crooked tongues magazine News Features

Alife's Everybody Hi has become their trademark model, with lots of Dunk in the mix, but some executions that have been more audacious than some of Nike's reworkings of a shoe that seems to have had every application under the sun thrown at it. The piping on the Patta mid-cut collaboration reinforced the the Vandal genes in this shoe, but this keeps on pushing that shoe's lo-fi but sci-fi look with a parachute-style ripstop fabric. It's crinkly and tactile and we've seen pretty much every shoe under the sun get the military fabric treatment of late. This trio of "Toxic" colourways have some translucent sole units that damn-near glow—even in broad daylight. Some Area 51 footwear. Tonal eyelets maintain that eccentric balance of total conventionality and oddity.

Lest you hurl any allegations of cash-in at team Rivington's contribution to the current indie shoe tsunami, bear in mind that their Ritefoot range—strange as it was, was—alongside Supreme's forgotten but then-fly Downlow and Midtown, set an overlooked early '00's standard. They might have been rough around the edges, but madness like Shields, (Alien Stompers with vulc soles) were just under a decade ahead of their time. Now the range is significantly more conventional, but that eye for the offbeat remains. These are in-store now, and as a pack they prove effective—even if our tolerance for anything akin to olive drab is being tested these days.