If you’ve clicked on this story, I will assume that you saw Sydney Sweeney’s self-proclaimed Instagram “thirst trap” over the weekend. I’m willing to wager, however, that you didn’t clock the shoes she was wearing.
Though they’re far from the focal point of the Euphoria star’s vacation photos (a leisure time that included wearing a wetsuit while boating on an Idaho lake), Sweeney was kicking it in a pair of white HeyDudes, which have recently become some of the most divisive shoes on the taste-minded internet.
Somewhere, a yearning menswear guy just punched a hole through a wall—which, given he was likely wearing one of those little gold pinky signet rings, probably really hurt.
Adding salt to the signet-shaped wound, Sweeney doubled down by wearing a pristine set of HeyDudes again on Monday, when she was photographed grinning outside a Beverly Hills hotel in dark shades and a cream-toned sweat-shorts set by Celine. And even though this all seems like the sort of diabolically horny rage-bait press placement that even the most adept room of suits could never dream up, the saga won’t end there: The HeyDudes Instagram account subsequently shared a trio of posts hinting at an upcoming collaboration with Sweeney. “There’s a new dude in town…and we’ve never ever been happier,” read one post, referencing the actress’s most-memed line from Euphoria.
HeyDude shoes come in a variety of silhouettes, but the popular “Wally” style—similar to Sweeney’s “Wendys”—is like a cross between a sneaker and a boat shoe. They are made of a starchy breathable foam and designed to be worn with the laces loose. TikTokkers have likened their shape to “two loaves of Sunbeam bread,” while damning their effect as the “greatest threat to a relationship or marriage.” Despite their seemingly innate Americanness, the brand was founded in Italy by entrepreneur Alessandro Rosano, who first launched the shoes back in 2008.
While HeyDudes are wildly popular among consumers—per GQ contributor Max Berlinger, “especially from fans who are young, white, and mostly reside outside of cities, in suburbs, or rural areas”—it’s also that same consumer profile that’s stoked the ire they fetch online. (Well, that, and also they look like loaves of bread.) Sweeney, meanwhile, has been candid about her desire to be a Hollywood power player: “Everything in my career I do not just for that story, but strategic business decisions,” she told British GQ this spring. This is a plan that requires cash; in the last few years, Sweeney has racked up brand ambassadorships from luxury (Miu Miu, Jimmy Choo), to beauty (Laneige, Kérastase), to consumer goods (the Ford Motor Company, Bai flavored water).
Given all the cultural hand-wringing Sweeney has sustained, this particular shoe partnership feels like a winking combustion of all of the above. Oftentimes, marketing is just strange alchemy—although, as one of my most fashionable colleagues opined, however much Sweeney was compensated to wear HeyDudes, it wasn’t enough.
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