s, he has been smitten by the shoes.
“I’ve traversed the globes in Mephistos,” said Procell, a grand poobah of New York’s vintage scene.
The sneakers are light on branding, sophisticated like a leather club chair and, to him, ideal for world travel.
“Tokyo, French flea markets, they’ve been everywhere,” he said.
Those are more cosmopolitan settings than the common (though cliched) environments where Mephistos tend to appear: carpeted condos and retirement homes. The brand’s shoppers have traditionally been more AARP (American Association of Retired Persons, the organisation that works to address the needs and interests of middle-aged and elderly people in the US) than Gen Z.
During a visit last month to Mephisto’s shop in midtown Manhattan, a pool of grey-haired shoppers confirmed the brand’s renown with the 60-and-up set.
Procell is not nearly that old, but he has heeded the footwear wisdom of his elders.
Mephistos are “for the geriatric community, and why is that?” he asked, “Because they’re built well and they’re easy on your feet.”
Read more: Diamond jorts, crystal sneakers: Blinged-out streetwear that Liberace would love
So smitten is he that last year, Procell reached out to Mephisto to make his own version of its archetypical Match model. T
The company bit, and it resulted in a collaborative version of its blocky Match sneaker, in a preppy British shade of racing green. The shoe was then released exclusively at the Procell downtown Manhattan boutique.
There, the shoe of grandparents everywhere are displayed wedged between racks of endangered Chanel, faded tennis tees, and blisteringly rare Stone Island slickers.
That is, while stock lasts. The suede-and-leather shoes are rarer than nearly all Jordans. Just 100 pairs were produced.
“If you know Brian, you can’t help but get sucked in,” said Rusty Hall, the CEO of Mephisto, of why the company agreed to make a shoe, let alone such a limited shoe.
Of working with Procell, he said that it gets the brand out to a market that they "typically don’t entertain”.
If Mephisto was game to work with Procell, it was in part because the company has arrived at a moment when the shoes’ stodgy nature is making them desirable.
“The dad shoe trend became a grandpa shoe trend, and we definitely see the windfall from that effect,” said Logan Bird, 33, the vice president for omnichannel sales at Mephisto.
The company, based in Tennessee, is a subsidiary of the Mephisto parent company in France (the French mother ship has done its own cool-guy collaborations, most recently with the midmarket French fashion brand Fursac).
Buzzy artist Chase Hall recently told New York Magazine that he owns more than 50 pairs of the Match, and GQ has hailed a pair of Mephistos as “the best retro walking shoes".
The nonconformist, some may say ironic, embrace of geriatric shoes in recent years has boosted many brands.
Vogue co-signs and high-fashion collaborations helped Birkenstock slither out of its ageing hippie image to be recontextualised as genuinely chic.
New Balance’s greyed-out sneakers have become hypebeast fodder, and brands from Bottega Veneta and down to Asics offer mesh-heavy shoes that at first pass would befit Mister Rogers more than any rapper.
“It’s ‘Hey, my grandfather wore this shoe, I want to be in it,’” said Hall, who at 67 is closer to the company’s elder sticklers than its new adopter.
It’s not just that they’re the shoes a grandpa might wear, it's that Mephistos are very much not shoes that efficiency-obsessed tech-bros would swoon over. They’re not for maximising your step count or bragging about their lab-test sole.
Read more: Whether you like them or not, baby tees are definitely back in fashion
Wearing Mephistos is like using a wooden tennis racket. They get the job done, so why change?
“They’re sporty, but they’re also formal,” said Ytilaer Jay Law, 29, a fashion designer in Florida who owns a pair of cigar brown Match sneakers.
He described them as somewhere between Tiger Woods’ golf cleats and a date-night dress shoe. He has worn them with jorts (of his own design) and Louis Vuitton monogrammed socks.
As he put it, Mephistos are “beautifully designed”.
Oliver Klein, 34, a restaurant manager in Brooklyn, is on his fourth pair of Mephisto’s Match model.
“In the era of hyped-up Asics and New Balances, it’s nice to go back to something that just feels sort of understated and classic,” he said.
Similar to Procell, he hailed the sneaker’s “orthopedic adjacency”.
Is Mephisto worried that its mature clientele will flee if their shoes get hyped up? Hardly.
“Grandpa probably doesn’t even know that his grandson’s interested in the brand,” Hall said. – ©2024 The New York Times Company
