Move over, low leveled shoes, because chunky shoes and platforms are back in style.

When I was growing up, I loathed wearing my chunky white sneakers every day to school that my grandparents made me wear. I always wanted to be like all the other kids with the pumped-up kicks (no pun intended) or at least get to wear converse sneakers, but I didn’t own any Chuck Taylor All-Stars, and if I did, they’d be lavender. I mean, who wants to be the kid who stands out and not in a good way where you confidently strut into your classroom and receive applause for having the most bomb outfit.

Yes, I’m talking about a pair of basic black leggings and a sparkly shirt with a unicorn on it from The Children’s Place, completing the look with shiny Twinkle Toes. Anyway, I wanted to fit in with the students in my class at that time, but little did I know that my chunky white sneakers would make a significant comeback in the year of 2018, if not earlier.

Although I would love to jump right into the subject of chunky or platform shoes becoming a “thing” again in the twenty-first century, I need to pump my brakes and start from the beginning where the shoes primarily unfolded.

Platform shoes originally came about in the fifteenth century in Venice, Italy. They were designed to avoid wet feet when pavements were flooded. After the shoes were invented, they continued to carry their legacy as more people began to use them for different purposes generations later.

1967-1979 was a golden era for European people who were groovin’ in their platform shoes or “party shoes.” The platforms were used to bring attention to people who wore them on the disco floor. Most teens, young women, and young men sported them, and eventually, the trend made its way over to the United States.

By the 1980s, the decade of fitness, many individuals wore chunky white sneakers and roamed around in bright neon leotards and leg warmers. Thanks to a clothing brand called Candie’s, they were able to birth this idea of platform sneakers or orthopedic sneakers to the world. Women and young girls predominantly wore these.

Now, let’s fast-forward to the nineties, “a time to be alive,” as I would prefer to call it, despite not being born until two years after the decade ended. Britain’s favorite girl group, Spice Girls, were always seen wearing platforms in photoshoots, red carpet appearances, and even in their music videos. These girls were continually making headlines with their bold, unique flamboyance, and their song “Spice Up Your Life” can back both them and me up on that.

In 1996, Fila, a South Korean sportswear manufacturer, had familiarized their infamous sneaker called “The Disruptor.” This shoe was the supposedly the most hated shoe of the year because they were depicted as ugly and only something dads would wear hence the nickname “dad shoes.”

Honestly, jokes are now on the people who thought the shoes were dreadful because now chunky sneakers and high platforms are back in style, and everyone wants to impress a good pair. If I had a dollar for every time I went surfing on a website to try to purchase a pair of white bulked sneakers, and they were sold out, I’d be a black Bill Gates, as a queen once said.

In teen catalogs like Delia’s and Alloy, you can spot teens posing in black platform sandals. Even though I was too young to get my cherry blossom scented hands on every girl’s monthly subscription, I would’ve loved to receive the magazines in the mail. I’m not sure if either both catalogs are still up and running, they might be and might not, but if they were, I wouldn’t take a chance on them because everything was better back then. Apparel for teens from the late nineties to the early two-thousands was way better and ahead of their time.

Maybe, as time progressed, everyone finally came to their senses about elevated shoes and decided to take a opportunity on them. From what I can see, if one person hops on the trend, then others will as well.

Today, you can spot celebrities like Lady Gaga, the Kardashians-Jenners, Rihanna, Bella Hadid, Winnie Harlow, and Lisa from Blackpink in high platform shoes. I have to admit, now that I think about it, chunky sneakers and elevated platforms are to die for, and if anyone has anything bad to say about them, they need to grow up and get with the program. (God, I love making myself cringe.)