crooked tongues magazine News Features

The work boot has become a hardwearing epidemic at street level. They're everywhere. Earlier in the year we were stunned at the sheer volume of barely creased, wedge-soled, reddish brown, moc-toed boots that passed us at a Berlin trade show. It was mind-boggling. What was built to withstand the rigors of a hard day's working (glowering at a MacBook probably wasn't one of the trades considered during their development stages) has became some kind of middle-finger raised ...

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Since A.P.C. got in on the act, there's been a significant push on the Nike All Court—once the budget alternative to Blazers and Bruins, and a shoe for all the family. Still, we like the proto-cross training attempts back in the day to shift the shoe as a basketball, handball, badminton and tennis shoe. The All Court Mid was the multi-purpose, budget Blazer and curiously, for a brief time in the early 1980s, the Blazer got ...

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It's been a while since we covered an adidas Americana on these pages, but there's always room in our stashes for more variations on this pioneering design. Just as a point-of-difference, look at the output from rival brands back in 1970—their output looked positively prehistoric. adidas were so far ahead that it's difficult to fathom. Of course, mesh and leather was the ideal combo for a model that was once the official shoe of the American ...

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Nike Sportswear did well. As we've said before on these pages, promotional events can be terrible. More often than not, you're bound to at least an hour of clasping a complimentary Vitamin Water in one hand, forcing a smile at a PR buddy and making small talk about your day job post-dinnertime. Canapes help, but we've attended some "do's" that were as flat and awkward as your best friend's deeply unattended house parties back in ...

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Remember the early days of Billionaire Boys Club, when Pharrell's t-shirt had bootleggers working overtime? Or the polo shirt in the 'Frontin' video that cause some pre-blog hype? The joy was the lack of availability and hunt, but by god the Billionaire Boys Club is making up for lost time these days, by hurling aside that rep for garishness and following club chairman Nigo's foray into the cleaner-looking side of things. In fact, with the brand's new ...

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Sometimes we get accused of being biased toward certain brands, but we're open-minded towards a whole heap of companies. However, we still think that the archives of Germany's big two are ripe for a reference book. Imagine the definitive guide to PUMA or adidas in the style of 'Irreverance Justified' or a Tokyo magazine/book hybrid? We've seen some attempts before, but we still don't think people realise how deep each brand has gone over the ...

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What's all the feuding and fussing for when it comes to the Nike SB Supreme 94? It's a decent shoe. After the Dunks caused mania, Blazers shifted quickly, Bruins and Air Trainers caused hype with an amassing audience and Delta Forces got an unfairly lukewarm response, where was Supreme's relationship with Nike supposed to go? SB is branching out into new realms and the 94 (that doesn't just represent Supreme's year zero—it also reflects ...

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Nike SB is almost ten years old—that's nearly a decade of feverish desire for the Dunk, with eBay prices rising and footwear riots as a result. But that all ignores the fact the shoe was lightly tweaked for skate performance shoe first and foremost...but the Zoo York and Supreme affiliations didn't hurt. Zoom in the midsole and the Pro Lo padding benefited the shoe for skateboarding, but those alterations were minor. For 2011 the Dunk is ...

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We haven't been offered these to sell, but it's worth featuring these Hanon Shop Kegler Supers here, just because the finished product (after a few vague previews) is so decent. Consortium's stepped up a lot over the last year after a few high-concept collections got a lukewarm reception, but now the days of poker-themed nightmare makeups are firmly in the past, the impetus for 2010 seems to have been simplicity and respect for the source material. Which ...

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Last week we upped the adidas NBA Knicks Superstar 2 and assumed it was infrared and navy like the ABA adidas shoes of old. That's because we're colourblind sometimes. These are more overt —we'd need to have eyes of wood to notice that these are Lakers variations. Yellow and purple is the colour combination of champions when it's flipped with a certain moderation. It's interesting to see a staple shoe get a rehaul themed on ...

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Finally, after much squinting and copywriting using a tiny image, we've got our hands on the much-touted Undercover GYAKUSOU Nike Lunar Spider LT+. It's a significant shoe for a number of reasons. The primary selling point is that its been amended by Mr. Jun Takahashi, who continually fights the good fight against regressive looks—this performance running story fits in nicely there. What's equally resonant is that this is a collaboration that—and we won't kid ...

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Torsion Specials stay classic round these parts. You can approach the road running pieces with reverence, but they tend to be a little too narrow—take the Torsion bar offroad and it's all good. The slightly more vicious looking sole unit gives it some extra oomph and while nothing's taking that blue and grey version—a colourway that achieved a certain cultdom with North Face wearing cool kids waaaaay before indiscriminately buying second-hand Polo was considered a fast ...

