What politicians wear is politically irrelevant, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter at all. Shoes in particular are a good way to make a statement that you are close to the voters, at least in terms of shoes, which is why George W. Bush, for example, wore specially made cowboy boots to his inauguration in 2001. The British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak would probably like to be a cowboy sometimes, but he is considered more of a snob.
Sunak, a multimillionaire and ex-banker, cemented his image in the summer of 2022 when he wore Prada slippers during a construction site visit on Teesside. The elegant footwear costs 570 euros and therefore more than a worker on Teesside earns on average per week, like him at the time the sometimes wary-eyed British press made it quite clear. Now finally, almost two years later, Sunak’s sometimes naïve advisors saw an opportunity to bring the boss back into line with Volk’s shoes.
At the end of last week A video appeared on Instagram, in which Sunak talks about his tax policy in an interview, and because the topic isn’t super Insta-sexy, he (possibly someone for him) decided to at least wear cool shoes. Sunak wore the untouched white “Samba” from Adidas with the suit, i.e. shoes that enjoy popularity that Rishi Sunak can only dream of. This was, as the British press unanimously judged, the moment Sunak put the samba out of fashion. “He made us sick of wearing samba,” she wrote GQand the Times questioned a shoe historian named Elizabeth Semmelhack, who said, “This misstep could be the death knell for the samba.”
This Wednesday, Sunak was given the first opportunity to comment on the shoe matter in an LBC radio interview, which also covered other, almost more relevant topics. Sunak said with amusement that he had always worn Adidas sneakers, which was why he bought them, and he apologized fully. However, it cannot be ruled out that Sunak and the shoe are now moving closer in terms of popularity, which would benefit Sunak rather than the shoe.