crooked tongues magazine News Features

Our buddies at Complex got in contact regarding the slightly outlandish task of compiling the very best Nike Air Max 90s of all time. Not a top 10, but a full 50 in line with the countdowns they seem to pump out online on a daily basis. To begin with, some in the office doubted that there were 50 to pick from without scraping the barrel. Incorrect. The final shortlist was nearly 100 deep, and it's a fairly personal ...

We finally got these photos that were taken in Converse Skateboarding's office space during the U.S. Open of Surfing. Better late than never. That's what happens when you rush out ineptly equipped without a memory card in your camera, effectively rendering it a toy Canon. Not a good look. So after borrowing some equipment and awaiting a disc of photos, here's what we were waiting to up right here for the former skaters and skate disciples ...

Bar the former salesmen in the office, we still don't know what constitutes 'Fall.' We're not ready to start learning either. We'd rather just call it Autumn. But the third wave of Ransom by adidas is the best yet. The scope of this collection has always been grand, but this one seems even more expansive. In coming months we'll get the Sorel and 40 Below lovechild that is The Crest, but the partners have evidently structured ...

The era of vast skate shoes is over, but the first casualty of back-to-basics was comfort. Emerica's Laced model, as sported by Andrew Reynolds and company walks the line with a stripped-down look that's evocative of a certain re-appropriated deck shoe design, but with the bonus of being wearable with or without laces, thanks to some elasticated applications behind-the-scenes. This model's footbed is effective too, and there's no real break-in period either, but it's the ...

We like our New Balances to maintain a certain dignity. Remember when New Balance US faltered with those 'Super Team 33' creations themed on fishes and suchlike and pushed the wackiness remit a little too far? Pieces like this fall onto the right side of fussiness, hurling a ton of different material textures at the 574, and plenty of shades of brown, but coming off looking plush rather than betraying the roots of New Balance. If we're going to ...

The whole Gourmet worldview seems to be gaining further acceptance with each seasonal collection, and since we saw the current brace of silhouettes in January, in the cold confines of an otherwise mediocre tradeshow environment, the light brown 'The 26' model was earmarked as our kind of shoe. "Mmmmm. Butterscotch." The black variations are great, but the butterscotch just has that air of premium, flossy footwear that grabs our attention with that old Dana Dane, Slick Rick, Ghost circa. 'Ironman ...

Emerica's 'Stay Gold' video has been in production for what feels like a lifetime. We saw some teasers this time last year, but if you've followed the production of any significant skate video, then you'll know that they can take their time. On August the 26th (this coming Thursday) it gets it's premiere in at the Prince Charles Cinema in London. It gets an iTunes and DVD outing from September 1st, but there's no substitute ...

The new range's Diciotto is Gourmet's homage to suede sneaker classicism. It's an absurdly simple design that harks back to the archives of two German footwear dynasties, and kind of looks like the lovechild of Adi and Rudi's finest moments, had the duo made up before their passings. When this model was launched earlier in the year, we spotlighted the similarities to the best Rod Laver design, and we're not talking the Rod Vintage here ...

Rune Glifberg is a vert king and one of the shining lights in Converse's particularly strong skate team. Signed in early 2009 after exiting etnies, Converse didn't mess around and gave him a decent pro model in the shape of the blacked-out Coolidge Mid. We never really got down with the high version of the Coolidge. We attribute that to the extra vertical inches the hi-top version carries, and a certain fanciness that seemed at odds with the ...

The more accessible tiers in the big-brand forays into skate generally aren't up to much. You're usually stuck with padded versions of classics, while the core skate stores (quite rightly) get the best stuff. Not so with Converse. At the US Open of Surf shindigs, a quick drive from California's Huntington Beach, Converse had a substantial presence, and while their skate program has been a slow burner with a couple of hi-topped missteps in the past, they ...

We're pretty on the fence with this hybrid of two Nike styles that are close to our collective hearts. Big Windows have been around since their debut. They've become so ubiquitous that we regularly take the shoe for granted in favour of its flashier follow-ups and bulkier predecessors. Follow-ups didn't get much flashier than the Air Max 95—a shoe so elaborate, awesome and expensive that it took a few years to truly appreciate. With such a ...

New Balance 574s remain absurdly underrated. For years, they trudged behind the UK-made 1500, the US-made 1300 and the Asian-made oddness of the MT580. They've always been around (well, since '88), their ever-reasonable pricepoint seems to give them an attainability that diminishes desire for them, and beyond ENCAP, they've never been much more than a hobbyist number from a performance angle. We've long loved them, but for many, they've been the frumpier younger sister to the ...

