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Balenciaga released the Speed Trainer to mass appeal in late 2016. They penetrated popular culture, even leading to a hip-hop shoutout from Cardi B, where she called them "(the shoe) that look like a sock". They quickly dominated many fashion circles, leading to a hypersaturation of textile-upper shoes that is probably killing the hype they once had, now almost seen with disdain, which is unfortunate, because conceptually, they were very interesting, as a jumped-to conclusion of the advent of the Yeezy Boost 350.
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Arguably what kicked-off this saturated movement was the "City Sock", an early variant of the Adidas Originals™ NMD, which already featured a knit upper. The City Sock took the NMD's design further by omitting the traditional expectation of laces, leaving only a knit with a heel counter attached to a sole. This particular colourway wasn't released until 2017, but the original was one of the first models available in March 2016, the first NMD release since its quiet debut in New York in December 2015.
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