Spasmotica

In the 2005 movie, Elizabethtown, Spasmotica the shoe is a joke because, at that time a ridiculous shoe made the buyer look ridiculous.

Today, the Reebok x Botter 3D-printed sneakers inspired by the “Venus Comb” murex seashell is  actually desired.

A grotesque shoe can now be ugly, expensive, limited, ironic, celebrity-adjacent and resale-friendly all at once. Once enough online status has been wrapped around it, the ridicule no longer travels in only one direction.

The wearer may still look absurd. But the observer may be treated as someone who does not understand the code.