Last week, Tapestry announced it would sell Stuart Weitzman to Caleres, putting all of its eggs in Coach‘s luxury handbags. Coach has been having a strong year, largely due to Gen Z shoppers who discovered its vintage styles on TikTok. The brand’s viral cherry bag charm has also been a boon, thanks to the “charm maxing” trend dominating the accessories market.
Charm maxing has exploded ever since the death of Jane Birkin, who was known to bedeck her signature Hermès totes in beads, charms, and stickers. Fashion’s It crowd is outfitting their designer purses with everything from luxury charms to vintage ’90s Teletubbies keychains.
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Now, this personalization trend (the maximalists’ answer to quiet luxury) has made its way to footwear. Models on Coach’s Spring/Summer ’25 runway carried bags bedecked with charms (spanning the signature cherry to huge “I heart New York” mugs), but they also wore sneakers adorned with nostalgic baubles from cars to unicorns to cassette tapes.
Now, trendy retailers like Free People and Urban Outfitters are all in on shoe charms, and the TikTok crowd is loving it. Urban Outfitters offers several shoelace charm sets, seen styled on sneakers or tied around boots. Free People also has a shoe charm and pin pack of bows, hearts, and strings of beads, as well as a “friendship shoe loop clog accessory,” seen styled on the Birkenstock Tokio clog.
All over TikTok, girls are spicing up their Adidas Sambas with frilly ribbons for laces, charms pulled off of bracelets, and trendy sets. The movement is breathing new life into a style that has been on the downswing. While DIY accessories have been popular, brands are beginning to take advantage as well. Of course, there’s Crocs Jibbitz which have exploded in popularity of late. Then there are models like the customizable Alterre detachable shoes, which feature interchangeable straps and an array of accessories from leather flowers to suede pom poms and sparkly charms. Retailers can capitalize on the movement, too, as shoe charms can be a boost for retailers at checkout as an easy, affordable add-on purchase.
