crooked tongues magazine News Features

We understand if this uncompromising silhouette isn't to your tastes, but if you like your ACG lineage done right, you've got to at least respect models like this. We could fill a 'Best of...' with old shoes in their original colours, but nobody wants to see that and it's an insult to the minds that brought us some great new shoes in 2011. Models like the Nike Sportswear ACG Air Max Prime GTX are a good barometer ...

We couldn't single out a solitary Vans Vault shoe this year, but plenty stood out — the Aloha pack, the Ludwig pack's use of deadstock Vans fabrics and the Taka Hayashi remix of the Sk8 Hi were all excellent, but there was plenty more this year, and this Vans range always delivers pitch-perfect product down to custom packaging for individual collaborations. We're bored of the same boxes in the stacks we've amassed, so that's a plus ...

There's some shoes that have underpinned Crooked since the beginning. The Flow and its Current sibling have long been source of curiosity to us — '89's evolution of the Sock Racer (and we still love the '84 prototype neoprene runner Bruce Kilgore designed that set this off — we wish that got a release alongside some other protoype favourites) and the daddy of the Huarache was well received when it was rereleased in the summer. A well-concealed (how do you ...

adidas resurrect shoes a lot better than most other brands do, but that's because their archive is peppered with some masterpieces for pretty much every possible discipline. The ZX collection is a particular preoccupation for us, because of their legacy, plenty of youthful aspiration and their ageless, clinical cool. We wanted to see the ZX 930 back on the shelves alongside the current brace of brought-back runners, but we were more than happy to see the ZX 380 resurrected ...

We know, we know. The industry is rife with circle jerk between buddies and brands, but you've got to give it to those who just bring the ruckus when it comes to a collaboration and appreciate the same things that we do. Age probably plays its part, as does an obsession with hip-hop, and Frank "The Butcher" Rivera is a like mind. So we get on well. But even if we weren't cool with Frank and even if ...

The M998 isn't a new shoe — it dates back to late 1992, and its been available Stateside as a retro for a while on and off. but on UK shores, we'd had trouble finding pairs, making this running design a shoe we've long lusted after in sufficient supplies. We'd spotted 998s in Japan over the years, but had sizing issues in a land where US10 was bigfoot status, and the all grey deadstock pro-runner stacks ran ...

Being Brits, we have a tendency to gravitate towards Reebok's white-on-white output. As a chapter in the history of sneakers, Reebok's decision to use garment leather on a range of shoes that capitalised on a boom in aerobics and hobbyist fitness habits using stretchy garment leather (that may or may not have been added to a sample by accident) deemed unusable by rival brands is a remarkable one. These shoes are design classics. The chav talk? Whatever. Anyone ...

Our rundown of 2011's very best continues, with another look at the Nike Sportswear Zoom Meriwether. We love ACG shoes. We're obsessed with Nike boots, and the (RED) and Fragment editions of this model were some of the best collaborations of the year. There's a lot to love right here if you're a fan of All Conditions Gear, and if you're not at least a little bit appreciative of ACG, then you're probably in ...

Time to take a closer look at some of our favourite releases.We hope you had a great day yesterday and seeing as it's the time of year where retrospect is encouraged, we're highlighting some of our favourite shoes from our 'Best Of' feature selection and firing questions at the people behind them to get more information on the genesis of each release (and occasionally, we're attempting to get them to disclose their plans for 2012). Incidentally ...

First things first — happy holidays to everyone who supported Crooked Tongues in any capacity over the last twelve months. Thank you for everything. It's that time of year where we get all retrospective and take a look back with our annual 'CT'S BEST OF...' feature. It looked like 2011's offerings were lacking a little on our first list collation, but once again, we managed to name just over 100 shoes we thought delivered the goods, be it ...

To see in the Holidays, here's another Nike Sportswear release that's been canned from the UK-release schedule for early 2012, despite being excellent. Alas, what we love isn't necessarily commercially viable, as we've learnt from a slew of amazing shoes that never got the opportunity to exit sample stage. It's curious that shoes from as recently as 2003 can send us spiralling into fits of nostalgia, but given the madness of the last eight years ...

The Worldstar Hip Hop footage of American shopping mall skirmishes for Jordan XIs has become as much of a Christmas tradition for us as Jimmy Stewart sprinting through town with a new lease of life. The eleventh Jordan is a masterpiece, but over here it's been more of a basketball player or collector's shoe, whereas Stateside, it's a full-blown phenomenon. We always though the 'IE' low edition (supposedly standing for International Edition) was made on a lack ...

