STACEY ADAMS Men's Vintage Brown Woven Genuine Leather Sandal Moccasins

The name Stacy Adams doesn’t get tossed around in popular culture like “red bottoms” or Gucci loafers. And you probably haven’t even thought of — let alone worn — a pair of Stacy Adams in years. But if you’re Black and of a certain age, you probably remember when they were the “It” dress shoes. “Stacy Adams is a Black staple,” celebrity fashion stylist Avon Dorsey told me. “My uncles had them back in the ’80s and ’90s, and they were the fly guys. If you had a pair of Stacy Adams in their generation, you were the shit.” Stacy Adams was founded in 1875. By the Jazz Age, the company’s wingtips were popularized by musicians like Cab Calloway and Lionel Hampton, who commonly paired them with that era’s zoot suits. And while the brand isn’t Black-owned, over the years the shoes became a touchstone in the Black community. They reflected a particular type of cool. In a 1980 Washington Post article about Black style, Ernie Smith, a Black man who owned 100 pairs of shoes — some of which were Stacy Adams — describes their importance: “In high school, the shoes you had to have were Stacy Adams. It didn’t matter what else you wore, but if you had those shoes, you were part of the IN crowd. It’s heavily associated with that Detroit or Chicago style of dressing,” she says. “The colorful suits, the dandy style in midwestern Black culture.” WHEN COMFORT COUNTS, WE'RE THERE: Jenna Milliner-Waddell