crooked tongues magazine News Features

If we've got one key qualm with this industry, it's that shoes seem intent on referencing past icon so heavily that footwear's eating itself. After some wilderness years in terms of striking design, the last two years have seen ACG dropping banger after banger. Commercially, many never crossed over to the extent we felt they deserved, but this right here is the highlight of the 20th anniversary celebrations. Looking like a Baltoro if it was designed by ...

A.R.C. have covered nearly all the brand bases, and after the white-on-white to end them all with their crispy makeup from a few months back, they've been reworking Nikes too. Like that Uptown, this Dunk Hi seems to be pitched at an audience who might actually wear the damned things rather than marvelling at any number of crazy materials and colours - as with the sublime Alife Grand Slam for adidas nearly six years ago, the restraint shown ...

Those heading up the retro programme at Onitsuka Tiger and ASICS have been pretty shrewd with regards to releases. We're inclined to believe that heads aren't ready for the archive they've stockpiled, and while many running innovations have been missing in action for a while now, they're slowly drip-drip-dripping into the burgeoning heritage rollout.There's a sense that the brand quietly had its head down, beavering away at creating functional footwear that, for the most ...

Remember your first wallet? It probably had a Velcro fastening, so that when you broke out your cash at a seaside holiday to buy some form of novelty good your presence was noted, thanks to the vvvvvvriiip of that hooked material. Best of all, most of us never grew out of it. Just when we thought we were out, buying into some brown leathery blandness, with its muted, unfastened fold, Japanese luggage brands pulled us back in. Introduced in the ...

More Conductors, and if you think there's a bias toward this hi-topped classic in the office...there is. Raised as we were on aspirations to own the Knicks colour variations, we've seen plenty of killer adidas basketball shoes released lately under the Originals banner, but these were once top of the wishlist. We can deal with the lack of Ewing label, especially after he bounced to start his own brand, and these capture those pre-departure aspirational glory days ...

We've officially written Summer off. As the samples fly back to their Canadian home, we're already prepping ourselves to stock up on some big-ass boots this Winter. So we thought we'd share the pics of the Summit we used in our shoot for the recent <a href='http://www.crookedtongues.com/editorial/?e=53'>Ransom editorial</a> (and while you're at it, check the <a href='http://www.crookedtongues.com/editorial/?e=54'>Gourmet one</a ...

Slight break from the same-old-same that could have some readers hurling their shoes at the monitor in disapproval, we don't usually fit into the Y-3 demographic, but it's got to be said, we've got a lot of respect for Mr.Yohji Yamamoto and when the opportunity arose to give one of the new season's Y-3 Boxing makeups an outing, we decided to do it. Having been in our field of vision since its debut five years ...

adidas Originals have evidently gone crazy with the GORE-TEX for the coming season, meaning a good excuse, beyond the beautiful Tokios we featured last week, to release some more Torsion Specials. Remember those happy days of Oki-Ni delivering the goodness in high and low form around five years ago? Happy times indeed. A model that we've seen twinned with Polo and Steep Techs in envy-inducing Polaroid picture collections, the 1990 original was a solid evolution from the slightly more ...

The digital domain seems to have rendered the days of waiting for a costly NTSC VHS of skate footage, or relying on a fifth generation dub officially obselete. For the second time in pretty much as many weeks, we've seen a full-length video project go straight-to-web after its premiere. 'Diagonal' is the debut audio visual project from the European side of the adidas skateboarding team, and it doesn't disappoint. Including sections with Brit Chewy Cannon, and the likes ...

We've been waiting a while to include some Pro Keds in the CT News - Mr. Dante Ross kindly blessed us with some 69er Uptowners, a great shoe, and there's a sense that the brand is finally finding its feet again, with an enviable heritage collection to tap into. There's a lot of brands out there playing the heritage game, but Keds has a Teflon legacy as the desirable shoe of choice for discerning NYC-based youth looking to ...

Nike's involvement in the Livestrong foundation, aiding in the fight against cancer has been a textbook example of how to work a charitable cause into trend-level without compromising either product, or what's arguably the most important element - the message at the core. Anyone making the early store trek over the weekend to grab the latest Livestrong reissues in the black and yellow colourway wasn't there by a feeling of guilt or undue pressure - they just wanted, in ...

Since April, the adidas 3Way project has already seen some of the most interesting takes on core adidas Originals models in years on sale via the Crooked Store. 3Way's project brief was simple - 12 retailers from across-the-globe were split into 3 groups, roughly working by region (as the inclusion of Crooked Tongues in the 'Asia' group indicates, the remit was broad), with each group given the same collection of five models to rework - <a href='http://www.crookedtongues.com ...

Not to be mistaken for the Tokio that coincided with the '64 Tokyo Olympics - an infinitely simpler and more streamlined affair, the late '80s (first brought to our attention circa '88) Tokio seemed to be another of the reduxes that adidas excelled at. A running design, with infinitely more performance capabilities than its '6-V' ancestor, laced with GORE-TEX, this shoe had, in both its 'H' and 'L' variations, is perfect for more extreme conditions. On clocking these at the Nuremberg ...

We like to overanalyse athletic footwear, but we're somewhat constricted if a brand challenges us with a cry of, "You don't like it? Design something better then." Fortunately, at time-of-writing, that gauntlet hasn't been thrown down. We'd inevitably lose face, because for all our rough book scrawlings of imaginary spring-loaded Jordan and Flight spinoffs, we were never really encouraged to take on jobs in the industry within that field, and let's face it, competition is ...