Before we continue, we'd like to point out that these shoes aren't getting a release because they were dropped from early 2012's European release schedule. Will they turn up elsewhere in the world? Hopefully. So why feature these Nike Air Tailwinds? Because they're incredible. That's all the answer you need. This week, the OG colours of this pioneering Nike model got a Quickstrike release in Hawaii's KICKS/HI store. That's appropriate, because the ...

At Crooked Tongues we love the fancier or more authentic side of shoes rather than the dressier and subdued stuff. That’s because it’s hard to write about the simple, premium stuff and because some of these shoes are just there san stories or vast reference points. What is there to say about them? But this whole Nike Sportswear NRG pack is a sign of some clean and simple stuff for the heads who are looking for no-frills footwear ...

Great minds think alike, so the old saying goes. When this is applied to a sneaker collaboration, the mutual respect between two brands are there to create something of quality and in this case, something awesome. Saucony and fellow Massachusetts buddies Bodega, see their relationship continue to flourish as they again rework the footwear brand’s Elite Master Control. It’s a wonderful return for this runner to get another round of appreciation it deserves from Saucony’s back catalogue ...

Jordan XIVs have a devoted audience on these shores, but it's not as sizeable as the IIIs or impending XIs. But those who do appreciate this Air Jordan design are loyal to this shoe. Whether this mid-cut shoe with metallic ventilation is to your tastes or not, you can't deny that Mr. Hatfield did a far better job of channeling luxury car genetics into a shoe better than the monstrosities that real collaborations with car brands create (think ...

2012 is the year of the retro. And we don't mean that in a bad way — there's a fair chance that a shoe you've loved and lost or just never owned is returning inline again. The Olympics are on their way and there's a few anniversaries being celebrated too. Of course, you're going to get some bizarro colourways, but that's part of the reissue culture. We guarantee that something will please you, even if ...

Saucony's Elite pack with Bodega lacks the weak links that ruin a collaborative collection. These shoes have an unnerving level of consistency and while there's no overriding plot sledgehammered into each makeup, colourways like this push the project forward nicely. This makeup of the early '90s' Grid 9000 design, with its sock-like Huarache-era fit is further proof that there's mileage in distance runners like this, offering the next wave of Saucony design DNA, post-Shadow. Technical-looking, still capable ...

Sunday is Sabbath day – the day of rest. So in conjunction with Veja, we threw a party on the very said day for the launch of their Domingo shoe that we recently covered. Taking on board a more laid back approach to your average launch party and it happening on the appropriately-translated-day-from-Domingo — it being Sunday in Portugese — the Nightjar in Old Street hosted the evening’s proceedings. The Nightjar is a discreet gentlemen’s cocktail bar situated in a basement ...

You might have noticed that New Balance's Flimby facilities are a place close to our hearts. We love visiting there, we love chatting with the folk who run the factory, oversee manufacturing and cut out those 'N's (harder than it looks, because one of our team managed to clumsily embed a metal 'N' template at least an inch into the cutting board). From the 2003/4 developments of the 576 quartet to the 2005 1500 and mass pilgrimage ...

London's been getting some decent Nike Hyperfuse Air Max exclusives over the last few months. There was the 'New Blood' editions that were okay in a mad basic iD kind of way, the Air Max 90 Infrared that we still get begging emails and tweets about and now this Arsenal 125 themed pair of AM1s. The Air Max 1 Hyperfuse is a strong base to make simple colourways really pop and this year's Arsenal 125th anniversary celebrations had ...

The Air Trainer SC II is one of the greatest Nike designs ever. We never saw Jerry Seinfeld opt for this one (in the Velcro forefoot stakes he was more of an Air Trainer Max man), but there's an air of 'Home Improvement' to this silhouette. Kudos to Nike for paying attention to what the fans wanted back, and if you were a sneaker fanboy or girl circa 1990, you may have envied this model from afar, despite only ...

The adidas Decade has had some good colourways over the last few months. The key to good versions of this shoe is to not play silly buggers when it comes to reworking it. The '84 classic that's like the uptight younger brother of the expensive and Forum and the flamboyant Concord still commands respect, reflecting the clean, non-Dellinger adidas aesthetic that could hold its own against the heavy duty RRPs of other adidas shoes of the time. The supersize ...

Boston's Bodega and Saucony make some of the best collaborative footwear there is. Everyone's collaborating these days, but honestly, how many of those links on your Facebook, RSS or twitter feed do you click? We're guessing none, because they're either plain colours that are talked up as if they're a life changing event or conceptual rubbish with a video of a man wandering about to a Rapidshare rap instrumental. Who cares any more? