It’s hard to imagine a shoe with more cache than the wallabee, born and bred in the culture. And you’d be hard-pressed to find me another (non-sneaker) piece of footwear that can match it.
And while I have special love for the wallabee—let’s be real, it’s the one shoe I could wear every day for the rest of my life if I had to pick one—I first discovered Clarks through the humble desert boot.
An old friend introduced me to them in high school, and I got fixated on how wearable they felt (queue Andy Spade rocking up with those, Levi’s 501s, and a Brooks Brothers oxford). Bought my first pair at my local Goodwill by chance and wore them into the ground.
Next came the Wallabee in sand suede, the shoe that changed my life (stylistically).
And I didn’t clock it at the time, but looking back, the reason I love these two shoes so much is that they have this stylistic ambiguity about how you wear them.
The reason you can slot them into any subculture, genre, or community and they just fit like they were made for it is by design. But I guess that’s what happens after decades of different people claiming them as their own.
A brief origin story: subcultural roots
Clarks has been making shoes in Somerset, England, since 1825.
A 200+ year legacy is insane to think about, and even more wild when you realize that the Desert Boot came much later than that, in 1950, after its inventor (Nathan Clark) took inspiration from British officers wearing rough, crepe-soled suede boots they’d had made in Cairo’s bazaars during the war.
On the other side, the wallabee, in 1967, was designed after a traditional moccasin with a low, softer, almost slipper-like shape.
And out of the gates, the Mods took the Desert Boot in the ‘60s in London, while in Jamaica Rude Boy communities adopted the wallabee, making their own status symbol.
By the 1980s, as the Jamaican diaspora made its way to NYC, the wallabee quickly infiltrated the NYC hip hop scene. And back in the UK, Britpop was running it back with the desert boot.
The risk of messing with a classic
So, to set the context for this shoe, you can see why it’s difficult to collaborate with a brand like Clarks on footwear that's so iconic. You have to maintain a reverence. Because:
Play it too safe, and you end up with a logo slap.
Overdesign it, and it can backfire completely.
But this week, the homies at NN.07, a brand I have come to appreciate a lot over the years, just dropped their first collab with Clarks on both styles. And they struck the right balance on both.
How they nailed it
The collab is called Contrast in Conversation, where they reworked both the desert boot and the wallabee, and it’s one of the more considered partnerships I’ve seen in a while.
Mostly because they didn’t try to reinvent the wheel or overengineer it.
They kept the shape and silhouette untouched, focusing instead on full-grain pebbled leather from the tannery Hoffmans, one of Europe's best tanneries.
Aesthetically, it felt like a mature, reverent take on both shoes, especially for a brand that’s not even 20 years old. They just landed the creative direction.
Most brands shoot a drop the same way… shoot a model on a plain backdrop and call it a day. This campaign feels distinctly Danish in both product color and style. Even the model has a bit of rock-and-roll to him. It’s a little disheveled, a little undone, but a nice balance.
The desert boot with the monk strap was a perfect touch in place of the laces, and it’s the type of tweak that feels natural.
And the gumsole on both, in black, is delightful.
All in all, a wonderful collab, and refreshing to see two brands I wear and respect a lot make something that aligns with what each one does best.