Italian designer Gucci is charging an eye-watering £615 for a pair of dirty-looking trainers which come in a range of stained colours with scuff marks.
The pair of men’s Screener leather trainers “references old school shapes” and were “influenced by classic trainers from the 70s”, according to the Italian fashion house.
For £615, the designer trainers boast a “vintage, distressed effect” and feature off-white leather.
Gucci’s website says: “A pastiche of different influences that span across decades, the Cruise 2019 collection references old school shapes and materials inspired by vintage sportswear.
“Influenced by classic trainers from the '70s, the Screener sneakers—named for the defensive sports move—feature the Web stripe on the side and vintage Gucci logo, treated for an all over distressed effect.”
However, since being advertised online the trainers have been mocked on social media, with one shopper saying: “I’ve got a few filthy stained pairs like this left abandoned in the garden shed.”
One person branded them “disgusting”, while another wrote: “They’re filthy. I don’t think many fashion victims would want to spend that much on something that looks like it was thrown away 20 years ago.”
Another pair of Gucci trainers with the same eye-watering price tag is the Rhyton trainer, a tennis shoe which has also been designed to appear dirty with the brand’s “vintage, distressed effect”.
Last year, luxury brand Golden Goose was accused of “glorifying poverty” for selling a £428 pair of trainers designed to look worn out with a piece of “tape” purportedly holding the shoe in place.
Critics accused the brand of “glorifying poverty” and said that the design was “peak capitalism”.
The reaction to Gucci’s dirty-looking trainers comes weeks after the luxury brand faced backlash for selling an $890 black jumper with a pull-up neck which many claimed resembled blackface.
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The brand’s creative director yesterday broke his silence over the jumper, saying that racism was never his intention for the jumper, which featured a cut out surrounded by cartoonish red lips.
Alessandro Michele said, he takes "full accountability" for the balaclava-style sweater, which was pulled last week amid widespread criticism which led Gucci to apologise.
Marco Bizzarri, Gucci's president and CEO, told WWD, "The lack of knowledge of diversity and the consequent understanding are not at the level we expected, despite all the efforts we did inside the company in the last four years."
