What we talk about when we talk about athleisure is wrong. We celebrate the mainstreaming of casual comfort as a retort to the tyranny of tailoring. We blather on about the potent social-media salesmanship of superficially jobless celebrities forever photographed out in the wild, getting a pressed juice or a macchiato. Where are they coming from? Where are they going?

All of that is a waste of words. The correct answer is that it’s all about sneakers.

Why would you wear fashion sweatpants if you weren’t trying to get out of the way of showcasing what’s on your feet? After all, 999 times out of 1,000, shoes are more important than pants.

They are the most important signifier and, sometimes, the great equalizer. They are the way two men assess each other from afar: slight head nod of acknowledgment, followed by a focusing of the eyes on the foot of the other, to see where he stands, and what he stands on.