crooked tongues magazine News Features

On hearing that David Beckham was dropping a whole 'DB' line as part of the Originals By Originals collection, we were sceptical, anticipating a ton of white-on-white Stan Smiths, Forum Lo and maybe a ZX 700 Boat or two. We may have even smirked, seeing as the company he was keeping consisted of the mighty Alyasha of Fiberops fame, Fragment's Kazuki and Jeremy Scott, but from the off, it erased the smugness with a strong level of quality control. Getting UNDFTD's James Bond in was a shrewd move, and his concepts have been of a consistently high standard so far.

We really like the Rod Laver Super reworking this season, which matches the ace ZX 8000 in the desirability stakes round these parts, but these premium reworkings of the Gazelle Vintage...recognisable by the heel tab and sole unit rather than the less slender moc-toed upper, are pretty good. The brown panel sets things off nicely, and the suede around the collar is appealing too. Whereas the current moc/boat themed shoe-nami is skimping on the little details, these feel a bit more cohesive than usual updates of your favourite designs. They've got golden balls to be tinkering with a training design that remains a sacred cow to the present day, but that football link makes this model seem significantly less outlandish, and the end result is pretty classy. Trust us - when we saw the name "Gazelle Mid" we feared the worst. Sometimes it's nice to be proven wrong. These are on sale now <a href= 'http://www.crookedtongues.com/store/new-arrivals/'>in the Crooked store</a>.