People are growing tired of gaudy sneakers and their sky-high prices. The $300 you’d spend for a pair of sneakers, plenty are realizing, can be better spent on better shoes. But it’s not just this realization driving consumers to another footwear category altogether. There’s a brand making loafers many are eager to trade their sneakers in for, pulling consumers into their universe as much as the tiresome sneaker industry is pushing them there.
Meet Chris Echevarria’s Blackstock & Weber, a quasi-streetwear brand founded in 2017 that’s reinventing loafers’ public perception. The once tired style is seeing new light, and reentering wardrobes with renewed energy. Rather than polished hide or flat suede, Echevarria favors pebble or grain leather, embossed croc, raw denim, pony hair, nappy suede, double stacked leather soles, and chunkier construction. Instead of styling loafers with slacks or khakis, he pairs them with sweatpants or shorts.
Blackstock & WeberHis designs aren’t blindfolded throws at the dartboard. Schooled in menswear at FIT, an alumna of J. Crew‘s Mickey Drexler era, part of the cast that brought Stone Island stateside and much more, his resumé signals a savvy veteran, and the designs stem from an unshakeable sense of confidence.
“I’ve always been involved in, not just from an educational perspective but from a creative job perspective, seeing how this stuff sort of runs, and how the sauce is made,” Echevarria says. But launching Blackstock & Weber wasn’t about replicating others’ recipes.
“It was very intentional from my part to create something that is different within the space. Our loafer doesn’t look like anybody else’s loafer,” he says. “You won’t confuse it. You’ll know it when you see it. It doesn’t have any logos on it, but you fucking know what it is when you see it. It’s like seeing a spaceship drive down Fifth Avenue.”
Blackstock & Weber / J.CrewThe statements Echevarria makes with his styles aren’t the same over-the-top attempts at garnering attention designers behind some of the buzziest sneakers employ. Sure, there’s his new Canary yellow grain leather loafers with double-stacked leather heels, but they’re refined in a way the newest sneaker collaboration isn’t. For roughly the same price, the Blackstock & Weber loafers are a better buy, and an investment in a brand setting its sights on eternity. Nowadays you may even see sneakers and loafers occupying the same shelf space at stores like Kith. Blackstock & Weber dropped The Mason Horse Bit Loafer in Walnut and Onyx Croc there first to a crowd that wound around the block.
“I think that we have created something that people will remember, and I’m blessed to even have a moment like this,” Echevarria says. “Every brand or designer has a moment, right?” He explains he’s happy to be a part of the loafer’s sudden ascension, but stops short of assuming responsibility for its newfound popularity. But, I’ll say it for him: Blackstock & Weber has undoubtedly played a major role in re-popularizing loafers.
