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For her 26th birthday, Immani Williams’ partner bought her a pair of Christian Louboutin So Kates. This particular red-soled heel had taken up a long-standing residence on her mental grown-woman moodboard. “I was really excited about it,” says the San Diego resident. “But it was so uncomfortable.”
Standing at 120mm (or nearly five inches) tall, the shoe presents obvious challenges. Eventually, Williams decided to stash them away, opting to fawn over their fashion over their function. Seven months later, though, she reconsidered — and it’s all thanks to Zendaya.
Williams credits her altered perception of the enduring (but not necessarily practical) status symbol to the proliferation of images of the actor donning the shoe, effectively making it her signature. Throughout the Challengers press tour alone, Zendaya and long-time stylist Law Roach paired different iterations of the slender stiletto with looks from Louis Vuitton, Loewe, Thom Browne, Vivienne Westwood, and more.
The corresponding coverage highlighted the duo’s perennial obsession with the shoe, which dates back to roughly 2011. (As many fashion brands do, Christian Louboutin may send Zendaya product to wear for appearances, but, in this case, we know of no additional compensation taking place.)
“I don’t know a single celebrity that’s been associated with a particular shoe as much as Zendaya and Law are with the So Kate,” says fashion commentator Hanan Besovic, better known by his Instagram handle @ideservecouture. “We’re not even wondering what shoes she’s going to wear — we’re wondering what color she’s going to wear.”
On Recho Omondi’s podcast The Cutting Room Floor this past April, Roach recounted their Louboutin love story. “It actually started when she was about 14, and I remember she had these So Kates on all day,” he recalled. “It’s the first time she’d ever worn them, and she was collapsing. And she’s like, ‘I have to take these shoes off.’ I’m like, ‘You will not take these shoes off.’ And she kept them on, and the next day she put them on again.”
Christian Louboutin launched the So Kate in 2013, an iteration of its slightly shorter predecessor: the 100mm Kate, introduced in 2012, and paying tribute to model Kate Moss.
“Equal parts elegance and rock’n’roll,” the Louboutin website reads, the So Kate features more dramatic proportions: a slimmer, “plunging” silhouette, cut lower on the vamp (to reveal “just enough” toe cleavage) with a super high heel. That’s what makes it so universally flattering — and difficult to wear.
“I know that it’s not the most comfortable shoe, but it is the most visually appealing shoe,” Besovic says.“I dislike describing something as having timeless elegance, but it really does apply in this case.”
While Williams knows that Moss is the namesake, “Zendaya is more so the person that I associate with that shoe,” she says. So inspired by her and Roach’s allegiance to the So Kate, Williams put hers on and trudged around her apartment, a practice she then made into a TikTok.
This happenstance upload birthed a series of Williams proving she can do anything in her Louboutins, racking up millions of views. She cleans her kitchen, walks to the polls to vote, trots on the treadmill… You get the idea.
The budding TikToker has since received hundreds of comments from viewers motivated to pull their own sky-high red-soles out of the depth of their closets and sacrifice comfort in the name of fashion. “I guess it’s giving people the courage to attempt to break in their shoes,” says Williams.
Zendaya may be the celebrity most closely linked to the So Kate, but it’s been a red-carpet mainstay since its debut. Cardi B wore a leopard pair to the opening of the Skims store, Anya Taylor-Joy wore a black pair to the UK premiere of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, and Heidi Klum wore a pair to the Golden Globes — and that’s just in 2024. Rihanna, Bella Hadid, Kacey Musgraves, Kristen Stewart, Priyanka Chopra, Tracee Ellis Ross, and more have been photographed in So Kates over the last decade.
A pump is never going to go fully out of fashion — it’s as classic, though not one that’s as wearable as, say, a pair of jeans. The demand’s there, though: Linda Cui Zhang, Associate Fashion Director at Nordstrom, says the retailer has noticed more interest in high heels 90mm+. In the case of Christian Louboutin, which Zhang notes has a loyal customer at Nordstrom, new styles like the Miss Z (100mm) have garnered interest, while ultra high heels from new designer collections like Valentino, Gucci, and Dior have performed well in this category.
“The customer wants to be sexy again,” she says. “A high heel brings a boost to both height and confidence for everyday and occasion dressing.”
In a post-pandemic world, comfort isn’t the only thing that matters, Besovic argues. “It’s the power that it gives you, but this power is achieved through not being comfortable,” he says, noting the general target audience outside the red carpet is either those attending events or corporate workplaces.
“When I see a woman in the So Kate, I’m like, ‘Okay, I like her.’ I don’t know how to better explain it,” he laughs. “When I see a So Kate, that’s a slay.”
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