People are going crazy for these basic white sneakers that cost $400
Though many initially balk at the $400 price tag on these plain white sneakers, they soon end up lusting after a pair.
Common Projects has that effect on people.
Founded by magazine art director Peter Poopat and brand consultant Flavio Girolami, the goal of the brand is simple: create the perfect sneaker, which Poopat and Girolami envision as minimalist and high-quality.
This understated style is what sets the brand's designs apart from widely loved sneakers like Converse All Stars and Stan Smiths. Yet it's those exact shoes that have helped inspire the Common Projects aesthete.
The minimalistic design is broken only by 10 gold numbers, which represent the article number, size, and color. This has since become the brand's signature and appears on all of its shoes - but the numbers aren't permanent and can easily be rubbed off.
All Common Project shoes (men's and women's styles) are made in an Italian footwear factory in the Marche region of Italy, which made only leather dress shoes before Common Projects asked it to manufacture sneakers, according to Business of Fashion. The shoes are made of Italian leather and are stitched by hand.
A spokesperson for the company - which only sells shoes - told Business of Fashion that it currently does "roughly $10 million" in annual sales. No one can accurately pin down the used market for Common Projects shoes, but most previously-owned or resale shoes go for $250 to $300, a definite indicator of a strong demand.
Critics have also praised the shoe's simple design. GQ has featured a Common Projects design as its "Shoe of the Week" twice - once in 2014 (the B-Ball Low in navy) and once in in 2011 (the white Achilles low).
But the brand wasn't an overnight success. It launched in 2004 with only one shoe, because that was its initial mission: to make one perfect shoe. That shoe is now known as the ever-popular Achilles. At it's launch, the Achilles retailed for $265 - a loss, when materials and other costs were taken into account.
Flash forward to today and merchants are lining up to stock the $400 shoe, primarily fueled by the Internet's menswear blog Hypebeast.
"Hypebeast, Selectism, all those guys, I think it's amazing," Poopat told Business of Fashion. "The men's market has blown up and we have to thank the Internet for a lot."
Over time, the company has built up both stockists and fans (who affectionately call the sneakers "CPs"). They've become the identifiable minimalist leather sneaker. So much so, that when Adidas came out with an all-white colorway of its famous Stan Smith, Internet commenters accused Adidas of copying Common Projects' signature Achilles shoe.