Is Under Armour’s Coolest Sneaker Also a Joke?

Be it the red-soled heels of Christian Louboutins or the nearly shapeless and textured woven uppers of the Yeezy Boost 350, the world of high fashion regularly transforms shoes into global status symbols of wealth and exclusivity.

This new sneaker has most of the trappings you’d expect from the next great luxury sneaker, with one surprising curveball.

Some of Its Credentials Are Impeccable

Balenciaga

Balenciaga is widely regarded for setting trends instead of following them. As such, it’s one of the most prominent influencers of haute couture and the nebulous cross-over zone of high luxury and streetwear.

Balenciaga also already has an immense cache in hyped footwear. The company’s Speed sneaker line has been such a covetable shoe that entire guides are dedicated to spotting fake knockoffs of it.

Balenciaga

The 3XL sneaker’s basic design, initially promoted via a dedicated campaign back in August of this year, is also very on-trend. The sole is chunky and extended. The upper appears athletic, but not aggressively so in a running shoe way.

A pair also starts at $1,190. As absurd as that sounds to many, it does add to the sneaker’s cache as a flex of wealth, assuming the right trendsetters approve.

But unlike the standard color options in the line that seem heavily inspired by the trademark styles of other sneaker brands like Asics and New Balance, the technically patterned knit uppers of this special collaborative edition look much closer to another much-hyped sneaker – the original Yeezy Boost 350.

But It’s Also Made By Under Armour

Balenciaga

Under Armour certainly knows how to make sneakers, even if the brand’s footwear isn’t as widely known as others. Steph Curry, the NBA’s all-time leader in 3-pointers, four-time NBA champion, and two-time league MVP, wears his own line of Under Armour sneakers on the court exclusively.

Still, many in the fashion world were surprised to see Under Armour, of all brands, working with Balenciaga when the duo revealed its first collab during a runway show in the spring of 2025, and for good reason.

The brand initially built on compression gear has struggled to gain traction as an influential force in fashion, especially in comparison to established competitors like Nike or Adidas or even newer brands like Hoka and On.

Balenciaga

But as Complex’s Mike Destefano noted in his initial coverage of the collaboration, anyone who closely followed Balenciaga creative director Demna’s work could acknowledge how the partnership perfectly matched his “parody-fueled approach to luxury fashion.”

As Destefano succinctly summarized, “Demna has consistently taken the suburban lifestyle, the typical wardrobe of the everyman, and showed us that pretty much all of it can be “fashion” if you recontextualize it.”

Only time will tell whether the wider fashion world can embrace the inside joke of the Under Armour 3XL Knit Sneaker in the same way Demna does.

But the Balenciaga wordmark can sell seemingly anything these days, and it was only early last year that the footwear community began obsessing over big red boots that looked like they had been pulled straight out of Astro Boy’s closet.

This 3XL collab is also far from Balenciaga’s wildest shoe collaboration ever, so we’re betting this pair will sell just fine.

Now, let’s all get back to rewatching the brand’s amazing Matrix-inspired campaign video from 2019.

Balenciaga

Balenciaga x Under Armour 3XL Knit Sneaker

• $1,190 at Balenciaga

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