Timothée Chalamet’s Rare Y2K-Swag Sneakers Aren’t What They Seem

Plot twist: They’re not Bapestas. British GQ’s eagle-eyed sneaker buff Adam Cheung correctly noted that while the sneakers certainly appear to be Bapestas at a glance (they do love their patent leather), they’re actually a far more obscure mid-aughts bootleg. Timmy is wearing the Grape sneakers by Yums, a brand founded in 2007 by artist Tex Moton and beloved, of course, by Soulja Boy himself. Like the Bapesta, the shoe riffs on the design of an Air Force One. Unlike Bapestas, these got shut down pretty quickly. The Swoosh has never been too keen to let bootleggers make their bones on Nike-adjacent products (designer Warren Lotas can attest to this) and shut down the Grapes fairly quickly, making these a pretty deep pull. Luckily for Chalamet, he has the resources to dig them out of the archive.

Yums recently relaunched, though there hasn’t been a reissue of the Grape just yet. But hey, don’t be surprised if it makes a return soon. The Chalamet stamp of approval is enough to move any product off the shelves these days, and it stands to reason it could also be enough to get a shoe back on that same shelf no matter how long it’s been since it was available.