UPDATED: Reebok celebrates Ellen Ripley by selling her shoes in men’s sizes only
Not that you’d be able to get a pair at this point anyway—they’re already sold out, which makes sense considering Reebok says it only made 36 pairs for U.S. customers, out of the 426 total reported by The Mary Sue. But even if female Alien fans were able to get to the Reebok website before the sneaker brand’s Alien Day shoes sold out, most of them would have been shit out of luck. For you see, Reebok’s Alien Stomper Hi shoe, purported to be an exact replica of the pair worn by Ellen Ripley in Aliens, only come in men’s sizes:
For those of you who never shop for women’s shoes—or live outside of the U.S.—a men’s nine is equivalent to a women’s size 11, several sizes larger than average. (Note also the shoes are listed as “Men Classics.”) Sigourney Weaver herself wears a women’s size 10, and—if this screen grab is any indication—would have to stuff rolled-up newspaper or something into the toes in order to wear Reebok’s tribute to her character.
That being said, with the shoes selling out so quickly and Reebok failing to mention the whole “shoes inspired by one of the most iconic female badasses in action-movie history only coming in men’s sizes” thing in its original announcement of the line, it’s hard to say what the initial size range was. Some, like professional cosplayer Yaya Han, say they were available in men’s 6-13, which would include more—but by no means all—women. Others report an initial size run of men’s 8-12, and others 9-12. (We’ll update you as soon as we have a definitive answer.) No matter what, though, female fans are being left out of Reebok’s Alien Day festivities.
Reebok’s second, mid-top shoe—this one inspired by a male character, Lance Henricksen’s Bishop—is slightly more accessible with 1,986 pairs, and also only comes in men’s sizes. The irony, on the other hand, is one size fits all.
Special thanks to Suki-Rose Simakis for help reporting this story.
UPDATE: The A.V. Club was contacted by a PR firm representing Reebok, which sent us a statement saying that “The Alien Stomper was mis-categorized on our U.S. website as a men’s shoe.” So, whoops. The statement went to to say that “size availability varied by market,” and that the shoes had been produced in men’s U.S. sizes 3.5-12, a statement that i09 also notes can’t be confirmed with the information we have at the moment.
We followed up by asking which sizes were being sold in the U.S. specifically, and why the majority of the shoes (and, as far as we can tell, the smaller sizes) were reserved for overseas buyers. We were told that Reebok “isn’t commenting on this story any further at the moment.”