The internet is mad about Travis Scott’s Cactus Jack x Dior collaboration, but not for the reason you might think.
The team-up, shelved in the wake of the Astroworld tragedy, is back on the table and slated for release on July 13. Breaking with Scott’s previous steps back into the spotlight (those Utopia billboards, the Coachella after-party performances), the renewed collaboration isn’t igniting debate on whether or not the rapper’s comeback comes too soon after 10 Astroworld attendees died in a crowd surge — instead, Scott and Dior are being accused of appropriating skate culture.
The duo’s footwear collection is a range of sneakers very clearly inspired by skate shoes. On Instagram, the kicks have garnered comparisons to Airwalks of the ’90s and Pharrell‘s Ice Cream kicks of the mid-2000s. Critics are also pointing out the likeness between Cactus Jack x Dior’s logo and the emblem used by Piss Drunx, a Cali skate crew that rose to infamy in the early aughts,
“More luxury brands appropriating skate culture,” one comment on Highsnobiety’s Instagram reads. “So everyone just making early 2000 skate shoes,” another user wrote.
Skateboarding has long served as fodder for luxury brands, from Hermès and its $23,000 skateboard bag to Louis Vuitton and its partnership with skater-turned-model Evan Mock. It’s not just high fashion that’s obsessed with the aesthetics of skate culture: on TikTok, teens are wearing Dickies with the waistband rolled down.
It’s understandable that actual skaters are frustrated by Scott and Dior’s luxurification of skate shoes — what’s more surprising is that the sneakers themselves have become more controversial than Dior’s decision to resurrect its partnership with Scott less than a year after the rapper was embroiled in scandal.
