The name, Plessume, sounds like an Italian designer brand. And opening the box, the shoes look the part too.

Crafted from gray and cream buttery high-grain calf leather, these Slam High 002’s have a soft full lamb’s leather line, a chunky rubber cup sole, metal eyelets, a top quality YKK Excella zipper, and beautiful stitching. These are among the best-made sneakers I have tried. 

And they’re gorgeous. They have a classic, familiar look to them — casual enough for shorts, classy enough for a suit, and so comfortable and well-made that you could wear them everywhere. 

For the less fashion-conscious, that’s where your observation ends; and perhaps, your wallet opens. Yet for those of us haplessly addicted to the Vogue Runway app, with overflowing wardrobes and far too many shoes, the “familiarity” of their look will be more pointed.

Namely, these look a lot like the early Rick Owens Geobasket. A lot. 

Most comments on their first Instagram post showing off the shoes are “lol Rick Owens dunk knock-offs.”

And the founders, Trevor Anderson-Evans and Justice Hanson, know it. After all, the name “Plessume ” is a portmanteau of “Please Sue Me,”

The two-year-old brand, based at Charlotte, North Carolina, started during Covid as the two friends imagined what a combination of some of their favorite sneaker silhouettes would look like. They started overlaying pictures of them in Photoshop and refined a sketch from them. They wouldn’t tell me which shoes these were, but when I ask if the two main were the Rick Owens Geobasket and a modern Dunk High, they chuckle.

“That would be a good guess,” Mr. Hanson says. Mr. Anderson-Evans follows, “There’s a couple more but yeah, we’ll run with those”

On one hand, this foundation came from a very sensible, commercial position. By making shoes that look similar to existing, beloved shoes, they have a far higher chance of swaying an average customer. Yet it goes beyond this, to challenge the current sneaker status-quo — and that’s where the Rick Owens similarity is most profound.

Launched in 2006, the Geobasket wasn’t just the first major designer sneaker but a repudiation of the existing sneaker scene, which Mr. Owens found too “prosaic.” The Geobasket was an homage to, and parody of, the existing sneaker market, reimagining classic sneaker details and lines into a shoe far more sculptural, artistic, and timeless than the latest run of brightly colored Nikes. A few years later, Mr. Owens would remove the ‘swoosh’.

This was likely an attempt to clean up the silhouette, but rumors of a Nike cease-and-desist letter only built the mythos of the shoes. 15 years later, a brand literally named “Please Sue Me” is carrying that mantle forward, challenging the new problems of the sneaker market. 

And it is worth noting, on foot, the Slam is meaningfully different from the Geobasket. It’s far slimmer than the puffy Rick Owens and has a curvier shape, and a more rounded toe-box, inspired by 1980s basketball shoes. That’s even more true of its new low-top, the Vantage, which will have color variants introduced later this year. And where Mr. Owens thought the sneaker industry was overly literal, childish, and crass, Plessume is pushing against the disposability of the modern sneaker culture.

“A lot of these things aren’t translating to reality,” Mr. Hanson says, talking about the most hyped-up, expensive sneakers. “You can tell your friend, hey, I have the thing that sells for $3,000 that is pink or see through or whatever. Everybody’s still gonna wear the white Air Force One.”

They’re not bought to be worn but to show off on Instagram and then flipped to someone else who’s going to do the same. It’s so pointless. Worst of all, if a teenager saves up the thousands needed for his beloved Travis Scott Jordans or Yeezy 750s, the quality isn’t reflected in the price. 

Quality control is lax, and the “leather” on most new sneakers is “action leather,” a thin layer of cheap leather offcuts covered in a thick plastic lacquer. It feels cheap when you open the box, and ages badly, and swiftly. 

By contrast, Plessume’s shoes are better made than most designer sneakers costing $1000 but are sold for only $265.

Everything about Plessume — the classic styling, the top-tier quality, the reasonable price, and their simple monochrome colors — are about making sure their shoes get worn. They’re subtle, tasteful, and flexible to whatever outfit you wear, which means they very well could be your only pair of sneakers — and that’s where sneaker culture started. 

As Mr. Hanson explains: “We’re manufacturing a product of true quality, that pays homage to the culture.”

Working-class city kids couldn’t afford luxury bags or nice watches, and their parents bought them one pair of shoes to last the whole year. Because of that, they had to last, you had to care for them, and they had to look damn cool. 

And the Plessumes do look damn cool. Even if a bit like a pair of Rick Owens.