Still, he couldn’t help but turn heads with his footwear choice. He walked the red carpet in a pair of all-black Nike Flex Experience RN 7s, a restrained runner that’s a part of a long-tenured budget-friendly running line for the Swoosh. Currently on its 12th incarnation, the RN 7 hasn’t been available in years, which means Lucas likely pulled the peak dad move of liking the shoe so much five years ago that he bought multiple pairs so he’d never run out. Tough to say for sure if he had the Met Gala in mind when he made that call but we’re inclined to say probably not.
Most of the time, when a Met Gala attendee laces up a pair of sneakers on the red carpet, it’s with the intention of making a statement, intentionally leaning into the contrast of something ostensibly so low amidst so much high. Lucas’s footwear choice instead feels more like an extension of his character—this is an artist who spent much of his career striving for the autonomy to do things his way with little to no outside interference. It’s why he self-financed the prequel trilogy and turned it into one of the most divisive but artistically singular cinematic accomplishments of the century. He wants to do things his way or not at all—hence finally selling Star Wars to Disney back in 2012 for an amount of money that ensures nobody can tell him what to do, or which sneakers to wear, for the rest of his life. It makes all the sense in the world—nay, the galaxy—that someone that strong-willed and stubborn couldn’t have his arm twisted into wearing dress shoes to a work event. What are they gonna do, not let in the guy who created Luke Skywalker?