Deckers X Lab : latest collection of shoes

About Deckers X Lab

New shoe brand Deckers X Lab has people talking about their funky designs. Who are they? Where did they come from? What’s their goal? Click play above or keep reading to find out about this up and coming brand with deep shoe industry roots.

Jean-Luc Diard is one of the founders of Hoka One One. Previous to founding Hoka he was the CEO of Salomon. After Hoka sold to Deckers (owners of Teva, Sanuk, and UGG), Jean-Luc became the VP of Innovation at Deckers. His job is now focused on pushing the sneaker industry boundaries at Deckers X Lab. And they are pushing them.

Deckers X Lab now has a full line up of really interesting and wild looking shoes. They’ve taken learnings from Hoka and UGG and used them across the line. Sometimes even in the same shoe! From my perspective, it’s great that there’s a company out there really pushing the boundaries of what sneakers should look like and how they should be used.

Are some of the designs a little crazy for me? Hell, yeah. But that’s how you innovate your way to something really iconic. Do you think Tinker Hatfield played it safe? Eric Avar? Peter Moore? Nope. They all tried things we’ve never seen before, and with the help of some amazing athletes, cemented some of those shoes as the greatest of all time.

In this video, I talk about Deckers X Lab and some of the interesting stuff they’re doing by focusing on four of their models. Click play above to see all the cool/weird stuff they’re doing.

Overview of Deckers X Lab

The entire Deckers X Lab product line, including many models I didn’t mention in the video, is available at the Deckers X Lab website.

Reminder: Every month we give away at least TWO pairs of deadstock sneakers to lucky members of our Discord community. We also do 12 days of giveaways every December. Recently, we gave away an Air Jordan 1, a Nike LeBron 18, an adidas Dame 7, an adidas YEEZY QNTM, and the New Balance Kawhi.

We also give away a bunch of other stuff like apparel, socks, hats, shoelaces, sporting goods, and more. Our Discord community started less than two years ago and over 20% of members have already won something.

Deckers X Lab Product Review

We’ve got somewhat of a motto here at Believe in the Run. It’s as simple as “run hard, recover harder.” I haven’t run it by Robbe yet, but it feels like a good idea to live by. Luckily, we’re not alone in our love of recovery.

Deckers X Lab is all about comfort, and it’s not shy on style, either. It shouldn’t be a surprise — the venture was founded by Hoka co-founder Jean-Luc Diard, after all — and we’re into yet another season of living in the plush world of Deckers recovery shoes.

We spent all winter in a cozy pair of high tops, but they won’t do us much good in the summer months. Sure, the SPSK is still comfortable, but we’re after something a little more breathable. Luckily, Deckers X Lab has a full buffet of options, including sandals, knit sneakers, and the future of flip-flops (their words… and ours).

X-Scape Knit Low

The best kind of recovery shoe is one that you can just keep wearing. Sometimes flip-flops and sandals don’t fit the bill, but it’s easy to wear the Deckers X Lab X-Scape Knit Low every day of the week.

It’s made with eco-conscious Sorona fabric, which is snug around the foot but offers just the right amount of stretch in the collar, tongue, and toes. As always, the X-Scape Knit Low features Deckers’ X-Ponent HD midsole — a thick stack of EVA foam — remixed with some natural sugarcane.

Technically, you could probably run in the X-Scape Knit Low. It has a swallowtail heel flare and meta rocker geometry to roll you through each stride. However, we find that it’s way easier to keep our Deckers on the shelf until we’re ready for recovery. Right now, the X-Scape Knit Low comes in six colorways, some with unisex sizing and others with women-specific sizes.

It also helps that this is the most affordable of all the Deckers models, but without sacrificing any of the comfort.

KO-Z EVRST

Bet you can’t guess what EVRST is short for, can you? Oh, Everest, right, that could have been tougher. Anyway, this slide is inspired by the world’s tallest peak, or at least the goal is to reach the peak of comfort.

Maybe it’s a cheesy line, but you can’t blame Deckers X Lab. They got pretty damn close. The EVRST is blanketed in a Wampa’s worth of shearling and looped wool with a premium panel of Nubuck leather for another touch of class.

Underfoot, the EVRST packs not one layer of foam, but five. Five layers of foam. Of course, the softest memory foam layer is at the top, as it should be. Below that, you’ll find some Xponent+ EVA foam and a sponge rubber outsole to keep you off the ground. Deckers kept its meta rocker technology front and center, so you should be able to keep moving along even when your joints are begging to stop.

Deckers X Lab Ko-Z Slide

Think of the KO-Z Slide as EVRST’s summer cousin. It’s part of the same KO-Z family, but it’s a little bit lighter on the cozy wool to keep your foot breathing a little easier.

As the name suggests, you can slip your foot right into the Slide, but it won’t fall off when you get up to move. It carries the same five-layer midsole as other K0-Z models, which means there’s plenty of comfy memory foam right there to greet your foot each day.

One place that Deckers X Lab made sure to keep plush wool comfort is in the arch support. It’s an extra soft patch of natural cushion and moisture management, and the digitally printed webbing makes this one of Deckers’ most adjustable slides yet. I don’t know if we need to mention the meta rocker shape at this point, but you better believe it’s there. Right now, the KO-Z Slide comes in four colors — one for every outfit you’ve got.

KO-Z Ventura Wedge

The newest release from Deckers, just in time for summer, is the women’s Ventura Wedge, merging sneaker and slipper to provide a “classier” option of sandal. The midfoot and heel straps are made from 100% recycled materials and are padded with memory foam, so you can be sure to have a full lockdown in the event that you do spring into a sustained run.

The shoe also uses the KO-Z gradient foam wedge midsole and offers a 5mm looped wool lining bove the foot and under the arch. Of course, the footbed is as comfortable as you can get in a pair of faux heels, featuring an ergonomic PU layered with memory foam and a perforated leather top sole.

Long story short – you get the maximum comfort level of any Deckers footwear, but you’ll be able to see over the crowd at Coachella.

X-Scape Sport Low

Sure, the X-Scape Knit above is affordable and still looks great. But if you’re looking for the ultimate comfort sneaker/tennis shoe, then this is the one to rule them all. Seriously, we wear this shoe a lot and it never ceases to amaze us how good it feels.

A perforated EcoTan nubuck leather upper allows for more circulation than a traditional shoe, while the stretch mesh tongue and toe box conform to your foot shape while enhancing airflow and flexibility. These even work to protect you during those pop-up summer storms, as the upper receives a PFC-free durable water repellent treatment.

Oh, and of course, we can’t forget the midsole which provides the ultimate bed of comfort– it’s made from an ultralight PU foam wrapped in protective TPU. As shoe nerds, we can tell you that this is a very good thing. It’s also topped with a soft textile top sole in case you wanted even more luxury underneath.

X-Scape 100F

What do you do when the mercury is rising, but you want to go for a hike? You could grab a pair of sandals, but Deckers has a better idea. The X-Scape 100F is equal parts sandal and sneaker, with plenty of extra protection around your toes.

It both ties like a sneaker and offers a Velcro enclosure on the heel for easy access. Deckers even teamed up with Vibram for an N-Oil Litebase outsole, which blends grip and sustainability in equal parts.

The upper of the X-Scape 100F is made with perforated mesh and EcoTan Nubuck leather with careful cutouts for airflow and water drainage. Underfoot, you’re looking at a lightweight HX-Impulse foam core set inside an Xponent HD midsole with a stable swallowtail heel.

There’s even a TPU toe cap in case anyone tells you to go kick rocks — not that something like that would ever happen. It’s just nice to know that you could if you had to.