• Boston Globe, Thursday, April 5, 2012 9:50 AM

The Sperry Top-Sider is back. The famous early-1980s shoe made by Lexington, Mass.-based Sperry is enjoying new fame with everyone from Kanye West to Blake Lively donning them. 

In-house designers at Sperry began playing with the look of the shoe, introducing new silhouettes and materials. In the late 2000s, high-profile designers, looking for classic heritage brands, used Top-Siders on Fashion Week runways in New York.

This year, designer Michelle Smith is doing a collection of floral Top-Siders for summer. Japanese streetwear company A Bathing Ape partnered with Sperry on a limited-edition shoe last summer that now sells for upward of $400 on eBay. And, J.Crew added Sperry to its stores, and the shoe company teamed up with local outerwear company Penfield. Sperry recently opened a store on New York’s Fifth Avenue and announced it will start selling accessories like luggage and watches in spring 2013.

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