crooked tongues magazine News Features

These adidas Originals by Originals releases keep on getting better, and Kazuki Kuraishi understands the fundamentals of good adi design. Subsequently the KZK MINTOS K-Vulc Mid gets the job done with a certain ease. The grey and black Campus with MINTOS earlier in the year was a fine rendition of the best KZK design (we can't get enough on the extra comfort in the ObyO version of that model) and that palette's been brought in for the K-Vulc too. If you're wondering as to what a K-Vulc is, just as the K-Ball was like a Forum or Conductor with a teched-out touch, this is a Super Skate, Kazuki-style, with a Campus-style tongue and toe, and the side panel excised.

We were never fully convinced by padded Super Skate Vulcs, but add some hype, tone down the excessive elements and we're sold. That KZK taping could make a lot of things look good.

When Kazuki calls in favours, they're generally from those with a bit of know-how. Team Neighborhood or CLOT for instance. Then there's the mysterious MINTOS, who to our knowledge are a superior DJ collective that includes Michiharu Shimoda of Silent Poets cultdom in their camp. So not only do you get some advice from folk who clearly appreciate a decent suede shoe, but your launch party is covered too. Good thinking. While this stays wearable from the inner padding down to the gum outsole, it feels like a summary of themes Kazuki's toyed with thus far, including the BMX and Skate elements that have trickled in.

If you really want to get to the crux of why this sub-range didn't just fizzle out at a point when collaborations had us on a snooze setting, it isn't just the frequent use of black, beloved of stern-faced queue kids the world over. It's the branding. If it wasn't that nifty bottom-of-the-tongue lettering it was those tongues, beautifully branded. The gold lion face with shades of the old MGM logo, block MINTOS font and the MINTOS HI side text doesn't disappoint, fully linked to the Campus makeup. Sick. Sick. Sick. Sometimes it's the little things that can elevate the average in these dark, dark days for retrospective designs and MINTOS at the controls once again means solid footwear, set for release right here in August.

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