The great comeback: Skechers are officially cool again

If, like me, you spent most Saturdays during your teen years “in town” trawling the rails of Tammy Girl, Morgan de Toi and Bay Trading and most weekdays attempting to bully your mum into buying you a pair of Kickers for your school shoes, there’s every good chance you too will have owned a pair of Skechers Energy.

Launched in 1999 with campaigns fronted by Disney clubhouse members-turned-pop sensations Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, the chunky, lace-up sneakers were a cultural phenomenon so profound that Skechers hit sales of $960 million in 2001, and Forbes named them the hottest shoe company of the year.

Personally, I styled mine with a pair of baby blue cargo pants which, inexplicably, had vast quantity of straps hanging off them, a Punkyfish crop covered (again, inexplicably) in neon pink zips, my hair crispy from lashings of gold hair mascara and doused in enough Impulse Tropical to knock out a small cat.

I had totally resigned myself to the idea that I'd sartorially peaked in 2002.

But now, Skechers are officially back, and the fashion world is once again fizzing with possibility.

To clarify, we are not talking here about the deeply dubious body toning ‘Shape Ups’ style that Kim Kardashian tried to make a thing back in 2011 (if you haven't seen Kim Kardashian's Skechers Shape-ups Super Bowl ad, you can catch it here) , we are talking about the Skechers D’Lite, a reworked, lighter-weight version of the 00s Energy, first launched in 2007.

The D’Lite’s were picked up again, as trends so often are, in South Korea, where bloggers and K-Pop stars began to embrace the style back in 2016. In March 2017, the Skechers flagship returned to Oxford Street after a four-year hiatus and in recent months the D'Lites have started to pop up on many a fashion influencer’s feed.

The style ties in perfectly with our love of '90s nostalgia, which has seen the return of brands like FILA, Ellesse and Kappa, and also with the enduring ‘ugly’, or ‘dad’, trainers trend.

And with prices for D’Lite’s starting at £59, they’re a damn sight more affordable than Balenciaga’s £615 Triple S ‘ugly’ trainers, which have held pole position in the dad trainer stakes for several seasons.

Personally I’m lusting after the all-white ‘Bright Blossoms’ style, embroidered with pink flowers – almost sold out online already – which would make the sweetest, freshest accompaniment to a summery floral midi.

Alternatively you could pair them with satin cargo pants and a white t-shirt for a fresh Dua Lipa-esque take on 2000s style.

Hair mascara optional.