It's been a long time coming, but the opportunity to create a Nike Bespoke AF1 was about as invigorating a sneaker-related experience as I've had in the last few years. It's easy to become jaded, and like a gateway drug, the addictive sensation of going iD on Dunk and Max models creates the desire to mess around with more and more on a shoe. The original AF1 tweaks were cool, and the 25th anniversary temporary studio on ...

The comparisons between Kazuki Kuraishi's work for adidas's ObyO initiative and Hiroki Nakamura's earlier Visvim work in terms of aesthetics are an inevitability. That's not necessarily a bad thing. Where to launch the fall/winter range, Kazuki's offered some incredibly sober creations with MINTOS and Luker by Neighborhood (is that name a take on the Sex Pistols' label-hopping accumulation of 'Filthy Lucre'? We're not sure), left to fly solo, he's gone one up ...

We can't wait for 'Air Force 1: Anatomy of an Urban Legend' in its full length form to coincide with the current World Basketball Festival happenings.You know you've got it bad when you merrily watch documentaries about sports footwear. Your habit's even worse when you emerge from a viewing curiously refreshed, feeling more enthusiastic about the subject matter, cleansed of mindless blog fatigue. We were raised on 'Clothes Show' and 'Dance Energy' sneaker sightings for direct ...

Some products are just the acceptable face of childishness. You can bang on about Lego and Crayola without fear of being deemed some Games Workshop dweller, or one of those hoarders of crappy "urban vinyl". They're design classics. We learnt to write and draw using Crayola's elegantly designed tubes of paraffin wax and pigment. Some of us got "up" around the house as young 'uns by leaving waxy scrawls on walls prior to punishment. For a few of ...

Here's more quality adidas Forum Mids, just in case you hadn't seen enough this year. This makeup of the shoe feels like a descendent of the OT Tech classiness of recent seasons, but with a slightly more refined twist. It's good to see adidas Originals treating the shoe well, and we've seen so many makeups post Five-Two 3 campaign that it's been pretty dizzying. More often than not, despite the deluge, they've retained the ...

Atiba Jefferson is the best photographer in the skate industry, but it doesn't just stop at the board. He's taken some excellent shots of musicians and actors over the years. We're all photographers these days. There's as many tinpot snappers are there are pseudo-stylists out there. There's a place in our hearts for the usual spate of scuzzy lo-fi shots that cram the blogsphere, but sometimes you need technical savvy and an eye for an ...

Now this right here is hype personified in a shoe silhouette that's been given some all-ages scope this time around. Kazuki, Neighborhood and the adidas Superstar is a serious match. If you recall the cold night of December 31st, 2004 you might recall the Neighborhood addition to the Superstar35 shifting units at midnight for the project's launch, successfully reinforcing the Consortium concept and making what we believe to be a top 5 collaborative shoe. Considering the number of ...

Nike Dunks are so rinsed these days that the best makeups catch us unawares. This pair seemed to spring out of nowhere. We've seen no indicator that they're part of a pack. Maybe they are, but these do what the Dunk AC does well, but without the unnecessary step backwards of a vulc sole. The canvas upper on these seems to be waxed for water resistance, and the canvas around the sole unit is reminiscent of Bruins or ...

We love Nike Air Mariahs. The retro shape trounces some inferior bringbacks that have pockmarked the Nike retro landscape in recent years, and provided your feet are relatively narrow (Sasquatch should fall back and get some AF1s instead) and you up at least half a size then they're pretty comfortable too. That curved almost hourglass outsole shape can be pretty unforgiving. But still, this shoe right here — well, in original form — must have been on the moodboard for Nike ...

The adidas Superstar Vintage is a real testament to how hard the German side went in the late '60s and early '70s. We're not quite old enough to register the initial impact of the shoe. We just remember already ageing b-boys telling us, quite rightly, that Superstars were classic and berating our first Shelltoe purchases for not being as good as their early '80s pairs. Despite the fact we still see them looking forlorn in their lager-soaked tracksuits and ...

Nike's running offerings keep on effing with our collective consciousness. The Nike LunarGlide+ 2 is another potential modern classic. Obviously we wouldn't call classic quite yet, but at some point there must have been a brief to push running design into the 21st century that commenced with the Lunar Racer and never lost pace. We gushed about the LunarGlide+ a year ago. The original — especially in the London makeup — is a near-masterpiece, and elements of the even-better LunarElite ...

Pointer aren't playing on the collaboration front. Speaking to Gareth a few years back, he quite rightly derided the then-state of dual-label projects. Even now it's the usual suspects, the usual licenses being reeled out and the usual products again and again. Pointer occasionally get their dual-label on, and it seems nicely self-indulgent, working with products and brands that we know all involved in the brand genuinely believe in. The ultra-muted Comme teamup was a good start, but ...