by Four times a year, fashion data service Lyst releases its quarterly Index, a ranking of the most popular products and brands on the planet using shopper behavior, including on- and off-platform searches, product views and sales, as well as references on social media, to describe what consumers are currently loving the most. And while it may not be surprising that Alaïa’s mesh ballet flats are currently number one, given its ubiquitous popularity with the fashion set and influencers – number two (coach suede shoulder bag Brooklyn) and three (Puma Speedcat OG). Sneakers in red) – just scraping into the top 10 at number nine is a slightly more left-field entry that’s been on the scene for over 50 years: Clarks Originals Wallabee.
The humble Wallabee from British heritage shoe brand Clarks, based in Somerset, is a distinctive square suede boot with a thin crepe sole. The Wallabee came about in 1968 when Lance Clark was inspired to create it after seeing a similar style known as the Grasshopper, originally made by a German shoe company, Sioux. It felt like the natural progression from the Clarks Originals Desert boot, already popular in the UK and beyond, with beatniks in the 1950s and mods in the 1960s.
Simplicity of construction is the key to the enduring success of the Wallabee. Made from two pieces of suede and hand stitched with extra thick wax thread, it has a tubular construction that mimics a marsupial pouch, hence the name. The shoes are finished with a natural crepe sole made using latex tapped from rubber trees, resulting in good-looking non-synthetic footwear that’s smarter than a sneaker, but more comfortable than a Chelsea boot. Fans see it as the perfect smart casual shoe.
If you didn’t already know his name, you probably know what a Wallabee looks like. You may have worn a pair to school in the early 1990s, or you may remember a parent or grandparent wearing them even earlier than that. Every generation will have their own memories of the Wallabee and its associated subculture, whether they were popular on the Acid House scene in the late 1980s and early 1990s (those crepe soles were a bit impractical on a wet dance floor in the Haçienda., but this was a time when you couldn’t wear trainers in nightclubs) or rotate them with your Adidas Gazelles during Britpop days.
But it was Jamaican Rude Boy culture in the 1960s, and more recently hip hop, that took the Wallabies across the Atlantic and cemented them as an iconic global shoe style. In 1993, nine members of the hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan endorsed the shoes, wearing them in performances and music videos and even featuring them in the lyrics to Gravel pit. The band was from New York City, where Wallabees were already very popular on the streets because of the Jamaican culture that spread there.
In fact, in 1971 an alarm was raised at John F Kennedy Airport so that customs staff could assemble cages to hold the 4,176 Wallabees scheduled to arrive from Clarks. who was coming with them. Clarks now celebrates that date – April 26 – with Wallabee Day, encouraging fans around the world to share their love of these iconic shoes.
But why, decades after they first appeared on the scene, are Wallabes so popular now? Gaining huge popularity in sneaker and streetwear culture, style collaborations certainly helped; in 2023 alone Clarks launched 25 of them. Recent big names include cool fashion labels Sacai, Supreme, Goodhood, Carhartt, Billionaire Boys Club and Drake’s Ovo. Clarks notably collaborated with longtime fan Wu-Tang Clan on a style called “The Wu Shoe” in 2018, and many celebrities were eager to get in on the action as well. Footballer Raheem Sterling has been a regular collaborator since 2020, while soul singer Jorja Smith, and Liam Gallagher have collaborated Wallabee styles with Clarks in recent years.
Speaking of which, fans of the band’s current Oasis revival will probably be dusting off their old crepe soles or investing in a new pair for the Gallagher brothers’ tour next summer. Even backing act Richard Ashcroft of The Verve is a fellow Wallabees fan, having donned a pair on the cover of the band’s 1997 album Urban Hymns and in the video for the hit song from the same album, Bittersweet Symphony.
Style influencers like digital creator Matthew Spade are showing us how to style for 2024 on Instagram and TikTok. Spade, who has been wearing Wallabees since he was a Wu-Tang Clan fan at school in the Nineties (“keep as many tags as you can”), has returned to them in his late 30s after a stint with Desert boots , and there are two pairs, including a pair with a limited edition check pattern from Goodhood. “They’re a nice bridge between a loafer and a sporty trainer. You feel like you’re in a good place if you’re going somewhere smart, but they also often fit in,” he says. Spade styles them with faded blue straight cut jeans and a striped shirt, or longer, loose black jeans, a hoodie and a cap.
And you’d be wrong if you thought the Wallabes were all men. A new generation of women have fallen in love with them after seeing them styled by singer FKA Twigs and producer, DJ and singer songwriter Nia Archives. Central Saint Martins influencer and lecturer Jess Lawrence, one of the faces of the new campaign for Clarks Originals collaboration with cult streetwear store BSTN, wearing her leopard print Wallabees with oversized double denim, trench coat, beret and huge sunglasses. More Wallabee trends for women also include styling them with Bermuda shorts and long socks, or baggy coordinating sets in camouflage or animal print.
The brand itself has 1.3 million followers on Instagram and a whopping 3.6 million on TikTok – and by that I’m referring to the product, Clarks Originals, not to be confused with the main Clarks brand – and a whopping 3.6 million on TikTok, proving that the a younger generation is just as eager, if not more so, to embrace the Wallabee than the many who loved them in years gone by.
Hannah Rochell is the author of En Brogue: Love Fashion. Shoes of Love. I hate heels.
