The Off-White Out Of Office in black and white has picked up the nickname “Panda” on the market. That’s notable, because the name was borrowed from a Nike Dunk Low that costs a fraction of the price. You could call it a compliment. You could also see it as a designer sneaker that had to rent its nickname from the neighbors.
What you get
To be fair, it’s a well-made sneaker. A low-top leather design with a white base and black panels on the toe, heel and eyestay. The large black arrow across the side is the brand’s signature detail, and here it’s made from leather rather than printed on. White laces, a white midsole and a translucent, icy outsole underneath make the shoe look a little lighter. Hanging from the laces is the black-and-white zip tie the brand is known for.
The silhouette is solid and the proportions work. This isn’t a shoe that annoys me.
The price does, though
The retail price is €465.50. We’re seeing eleven active listings from nine shops, with the lowest price at €314 and the highest at over €611. The middle listing is priced exactly at retail.
Let’s do the math. The most expensive seller is asking almost twice as much as the cheapest one, for the exact same shoe, in the same year, from retailers that all present themselves perfectly professionally. There’s no scarcity to explain it, no limited run, no waiting list. It’s simply a price each store makes up because it can.
That’s the part of the designer segment that rarely gets written about. With a hyped sneaker drop, everyone knows the resale price is made up and acts accordingly. With a luxury label, people assume the price carries meaning—and that’s precisely where the spread is often widest.
What the numbers tell us
We’ve given this pair a Hypescore of 16, in the INERT band. Dead silence. There’s no market pushing this shoe upward, no movement in resale, no scarcity. That’s not an indictment of the shoe; it’s simply a factual observation: demand is normal.
What it does mean is that the top end of that price range has nothing behind it. With a hyped release, you can at least argue that you’re paying for access. Here, you’re paying for the fact that you happened to land on that particular website.
Would I advise against it?
No. If you like the shape and the price fits what you normally spend on shoes, this is a perfectly good purchase. I’d simply refuse to pay more than the market midpoint, and definitely not twice as much.
The practical summary: check at least four of the nine retailers before making a move, and stick to your own size, because some of the lower prices apply to sizes nobody wanted. Other versions can be found under Off-White Out Of Office, with the rest listed under Off-White.