Check out this exclusive first look at EA7/Reebok, the new collaboration between Emporio Armani and Reebok. Photography by Pierre Dal Corso. Styling by Christopher Campbell.

Reebok's toning shoes, which launched to much controversy last September, are a huge hit with the ladies. Housed under a new umbrella at the company called Easy Tone, the athletic shoes claim to aid weight loss, tone muscles and relieve stress on your knees and hips—all by simply wearing the shoes. Numerous news outlets called the Easy Tone pitch a hoax last fall, citing doctors' opinions that disproved any sneaker could transform one's posterior with so little effort. But that doesn't seem to have stopped shoppers from buying into the 'make your boobs jealous' marketing ploy. In fact, "we are well on track to selling at least 5 million pairs of toning footwear in the U.S. alone this year," Herbert Hainer, CEO of Reebok parent Adidas told AdAge.

Well excuse me! I thought the only two sneaker brands in town for the Beijing Olympics were Adidas and Nike. Looks like I overlooked little old Reebok. Yes, Reebok, the very thought of which evokes images of frosted-haired aerobics instructors of the 1980s, and of course those sneakers with the Velcro instead of laces. How lazy! Remember that horrible sound of the scratchy Velcro rip? That, my friend, was the sound of sloth. The only other sounds like that back then were produced by rip-stop nylon wallets with the Velcro closures, and of course those great Ocean Pacific surf shorts with the Velcro fly (in both cases, I imagined someone was getting screwed).