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'COMMODIFYING POVERTY': Balenciaga's 'fully destroyed' sneakers slammed over $1,850 price tag

These particular pairs were created for Balenciaga's advertising campaign and are described as 'extremely worn, marked up, and dirtied'

Balenciaga, the Kim Kardashian-approved fashion house, has released a new "full destroyed" version of their "Paris" high-top sneaker, complete with shredding, smudging, and a graffiti logo that has gotten a lot of buzz on Twitter.

The Paris Sneaker is Balenciaga's newest footwear offering, and it comes in both high-top and mule styles. The standard version is unremarkable, costing $625 for the high-top and $495 for the mule. The sneakers are available in a variety of colors, notably black, red, and white, and are designed to look like tumble-dried Chuck Taylors. Balenciaga, led by Demna Gvasalia, went even further with a limited-edition "Fully Destroyed" version of the sneaker. These particular pairs were created for Balenciaga's advertising campaign and are described as "extremely worn, marked up, and dirtied." Balenciaga.com has 100 pairs in white and black available for $1,850 apiece.

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The limited-edition model left some consumers questioning the brand's ideas due to its badly worn-out appearance and hefty $1,850 price tag. Although the sneakers being sold (shown below) don't appear to be as worn as the ones photographed for the campaign, they were enough to get Twitter talking. Many people trolled the brand for ‘selling anything under the name of fashion’ while others called it out for appropriating war and poverty. 

One Twitter user wrote: "I see Balenciaga have moved on to mocking the poor and selling poverty to the rich, famous and stupid now," while another accused them of "commodifying poverty."  One user slammed the brand for allowing "rich people to wear poverty as a costume and cosplay the experiences of the poor."

Another person said: "Poverty is now an aesthetic for rich people. Exploiting and subjugating poor people is not enough, they gotta mock them as well. Seriously, what kind of fucking kicks are they?"

Another individual wrote, "If you bought the $1,850 Balenciaga sneaker that looks like it was run over by a lawnmower please seek help but also please reach out to me because I would like to understand where your mind was at in that moment."

One Twitter user wrote, "Balenciaga gotta be a social experiment." Another user wrote, "Balenciaga is releasing a new pair of shoes, and I have to assume they are just trolling people at this point."

According to one person, "Balenciaga can go straight to hell." One person feels that Balenciaga is trolling, "Alright, this is the worst sneaker I’ve seen today… Balenciaga has to be trollin."

One individual who suspected Balenciaga is involved in money laundering wrote, "Balenciaga is a money laundering scheme."