Released on 29 October 2021 and part of the Yeezy Foam Runner line. This release has a eva upper. Vermillion is the Foam Runner turned all the way up. The model released on 26 June 2020 as a single moulded object with no laces, no seams and no branding, and most of its colours came from dirt, weather and stone: Moonrock, Desert Rat, Mist, Oxford Tan. Vermillion abandons that entirely for a hot orange red taken from pigment, the name of a mineral based artist's colour rather than a landscape. On a shape this abstract, a saturated colour changes what the object is: it stops reading as footwear standing in for a sneaker and starts reading as a piece of sculpture you happen to wear.
An orange red foam shoe is the loudest thing you will wear that day, so plan around it. Recipe one: full black, black wide leg shorts and a black tee, so the shoe is the only colour anywhere and looks entirely deliberate. Recipe two: washed grey sweatpants and a white tee, a soft base that lets the vermillion pop without turning the fit into a costume. Avoid brown, burgundy and pink, all of which fight it. Best for summer, festivals, travel and short errands. Take your true size, sizing up for a high instep. Bright foam fades in sunlight, so store in shade, rinse with lukewarm water and never dry near heat, which warps the mould.
The Foam Runner is the model that took the label out of sneaker culture and into general fashion, and it was imitated across the mass market so widely that the outline became a generic product category. Bright colourways were the ones that pushed hardest into fashion editorial territory, because they made the shape impossible to ignore. All of it grew out of a release model of scarcity, bots, queues and resale that the brand made mainstream. adidas terminated the partnership on 25 October 2022 following antisemitic public remarks by founder Kanye West, then sold through the remaining stock, so supply now is residual rather than ongoing.
The whole shoe is injection moulded as one piece, with upper, footbed and outsole formed together from EVA style foam. Foam Runners were made partly from algae derived foam, so the material carries a matte, dense surface rather than the shine of ordinary moulded plastic, which is why a bright colour on it looks pigmented rather than glossy. The clawed perforations through the toe and quarter give the closed shell somewhere to flex and let air move through. With no laces or closure, sizing is fixed entirely by the mould and the width of the instep opening, and the shoe goes on and off in a second.
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