After twenty years of slumber, Autry is back, channeling the 80s energy that defined the shoe.
Autry was founded in 1982 in Texas with one solid principle: to be the perfect tennis shoe.
The brand boasted about design features that separated it from the ‘sneaker’ market: leather toe reinforcement prevents foot drag, supple Nappa leather prevented having to ‘break-in’ the shoe. The in-house manufactured inner lining was the market leader in shock absorption.
They embodied the charm of 80s Americana. Branded as ‘the shoes with the American flag’, they built on the values that sporty America loved, patriotism, confidence, hedonistic materialism, while marketing a successful tennis shoe.
In 2019, the brand was reborn. Régis Billard, one of the new owners alongside Alberto Raengo, declares: “When Nike and Reebok were able to develop in the 80s, Autry was mothballed after the death of its founder, Jim Autry. Autry is the less is more approach to footwear, the alliance between North American nostalgia and European know-how that sets it apart from other sneakers.”
One of the standout models of the new Autry is the Dallas, which builds on the success of bulky shoes like the AF1 while keeping its own brand heritage alive.
Autry now markets their shoes as ‘action shoes’, filling them with padding and reinforcement that’d suffice on a court, but they’re not really about that anymore. Now, Autry’s shoes look good, build on the 80’s charm and keep the lineage of a classic tennis shoe alive. That’s good enough!
Browse more of Autry at Parasol.
