Two days ago, I saw a gaggle of teenage shoppers leaving Urban Outfitters. Normally this wouldn’t have fazed me in the lest. What caught my eye was that they were all wearing the exact same pair of shoes: Keds. The group was back-to-school shopping on State Street. As they walked past, I heard one of the girls laughing as she said “look at our shoes! We look like such hipsters!” Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me otherwise it would have been a great photo for this report. But the missed experience inspired me to further research Keds. Keds are now so dominant that the trend has officially reached critical mass.

On August 2, exactly one week ago, WWD published three separate retail guides (Spring Trend Report; Men’s Shopping List; Athletic Shopping List) each of which specifically listed Keds as a brand whose popularity is expected to continue rapidly increasing. Buyers plan to keep shoe departments fully stocked with Keds well into Summer 2011. The Keds corporation, capitalizing on its hipster cachet, sponsored a joint art installation with The Whitney Museum of American Art to be exhibited at Bloomingdale’s flagship store in New York within a sidewalk-level window. According to WWD, the interactive nature of the piece was well received by consumers, who were able to create an individual pair of Keds using the exhibit.* Keds, with their wide array of colors and customizable nature, lend themselves well to the wardrobes of the creative classes.

None of the three articles explain how the trend arose. Keds have been around for nearly a century: why are they so hot now? From what I can tell the trend arose around the same time oxford lace-ups became popular. The hipster aesthetic is moving away from the irony and neon of years past, towards a more meaningful, classy, well-dressed look. As apparel moves away from casual looks towards the effortlessly polished, it is only natural that footwear follows the cultural shift. 80s throwback neon Nike high-tops, a dominant trend of the mid-late 2000s, are now giving way to Keds as consumers demand dressier footwear.

The oxford shoe, a recently embraced trend, surfaced in Paris a few years ago. The oxford lace-up is now widespread throughout women’s shoe departments around the world, where it has been embraced in cities like Chicago and Tokyo. This shoe is but one element of the masculine trend in women’s fashion and portends a new androgyny, as men begin to embrace the idea of women wearing their clothes – and not just menswear “inspired” women’s clothing. The boyfriends jeans, the boyfriend shirts – and now the boyfriend shoes. Today women are wearing men’s clothing – and with men’s cuts! Overwhelming cultural forces, perhaps best exemplified by Lady Gaga, are changing the way we think about gender. As women and men become comfortable sharing a pair of pants – is it any wonder they’re now wearing each others shoes as well?

But how do Keds style athletic shoes fit into the larger narrative? Well, Americans are casual people who like inexpensive footwear. No matter how dressy and tailored our clothing may be, we still want a pair of comfortable (but sharp) athletic shoes for trips downtown or to the mall. Gucci’s line of athletic shoes is a perfect example of a luxury interpretation of this concept. Keds-style shoes, with their design similarity to oxfords, allow individuals to maintain the polished look that leather lace-ups afford without spending $100 for an entry-level pair of leather shoes. This is an androgynous style worn equally well by men and women. The most important design element athletic lace-ups bring to an outfit is simplicity. With a pared-down aesthetic promoted by a diverse array of fashion designers –  from the new utilitarian-minimalism of Céline’s Phoebe Philo to the resurgence of Calvin Klein – Great Recession-induced austerity in style shows no sign of slowing any time soon.

*[Michelle Tay, Keds Wraps Up Successful Bloomingdale’s Project, WWD, July 22, 2010]