How an ugly American hiking shoe became cool in Europe

My rather large shoe collection includes boots by Celine, loafers by Paraboot and sandals by The Row. But none have attracted as many compliments as my pair of £90 slingbacks from 20-year old Portland-based hiking brand Keen. The shoes are decidedly odd-looking, with flat rubber soles, toggle fastenings and an all-over elasticated construction that looks a bit like a spider’s web.

On their debut outing last summer, a hoodie-wearing 17-year-old on a BMX skidded up beside me and exclaimed, “You’ve got the Uneeks!” Last week, in a beauty salon, a thirtysomething therapist asked me to send her a link. About seven of my friends have since bought a pair. Glance around Hackney and trendy parts of south-east London, and you’ll see these strange slipper-like sandals, often worn with ankle socks.

They’re gaining traction outside of hip London boroughs too. In June, menswear designer Saul Nash put them on his spring/summer 24 catwalk show in London after getting a pair from the Garb Store. In May, Keen collaborated with Skall, a Copenhagen womenswear brand, on a sandy-coloured, undyed lace-up version with a natural cork sole that the company claims sold out in 11 minutes on Skall Studio’s official website. The company expects to sell its millionth pair of Uneeks this year, led by growth in Japan as well as Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

Rory Fuerst Jr, Keen’s innovation director, and son of company co-founder Rory Fuerst, finds the Uneek’s traction among younger generations amusing. “It definitely didn’t happen overnight,” he says of this “newfound energy” for the design he conceived a decade ago. His original concept was solution-driven — to create a comfortable shoe with a customisable fit for wide and narrow feet. This open-air sneaker, with its elasticated cord fabrication, was the answer.

In America, Keen is still mostly worn by older crowds in the hiking scene rather than by Arc’teryx-loving urbanites queueing up for an oat milk flat white. As a brand, Keen is still “not cool” in the US, according to John Jansen, the brand’s general EMEA manager.

It’s a different story in Japan, where the Uneek has been marketed as a fashion shoe since its launch around five years ago. Its curious silhouette lends itself well to the avant-garde Japanese aesthetic — and they look great worn with Issey Miyake’s pleated pieces. Its status in Japan has “helped us find success in Europe, as people refer”, says Jansen.

In Europe, that silhouette is now hitting the spot with the gorp-core-loving crowd — ones who have moved on from the ubiquity of Birkenstocks and Salomon’s waterproof trail trainers, but who still want a similar functionality. I’ve worn my Uneeks to paddleboard, wild swim and shower on a campsite as well as schlepping the streets in the city: they were also the shoes I put on after the London Marathon. The popularity of the Uneek has meant that the Jasper — an angular-toed lace-up from the lifestyle collection that riffs on a bouldering shoe — is also now becoming trendy.

The Uneek was Fuerst Jr’s design debut for the brand. It combines the perfect Venn diagram of current trends: comfort, dad fashion and all-things-outdoor. “Hiking and trail-running have become a lot more popular since Covid,” says Fuerst Jr.

So in turn, our eye has been retrained to enjoy the aesthetic of those sports and activities. “I grew up in a very old-school hiking world, and it’s crazy to see how much it has changed. Back in the day, hiking footwear was super chunky and ugly,” he says. “But there’s been so much innovation and focus on making things lighter and faster.” In other words, smarter.

It takes 14 minutes to turn eight metres of elasticated cord into one three-dimensional shoe: Fuerst Jr designed a machine to exclusively knit together the Uneeks, which are all made in Cambodia and Thailand.

To enhance the shoe’s newfound cool, Jansen is revising its wholesale strategy in Europe. “If we go too mainstream, too early, we will sell more, but we will kill demand.” Jansen has offloaded many of the more mid-range hiking shops and added “super-hip, influential retailers” such as End, Wood Wood and Highsnobiety, which sell exclusive colourways. The standalone Keen store in Portland, which sells the entire range of hiking gear, also houses exclusives.

“We want to maintain exclusivity,” he said. “We can’t expect stores like Offspring and End to want to sell products people can buy in Cotswold Outdoor.”

Slower traction in the US hasn’t stopped the big brands from paying attention. Nike and Hoka have both recently released bungee-cord silhouettes that appear a clear riff on Keen’s patented style. “Imitation is a form of flattery,” laughs Fuerst Jr, who says he has no plans to fight a paperwork war.

Jansen, who formerly worked for Nike and Nike-owned Converse, adds that it’s “super good news for us . . . in theory, the more we get copied by big brands, the better. There is not one shoe that’s more copied than the Converse All Star.” And, he says, “people don’t always want to shop at the big, known brands.”

Keen sees the discerning European customer as key to unlocking an untapped fashion crowd on home turf — and shedding its crunchy brand image. Keen has relocated senior staff from Japan to Portland. It also hired a Copenhagen-based creative agency with an office in New York to create a cross-territory approach to marketing. Currently, 16 per cent of company sales are from the “lifestyle” category the Uneek sits in; by 2028, the aim is to increase that number to 40 per cent.

“Lifestyle will bring us younger fans,” says Jansen. But the brand insists that it’s not about to forget its roots, or alienate its older core audience. “If we’re cool with the Uneeks, there’s a better chance younger people will buy our outdoor products.” On Keen’s path to ascent, all roads lead to the trails.

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