crooked tongues magazine News Features

Faux ageing has hit the industry almost as hard as it struck cheap denim a few years back. Will it become as much of a mainstream mainstay as the smalltown strides of choice? Doubtful. After its Junya Watanabe co-signed introduction, Nike's range has, for the most part, been strong, with the exception of the 'Be True' releases, where some, like the Syracuse variations, with their glossy excess of yellow staining, looked like they'd been participating in watersports. And ...

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At Crooked Tongues we're open to suggestions. Especially when they're from bonafide design legends. Last year's adidas Munchen project led to some rewarding feedback from none other than Markus Thaler, one of the minds behind the ZX series and a ton of other classic 3-Striped models. He knows what makes an interesting shoe, from function down to unorthodox aesthetics, and a the super-limited 'Jacques and Markus' edition of the ZX 8000 that concluded 2008's successful aZX ...

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Supra caught us out a few years back. We didn't expect a number of things, firstly, after those underwhelming 'Muskabeats' MPC excursions circa (pun unintended) 2000 and some chunky low-cut signature shoes, that Chad, for all his considerable board skills, would be involved in another industry revolution. We also felt that years back, that as skate shoes went, the Caballero was too towering and that a skate shoe over the height of a Dunk Hi was destined to fail ...

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Since the Lunar Racer dropped last year, and the Pegasus SE, we're enjoying the drip-feed of performance runners from Nike with genuine visual oomph rather than a hardcore running, "fuck the aesthetics" approach, shorn of any compromise. Seeing as the house of Nike is built on track sports, they're not playing when it comes to the next generation either. Nor are they intent on introducing any gaudy technologies to the fore, when '08s Flywire and LunarLite Foam remain ...

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We actually had something else set for the news today, written and half-ready, but like the title of the theme-tune to the unintentionally grim wandering canine drama 'The Littlest Hobo', maybe tomorrow we'll try to settle down and up it, but at present there's a delay with images. It's out of our hands. These CT News pics of the Solebox x Vans Old Skool were a standby. That's not to say that Hikmet and company come ...

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We've seen the SB collection dabble in something that's not uber-tech or a revamped hardcourt standard before, but Stefan Janoski's pro model is something very different altogether. At present, footwear is still taking influence from formalised designs, and the rest of the known world is taking some Ivy, preppy and modernist sartorial cues. With the exception of a handful of age-old standards, trainers can't authentically fill that gap, but the trickle down makes for some great ...

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More mid-cut Dunk business from the SB crew, this version has a couple of applications that always pique our interest when it comes to a shoe - 3M coating and digital camo. Bizarrely juxtaposing a spot of paneling that's got special forces appeal, (with the digital disruptive design being the last bastion of camouflage cool, where related patterns have been flogged to death without mercy) with something very sober (a mix of the muted and more madcap not dissimilar to ...

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The second wave of the adidas 3Way project sees some reliable collaborative types, based in the US and Canada (the country that seems to have stepped up music, design and style wise while the rest of the planet was resting on its laurels) playing with the five core 3-Striped, though in this pack, that iconic branding has been trimmed down, silhouettes utilised in the first drop in the shape of the Superstar, Samba, Stan Smith, Nizza Hi and Forum Mid ...

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To quote the sadly deceased Dirt Dog, "Me and Mariah go back like babies with pacifiers". The Air Mariah is a shoe close to our hearts. Nike's original Mariah shoes from the late '70s to early '80s represent the brand's commitment to real running, even getting the full Air midsole addition at the turn of the decade before a new look return for the franchise at the close of the decade. With its slimline fit, incredibly lightweight feel ...

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PUMA's 'Breakpoint' Clydes are now instore - a spot of tennis styling on a legendary basketball silhouette. If it sounds like an offbeat mixture, that's because it is, but it works extremely well. Alongside these three low-cut makeups, there's an impressive brace of perforated Steppers set to drop very shortly.To tie-in with this release, PUMA have blessed us with a handful of Bristol-based graffiti goodies. Most things with the words 'street' and 'art' involved these days make ...

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Beams is one of those Japanese retail institutions that, like United Arrows and Sophnet, provides excellent service while existing on a collaborative level to make us westerners jealous because they have a tendency to absolutely kill it with their double, in this case triple, label projects. So much good stuff, and very little of the good stuff sees the light-of-day over here. Good if you're visiting Tokyo just so you usher the full power of bragging rights to respond ...

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The problem with photographing in-house and not relying on stock images is that we're late to the party too often. The in-house News era is set for a change. But in the meantime, and because Easter's long weekend is good for watching family-friendly afternoon films, but always a slow one in terms of shoeage, we're taking the time out to look a little more closely at this Tier Zero release that's been on selected shelves for ...

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Peculiar to think that not too long ago, dependent on your age that is, Converse's basketball releases were once as essential as a fair proportion of rival brand output - big-arsed Cons were a relatively affordable high cut accessory for provincial metal fans and rap disciples alike, as the safe bet to avoid wearing the same pair as the next man and evade getting clowned for an unacceptable footwear choice. Now we tend to focus on their heritage output, unfairly ...

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Damn you exchange rate. For years we've chuckled at non-residents paying crazy money for Flimby-made NBs, but now we're getting our just desserts. Put simply, these A.R.C. variations of the 1300, a shoe that still gets old school runners who don't play that new jack nonsense misty-eyed, are killers. Normally build abroad doesn't get us open, even if it's a breeding ground for some of the most exciting resurrections (the grass is always ...

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And the award for the least photogenic shoe of 2009 goes to...the Supercorsa. The most interesting performance shoes are the ones that weren't designed with their adopted pastime in mind. Like Rod Lavers and 'freestyle Hacky Sack' - haven't met anyone who engages in that pursuit, but each to their own. People engaging in that niche sport apparently like RBK G-Units too. We never saw that one coming. People whizzing around on fixed gear bikes took to the ...

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Concepts, concepts, concepts. We lose count of the amount of times we can be pursued by a dilligent PR type hollering down a liftshaft that, "I'll send you the press release with the concept behind the shoes later!" as we descend with an armful of samples. Good is good. Shite is shite. Inspirations can add a little depth to a project, and make a lazy news post writer's job a lot easier, rather than having to fill this ...

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The conclusion to a week of looking at the new Nike SB Custom Series, letting the amateurs run riot on four silhouettes, this Dunk Low, which dropped this week at the Slam City SB basement store, is further proof that the dark days of teddy bear (which, to be fair, proved inexplicably successful) makeovers are long, long gone. Having had a look at impending pieces like the Bruin, which has undergone a skate-friendly treatment without losing any of the shoe ...

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Rewind a couple of years and a brief to let amateur team riders rework a shoe as a (not quite) pro model would've led to results that made eyes bleed, built to accompany horrific printed zip hoodies and other such atrocities. Don't laugh out there. We know you all fell into the all-over pattern trap in one way or another. That was the flared trouser of the 21st century. If tradeshow stands are to be used as a ...

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Reissued last year in its original '76 form, its difficult not to refer to the Converse Pro Model as the Dr. J after the sky-hooking Rucker/ABA/NBA legend, Julius Erving. This chevron and starred design has long been a favourite for us, because while we don't have the NYC ballpark connoisseur credentials that sent this shoe stratospheric, we've long been fans of this classic, which represents an key moment in endorsement must-have history - especially when a ton ...

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