We'll commence with a disclaimer - these aren't modified in any way, shape or form for skateboarding. adidas just allowed team members to rework the mighty Nizza Hi to their hearts content. That's not to say they're not skateable, but you'd probably thrash 'em with the same speed we annihilated overpriced Chuck Taylors with amateurish ollies back in the day. Dennis Busenitz, Team O' Connor and Mr. Mark Gonzales all have their own individual aesthetics, and ...

This right here is a 'Marmite' shoe for sure. Some have expressed enthusiasm...others revulsion. And that's what we like to see. You know the Samba from its training shoe origins, but you've never seen it like this. The onetime terrace favourite in its more outdoor-friendly silhouette (as opposed to the affordable, almost ubiquitous 5-a-side 'flatter' version) is also pretty bike-friendly. That's a bonus in the era of fixed-gear mania, but made over with shuttlecock inspiration via ...

Boat shoes are omnipresent. From cheapo canvas, vulcanized variations to, Quoddys, Visvim Hockneys and Sperrys to the LV and 'Yeezy Hudson, there's an air of the dockside baller for all tastes and pricepoints. Continuing the refreshing trend of anniversary projects that don't just follow the Nike, New Era and Kubrick trinity of the staggeringly obvious celebration SMU projects, this Patta meeting-of-minds with Californian purveyors of cruelty-free casual footwear, Keep, captures the current watery zeitgeist and executes it with ...

More charitable sneakers on the run-up to the 'Stages' launch in Paris next week. You had a chance to grab the Busy Ps and Hideouts, also part of this remixed LIVESTRONG reissue range, when they dropped in their original Tier Zero form, provided you were willing do do a spot of legwork, or suck up (pause) to the employees of your local boutique. The FL Laboratories 'FLOM' Dunk Hi? That was some Hyperstrike steez right there. Originally released to after ...

Crooked has brought the mayhem on these shores several times this decade - remember the CT launch 'do'/Cavemilk release party at the Great Eastern Hotel in January '01? The '04 and '05 BBQs? The Black Monday adi BK3 release at Cargo in '06? It's been a long time (March '07) since we had a party in London. This summer, the CT BBQ is back, presented by our sister site Spine Magazine and in association with Carhartt. It's set ...

Sometimes during the collaboration process you've got to compromise. This is a Crooked Tongues compromise. Working alongside Hong Kong's D-Mop store, think of it as a conceptual piece surrounding the distress that excess distressing treatments to a shoe can cause. We had plans for ballistic nylon, and at discussion stage (fortunately scrapped, because over the pond, the US team had already designed one), marl grey sweatshirt fabric was mooted. The end result? A vintaged, 'battle damaged' version of ...

There's art shows and then there's this one. Nike haven't done things by half with the Livestrong STAGES collection - the trackbikes customized by Kaws and Barry McGee that premiered in L.A. earlier in the year were just a teaser as to what's going down in Paris next week. Makeups of the new Lunar designs, a modified soccer shoe reworked for pedal-friendly purposes in the shape of the City Tiempo, and all your favourite hype shoes ...

Air Max 87s have been flogged to death over the last few years, and since 2002, the shape has gone a little awry...but, whereas some solid colourways hit the saleracks for those willing to play the waiting game, some just vamoosed before we ever made good on our promises to stock up. The reds are one of the most perfect examples of a synergy between a trademark Nike makeup and a timeless design - and it's a testament to ...

Having spent the last three years off gallivanting in sunny Barcelona Bread and Butter's return home to Berlin seemed to usher in a more focused and business like atmosphere, Held at Templehof, a gigantic former airport that was a big hit with the Third Reich and subsequently played a major part I the Berlin Airlift.We took a minute to escape the fiendish muggy heat and have a sneaky peak at the Reebok stand where 20 years of Pump ...

In September 2006, we damned The Hideout Footscape Woven with faint praise but covered our arses by breaking out our crystal balls and conceding that it would be, "a grower." Wow. Not only was that introductory sentence riddled with innuendo, but we were real shoe prophets back then, because some of us have been hunting for a pair at a fair price ever since. We even know someone who played football in theirs - naturally they fell apart. FS Wovens have ...

The first Ransom by adidas collection has been slowly trickling online over the last three months, with Spring's collection currently being premiered in Berlin. It seemed timely to go in depth and holler at Ransom mainman Matt George and adidas Originals Vice President Ben Pruess about the fruits of their labour. Nearer the Fall (sorry, Autumn) release of the first wave, we'll no doubt be unleashing paragraph after paragraph of referential waffle with the odd pertinent piece of ...

ACU and D-Mop have brought some artisan style to the Stan Smith Vintage silhouette for this collection. Using the gloss finish on premium leather, and exploiting the palette the Stan Smith's pristine upper provides, the inspiration for the super detailed blue 'painting' comes from Chinese porcelain creations. The result is a unique looking design that takes the concept and runs with it, managing to add enough to the shoe to make their mark without rendering it a busy mess ...

One of Nike Sportswear's most exciting new products has a lineage that's instantly recognizable. Charged with updating a classic of Nike design...yada, yada, yada...you've heard the press release spiel already. We don't play that copy shit round these parts. The Air Max 1 falls into a desert island shoe category - were it not for the wholesale rinsing of this silhouette in any referential colour-blocking or pattern cruelly thrown at it. It works better in ...