crooked tongues magazine News Features

Anyone would be forgiven for thinking the News at the moment is sponsored by Nike, and that we go to bed with visions of All Courts floating around in our craniums. Neither are true. We're holding back on some great adidas previews for next week's (lord willing) relaunch of Crooked Tongues. The fragment design All Courts have been spotted elsewhere so they can go up now, but it's not exactly the kind of shoe anyone can ramble about to fill paragraphs - especially when you've showcased the model more than once. Being the reigning champs of sports footwear-themed verbal diarrhea, we're willing to take up that challenge. Maybe the topic of discussion here would be what's been removed rather than talking additions - the All Court was hardly a Griffey Max in the detail stakes the first time around, now it's even more stripped down.

It's a pretty puritanical no-nonsense design, and while Hiroshi Fujiwara's perforated the swoosh before, this time, on these navy canvas versions (to the best of our knowledge, part of a Tier Zero double act) they've got rid of the branding altogether. It's nice and clean, but it pretty much renders the shoe to barely there status, looking like a decent accompaniment to nicer Converse All Star fragment makeups, but making the minimal more minimalist makes 'em a little nondescript. Wider, more comfy Jack Purcells anyone? Visit 1948 if you're tempted - and we know that little pill-style logo gets plenty out there hyped up. We think the Jun and fragment variations from last week are vastly superior, but going on their frequent appearances lately, we're assuming that Nike want the All Court to join the Air Force 1 and Dunk as staple shoes for the brand. Hardly a challenging piece of design, but a wearable one, with the potential for mass appeal.