Marques Brownlee, Atoms Shoes Reveal Model 251 High-Tops

Marques Brownlee, the 30-year-old YouTube phenom and professional Ultimate Frisbee player, has developed a global following that's now pushing 20 million subscribers with his sharp, candid, brilliantly produced reviews of tech and cars. While branded merch has long been available on the MKBHD site, this is the first time he’s embarked on a multi-year development process of an entirely new product from the ground up: Atoms Model 251.

Brooklyn-based Atoms shoes was launched in 2019 by co-founders Sidra Qasim and Waqas Ali with a goal of creating comfortable everyday walking shoes you can slip on and wear anywhere. 

Brownlee first crossed paths with Atoms in 2020 after purchasing Atoms face masks during the footwear company's production shift during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, they started collaborating on this shoe. Two-and-a-half years and dozens of prototypes later, they’ve just released it—selling out within a few hours on the first day. Fear not, anyone who orders them within the next few weeks can pre-order for a delivery later this summer.

Related: Donovan Mitchell Gets First Adidas Signature Shoe With Help From Marvel for the D.O.N. Issue #1 Collection

For Marques, developing the shoe was a learning process, but a rewarding one. He was able to incorporate the lightweight aspect of Adidas NMDs and the silhouette of the Air Jordan 1 with the comfortable sole and elastic laces of Atoms. For Atoms, it was its first high-top, and nailing the slip-on aspect would require its signature elastic laces as well as an elasticized tongue that wraps around the wearer’s foot. 

Made of synthetic leather and mesh, the shoe features a  proprietary sole that curves up at the toe and heel for easier movement. It's produced from a material that Atoms’ Qasim says is “lighter than rubber, more durable than rubber, and entirely recyclable.” Breathability and a copper lining in the interior guards the shoe against odor.

The name 251 comes from the run time (2 minutes, 51 seconds) of Brownlee’s first YouTube tech review he ever posted, when he was 16. There’s also an NYC tag on the shoe, as the city is significant to both Atoms and Brownlee as the cradle of their respective brands and careers. Brownlee’s biggest piece of advice to fans now buying the Model 251 is to really wear them instead of putting them on a shelf to gather dust.

We sat down with Brownlee and Atoms co-founder and CEO Sidra Qasim to learn about their process and how these shoes actually happened.

Men's Journal: What was the biggest surprise for both of you in this entire process?

Marques Brownlee: I learned how much you can really mess up a shoe. You can make some truly terrible shoes if you really want to. Obviously, most companies don’t because there are hundreds of decisions that go into making a shoe and they all add up to making a good shoe. But in the very beginning I had my full crazy ideas and they let me go completely rogue. We got the first prototype and structurally it was collapsing—not built right. There were all kinds of problems. That was the beginning of the learning process of combining all the aesthetics and interesting little bits of design and materials that I was interested in with the actual functional expertise that Atoms had to make a good shoe.

Sidra Qasim: I think the immense amount of patience that Marques had during the process was really surprising. We've been sitting on the idea for so long, but shoes aren't like a handbag. They interact with your body and have a very functional use when worn, so it takes a lot of time, effort, and research to create very comfortable ones. 

We've been working for more than two years and have shown so many prototypes to Marques. He's always been a good listener, which provided us a lot of confidence that he's someone who believes in quality. The first prototype we brought after nine months, I was feeling really stressed about, but he would say, “As long as we’re making a really good product, if it takes time, that’s okay.”

Did this design process make you want to do more collaborations in the future?

MB: I think so. The whole basis of collaborating with a brand that's really good at something lets you use each other’s expertise and leverage to make something great. It would be a gigantic undertaking to try to do something like this from scratch—and probably more years and bad prototypes if I tried to do it without Atoms.

Your first interview ever was with Kobe Bryant, and you talked about the shoes he helped design. Was that on your mind when you were working on these?

MB: That was my introduction to shoe design and interviewing people in general. Kobe told me every little thing about why they chose a low-top. Why the heel was designed the way it was—he had an Achilles injury and had it shaped a certain way for his heel cup. He talked about why they used Flyknit on certain parts of the upper versus others, and touched on so many levels of detail. It was really inspiring. So, when we got to make a shoe, the entire time I’m thinking, I can’t believe I actually have this level of input.

This is about making a shoe that people will wear and not just collect. How did that play into the design process?

SQ: Marques kept saying, “I want my community to wear this. It should not be something they go out and buy just to put on their shelves.” We've never made high-top shoes before and it was a big challenge for us. Normally, you see a high-top as a fashion product or a basketball shoe. How do you make a high-top that's lightweight and comfortable with the slip-on experience. That was the most important thing for us—making it very easy and quick to slip on because most high-tops take awhile to put on. Figuring out that slip-on mechanism took so much time.

These are affordable, especially given all that went into them. Was that a goal from day one?

MB: From the beginning, one of the goals was just to make an everyday functional shoe—and if it’s not affordable, it’s pointless to make as an everyday shoe. So those things kinda go hand in hand. The process was interesting because we’d get these prototypes and we’re like—alright, there are certain things we can do here that will cost more. But we still wanted to keep it reasonable. Now that we’ve made something that's functional and great for everyday use, I'm really hoping people treat it that way—that they actually wear it.

How has your experience been wearing these for the past several weeks?

MB: I’ve had plantar fasciitis since January, caused by wearing cleats [for Ultimate Frisbee]. I'd never had this problem before and my physical therapist suggested orthotics. I’ve done that, and literally take them out and put them into every new pair of shoes that I wear every time I switch shoes. I was telling Sidra when we got these—this is the only pair of shoes that I don’t have to put the orthotics in, because the sole and material inside are soft enough. I just walk around in them and they’re comfortable.

SQ: Whether you want to do 10,000 steps or 30,000 steps a day, these shoes can handle it. We used recycled material for the outsole, which took us so much time to develop, and had never been used commercially before. It’s lighter than rubber, more durable than rubber, and recyclable. We're calling the material "Eternal."

Is the 251 a limited release?

MB: It’s limited in time only. As many people who want to order them can order them—until May 23 2023.

SQ: One reason we're capping it is that we're managing a certain supply chain and we had no idea how popular the shoes would be. So far, we sold out of our first batch and they’re now available for pre-orders that will ship out by July 31.

Marques learned a lot from Atoms. What did you learn the most from Marques?

SQ: Marques taught us how to present the product. He's done such an incredible job highlighting those parts of the story, which are the most important, and leaving out the details that aren't.

Related: The Best White Sneakers of 2023

Marques, you said in your launch video that you can’t review these, but you can tell people about them.

MB: It’s funny because I’m always on the other side of this. A product comes out and the other person’s like, “What do you think? What do you think?” And I’m like, you’ll see when the video comes out what I think. Now I’m the one who’s like—Hey, so what do you think?

[$189; atoms.com]