Fila Disruptor II

About

The Fila Disruptor was originally released in 1996 and reissued as the Disruptor II in 2014. It is built around an oversized, chunky leather upper with a zig-zag sawtooth platform sole made of lightweight EVA, plus an embossed F logo on the tongue. The shoe became a defining piece of the late-2010s ugly sneaker and dad shoe trend, exploding in popularity among Gen-Z consumers starting around 2017-2018, with UK search interest up 583% year-over-year and over 500,000 related Instagram posts by its December 2018 peak. Priced at roughly -70, it offered an affordable entry into a trend otherwise dominated by pricier designer chunky sneakers like Balenciaga's Triple S. Fila won Footwear News' Shoe of the Year in 2018 for the model. By 2019 the shoe drew a backlash of memes mocking its bulky look, even as commentators credited it with reshaping sneaker design toward bulkier silhouettes across the industry.