In 2019, the high fashion market is all about collaboration: it allows brands to augment the goodwill they’ve gathered, or failed to gather, with the goodwill accrued by another brand. The more unexpected the better. Rick Owens x Birkenstock. Louis Vuitton x Supreme. Dapper Dan x Gucci. But before there were collaborations, there were sub-contractors, whose brands were enlisted to provide functionality and a sheen of seriousness. Like the capital-c Fashion Collab, they provide reputational augmentation, and as a byproduct of that augmentation, these sub-brands often acquire fame in their own right: That’s how you get Big Boi purring “YKK on your zipper” or George Costanza chirping “it’s Gore-Tex!” Though bringing in an outside manufacturer might be more expensive than just making something in-house, Enrique Corbi, the senior men’s design director at Ugg, laid out the appeal of subcontracting a Vibram sole. He’s been working with them since the early 1990s—through stints at Lacoste, Wolverine, and his current gig—and though Vibram soles cost more than their competitors, it’s a cost that companies are willing to front and customers are willing to swallow. Enlisting another posh military icon, he told me:

“People drive Mercedes G wagons, and they get the AMG version, the G63, with 600 horsepower. Who needs 600 horsepower in a car? That car is essentially equipped to go into the most extreme conditions anywhere in the world, whether it’s going through water, snow, or mud. You can climb mountain roads in those cars. Yet people use them in the city center, to go and buy their groceries. Vibram is exactly the same...If you can afford it, it feels really good knowing you have something so ‘performance’ on your feet.”