The "Never-Surrender High-Top Sneaker" isn't catching on with some shoe aficionados.
The $399 gold metallic kicks, all 1,000 pairs of which were purchased within hours of former President Donald Trump debuting them on Saturday on the stage of the Philadelphia Convention Center, don't have many admirers of kicks swooning.
“At first I thought it was an April Fool’s joke,” Hikmet Sugoer, a German sneakerhead who founded the boutique shoe boutique Solebox, told The Guardian.
He noted that he was both “shocked and disappointed” when Trump made a surprise appearance at Saturday's Sneaker Con event.
For Sugoer, the shoe world is all about bonding with others fond of footwear.
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“Sneakers unite a diverse community around our shared passion, and sneakers should connect us, rather than divide," he said. "This move exploited us for selfish reasons.”
The limited edition shoes were produced under a licensing agreement with a company called 45Footwear LLC.
Each pair once comes with a “custom charm” emblazoned with a superhero image of Trump donning a tight red jumpsuit.
When he took the stage, he spoke through a crowd that received him with a blend of cheers and boos.
"I just want to tell you, I've wanted to do this for a long time," Trump said. "I have some incredible people that work with me on things, and they came up with this, and this is something I've been talking about for 12 years, 13 years, and I think it's gonna be a big success."
But like Sugoer, other sneaker collectors and enthusiasts aren't impressed.
“Trump has nothing to do with sneakers and sneaker culture consists of people of color who would not feel safe around someone like Trump and his followers,” said Berty Mandagie, a commercial photographer and sneaker enthusiast from Seattle.
“The fact that Sneaker Con turned out to be a Trump rally instead of a sneaker convention is wildly upsetting.”
As far as the aesthetics — Stars and Stripes accents on the ankle, the red rubber sole and the blinging gold?
“I think they’re tacky,” Mandagie said. “They look spray-painted with a cheap gold color. The font of the ‘T’ is so basic. It looks like a knockoff shoe produced by Temu.”
Zeke Hannula, who is based in San Francisco, called Trump's shoe line “very, very dumb.”
