By now, even uttering the word “Balenciaga” conjures a range of associations, and suggests a specific aesthetic. The brand’s name has become shorthand for the oversized, the distressed, and the extreme. Its sneakers, from the bulbous Triple S to the pre-destroyed Paris, became cultural flashpoints as much as fashion items, symbols of innovation and excess.

Which is why their latest sneaker, the Hamptons, is a welcome diversion. The shoe embodies the brand’s central themes, such as materiality, temporality, and wear, but reorients these ideas around functionality rather than provocation.

With the departure of Demna, Balenciaga is in a moment of transition. What better time to unveil their first true skate silhouette? While we might assume that a Balenciaga ‘skate’ shoe would probably be very difficult to skate in, the Hampton signals a move toward ergonomics and practicality rather than spectacle. In fact, they skate quite well.

Built in the mold of early-2000s skate shoes, the Hamptons features a thick padded tongue, reinforced toe cap, wide stance, and exaggerated tread. The layered construction combines suede and mesh with wrap-around overlays, stitched panels, and contrasting linings. Referencing the durable aesthetics of skate culture, the design offers a more usable shoe than the viral models Balenciaga became known for under Demna.

Materiality has always been central to the brand’s footwear, often expressed through a fixation on wear, imperfection, and distressing. Crafted from leather and polyester, the Hampton continues this line of thinking by literally letting customers choose their desired level of distressing: Worn-Out, with heavy creasing and scuffs; Medium Worn-Out, with a more restrained effect; and Clean, which still carries raw edges and subtle pre-wear detailing. Graffiti-printed laces, raw edges, and layered textures further reinforce the sense of a sneaker designed to look broken in from the start.

This attention to distressing is not new. Over the past decade, Balenciaga has consistently foregrounded temporality in its designs. Sneakers such as the Paris, released in 2022 in an intentionally shredded state, made time and wear part of the shoe’s language. The Triple S of 2017 exaggerated the scale of a running shoe until it became monumental, a pastiche of retro styles that looked as though it had already lived several lifetimes. The Track, released in 2018, layered so many panels and details that it seemed aged from over-engineering alone. Later, the Defender with its tire-like sole embraced the idea of erosion and abrasion directly in its form. Each of these shoes treated time not as something that happens to a sneaker, but as something embedded in its very design.

The Hamptons adapts this logic in a subtler way, treating the traces of time not as provocation but as an aesthetic condition of the everyday. Where the Paris was torn to the edge of destruction, the Hampton carries its distressing lightly, as if acknowledging the ordinary scuffs and marks of daily use. In this sense, the shoe represents continuity as much as departure.

Built as a design that “revisits a skate shoe through an artisanal construction,” the Hamptons looks backward to early skate culture and outward to fashion’s ongoing preoccupation with lived-in garments. Yet it also gestures toward a recalibration in Balenciaga’s footwear: less about provocation, more about practicality, while still investigating the relationship between time and wear that continues to shape the brand, no matter who is at the helm.

Find the shoe here.

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