From shoes to bags.
Soft, clear, and customizable: jelly took over Korea's summer. This summer, jelly stopped being just a pool shoe — Koreans are customizing their own pairs (젤꾸), and the material is already spilling into bags. The cheat code: hand people a nostalgic material they can finish themselves, then move it into the next category.
Jelly shoes return to Korea every summer — so the news isn't the shoe, it's what people do with it. In 2026 the story is 젤꾸 (jelly-decorating): shoppers turning a plain pair into something personal with clip-on parts. The charms aren't brand new — Heavenly Jelly's Totzpping launched about three years ago — but this summer 젤꾸 tipped into a full Gen Z boom, spilling all the way to Dongdaemun's wholesale parts markets. Add Y2K sentiment and rain-friendly summer utility, and jelly shifts from pool gear to a canvas you finish yourself.
Korean brand Heavenly Jelly turned "jelly-decorating" into the product itself. Its signature parts — Totzpping (named after "topping") — let shoppers mix colors and charms into a one-of-a-kind pair. At its 2026 Seongsu pop-up it ran a Totz DIY zone; Lotte World Mall (Jamsil) and Lotte Department Store (Busan) pop-ups showed around 200 kinds of parts.
For 2026 S/S, Suecomma Bonnie released Mary-Jane "jelly flats" and "floppy jelly sandals" with 3D flowers. Pearl, floral, and platform details turned jelly's functional image into a decorative fashion piece. Related sales rose about 4x versus four weeks earlier in the first week of June 2026.
The Handsome — one of Korea's largest fashion houses — brought its brands TIME, MINE, and SJSJ together for a Focus on #JellyShoes showcase. Instead of one style, it offered a whole spectrum: caged Mary Janes, beaded and crystal-trimmed pairs, and glittered flats in every color — turning jelly shoes into a full, decorative summer category.
The jelly material that took over Korea's shoes this summer is now moving onto bags. In 2026, DEINET reworked classic bag silhouettes in clear, frosted PVC across soft pastels. Unveiled on 29CM live commerce to strong demand, it's proof that jelly is no longer just a shoe, but a material.
The playbook is simple to describe and hard to repeat: take a nostalgic, low-stakes material, let people finish it themselves, and then carry that same material into a completely different product category. Jelly went from pool shoe to decorating canvas to bag material in one summer — and each step made the next one feel obvious.