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Sometimes modifications to the Dunk make us want to punch the wall. There's no need to tweak a formula that has had every application, colour and reference hurled its way. Zoom Air and a spot of extra padding aside, we just like it left as it is. Generally, hybrids with this shoe (Nike Trainer Dunk Low gets an honorary discharge from this criticism) stink. It's a simple team coloured basketball shoe—it doesn't need to be modified ...

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Nike's SFB Chukkas have been something of a slow burner. For all the goodwill from some factions, they seemed to generate some pretty negative responses on their debut, but over time we've seen some Special Forces haters turn into fanboys. That's because they're amazing shoes and while, lord willing, we won't have to put the thermoplastic forefoot shield and all the other roughneck military innovations to work in the environment they're intended for—built ...

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In his time at adidas Originals, the brand's Vice President, Ben Pruess has been one of Crooked's biggest partners, a major industry shot caller and a friend. All those collaborations? It was thanks to Ben that we were involved. He's certainly steered the brand into a new realm that allowed extra expression without compromising the revered nature of archive pieces. We were pretty shocked to hear he's leaving that role, so when we got news of ...

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If you want another Complex/Crooked meeting-of-minds, or if you've been lamenting a lack of archive talk on these pages, hopefully our latest rundown will fill the gap. Our buddies at complex.com wanted another bunch of sneaker nerd talk after the controversial AM90 countdown. Seeing at it was wintertime and everyone who's ever worked for CT has, at one time or another, been influenced by Nike's legacy of trail creations, it made sense to drop a ...

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Timberland's Abington department is really coming through this season. When this sub-brand started, we sneered at the heritage styling and immediately gravitated back towards our battered wheat workboots and scuffed (but still waterproof) Beef N' Brocs. We thought this was all too fancy for our conservative tastes when it comes to the subject of Tims. Then we felt the weight of the original Hiker design and found ourselves falling for the Work Chukka design. Bar all the talk of ...

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Clae have been holding it down for a few years now. Their original releases were way ahead of their time, back when kids weren't quite so open-minded on the indie front—2001 seems like a long, long time ago and Sung and the crew's Clae renaissance later in the decade got the brand some much-deserved props and crucially, (because a brand can't operate on goodwill alone) some commercial success too. With experience with the mighty PNB Nation ...

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The adidas Originals pieces bearing the fruits of their NBA sponsorship have been a mixed kit bag thus far. NBA colourways are often the best makeups any shoe could ask for and on the adidas roster of court classics, they're a strong match. We appreciate that the brand with the 3-Stripes was pleased to be able to throw their National Basketball Association credentials around without merely being referential, but some extra logos and lurid branding put us off a ...

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Since the adidas ZX 5000 made its return earlier this year, this model's been getting some serious play while pieces like the ZX 7000 have fallen to the back of the retro rollout. This 1988 design represents a certain time and place and its never been one for the more adventurous colourways, Compared to some of the muted looks this silhouette's had, the classic ZX 8000 palette looks outrageous by comparison and the ZX 9000 is downright otherworldly ...

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Even when Supra are attempting to be conventional they manage to create an oddity—the Supra Henry Boot is a mix of rugged workboot and skate performance. We managed to omit this in News coverage last month which was a dumb move. Of all the attempts to capture a non-sneaker audience with shades of Danner, Viberg and Lowa, Supra have actually created one of the best homages to functionality. That's because this can perform as a simple everyday wear ...

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The adidas Def Jam drops have been a mixed bag so far, just because that lineup isn't what it used to be (we'd still like to have seen a Rick Ross model) and some of the referenced stars were hardly happy with the state of the label at the time of each shoe's release. Still, those Ghostface and Jeezy Forums were good. This newer wave gets it right. Ultrastars in the mix? Given the Run-DMC spec of ...

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2012

• May (14)
• April (22)
• March (18)
• February (20)
• January (27)

crooked tongues magazine News Features

etnies Plus & the Lovewright Co. Califas Q&A

Nike Sportswear & Stussy 'XXX' All Court Collection

adidas Originals Americana Lo

Nike Sportswear 'Destroy to Create' Documentary

BBC "Nothing" Sneaker

Sneaker Tokyo Vol. 3 "PUMA"

Nike SB Supreme 94 Hi

Nike Dunk Pro SB

adidas Originals x Hanon Shop Kegler Super

adidas NBA Superstar 2 'Lakers'

Nike GYAKUSOU Lunar Spider LT+

adidas Torsion Special Chalk/Legion Blue

Nike Sportswear Athletics Far East Lava Dunk Hi

Nike Sportswear Athletics Far East SFB Chukka

An exit Q&A with Ben Pruess: VP of adidas Originals

The Top 50 Nike Trail Shoes

Timberland Abington Hiker GTX

Clae McQueen & Strayhorn

adidas NBA Superstar 2

adidas ZX 5000 Iron/Pool

Supra Henry Boot

adidas Def Jam Campus 80s

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