Balenciaga x Vibram FiveFingers Red Toe Boot | Fall/Winter 2020 Runway

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The Shoe That Waded Through Fashion's Most Talked-About Runway

This is the Balenciaga x Vibram FiveFingers boot in red, from Balenciaga's Fall/Winter 2020 runway show, the collection famously staged on a deliberately flooded catwalk in Paris to draw attention to rising sea levels and climate change. Built on Vibram's patented FiveFingers sole, which separates and articulates each individual toe, the boot fuses a stretch, sock-like upper with a rubberized, glossy toe construction, creating one of the most divisive and instantly recognizable shoe silhouettes to come out of Demna Gvasalia's Balenciaga.

Part of what the brand called its "Toe" capsule, the style seen here rises into a fitted legging-like construction in matching red, continuing the fabric seamlessly up the leg the way much of the show's footwear did. The high-shine, wet-look finish on the toe and heel contrasts with the softer, sock-textured fabric above it, giving the piece a hybrid, almost amphibious quality that suited the show's climate-disaster theme perfectly.

Balenciaga's Fall 2020 show took place inside Paris's Cité du Cinema studio complex, with the runway itself submerged under real water and an LED ceiling looping through storms, crashing waves, and lava, a spectacle so immersive that the brand's own front rows had to be moved back to avoid guests getting splashed. Against that backdrop, the Balenciaga x Vibram FiveFingers shoes became one of the most talked-about elements of the entire show, with models wading directly through the flooded runway in them.

The collaboration wasn't just a runway prop, it went on to release commercially in both sneaker and boot versions, with the boot style later spotted worn off-duty by Rihanna, helping cement it as one of the era's true cult footwear moments.

Few Balenciaga runway shoes are as visually and conceptually tied to a single, unforgettable show moment as this one. Owning this boot means owning a physical piece of one of Gvasalia's most ambitious and widely covered runway stagings, a genuine talking point for any archive footwear collection, and a shoe that's become as much a cultural reference point as a fashion object.

Styling Tips

This is a shoe built to make a statement on its own — lean into that rather than fight it. Pair with sleek, monochrome leggings or trousers in a matching or contrasting tone, the way it was styled on the runway, and let the silhouette do the talking.

Photography ©Balenciaga

Keywords: Balenciaga Vibram FiveFingers, Balenciaga Toe shoe, Balenciaga Fall 2020 runway, Demna Gvasalia water shoe, Balenciaga flooded runway, Balenciaga archive resale