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Sometimes these top-level Japanese Nike jumpoffs are too subdued for their own good. They're nearly always wearable, but too often, you wouldn't break out the paper and write home about much that drops with the big names attached. Things have been too clean and sober on that front. Not this Nike hookup with Under Cover and fragment design. These five shoes get it right. In case you were curious as to how a forgotten tennis shoe ended up getting those blog column inches, Hiroshi Fujiwara clocked the Match in the Nike archives during a visit to the hallowed corridors of the company's Beaverton HQ. Sensing that it had some fixed-gear potential, an activity he and Under Cover's JunTakahashi are deep into, and that the spartan branding seemed pretty 'now' it was placed on the comeback trail. Hence this collection, and it defied our cynicism with some quality suede on the upper, great colour picks - the orange and green is particularly banging - and an interesting use of branding on the midsole that only Tokyo's most deified could execute this well. You probably saw the shots of the off-whites last year and clocked the limited supply levels and import markups - these are hardly plentiful in numbers, but at least now there's more varieties to pick from.

If you saw the outstanding lookbook shots when they hit honeyee.com a few months back, you know Jun's not playing in coming seasons, and that while the rest of the industry wants to play grown-up, Under Cover's balancing a defiantly streetwear look with the usual levels of innovation. These fit into that collection well. If you were fancy enough to attend the Pitti Uomo show in Florence last year, you'll have clocked the collaboration early, and these shades are not only crowdpleasing - they're made to correlate with the SS10 collection too. This might be one of our favourite high-end/street-level/sportswear projects since the early '00s. It just works as a full project - no filler in sight. The Match Classic isn't the usually the kind of shoe that has us jumping up and down in excitement (we're guessing it was retooled from its original form to give it that autoclave sole) but a touch of hype and shades of suede will always win. We heard they clock in at around £60 too rather than some zillion pound markup too, and they're on sale now - in the UK, these are a Dover Street Market exclusive, which makes sense seeing as they stock the brand, so be prepared to join the scrum with several stern young men in expensive shirts if you want to grab a pair.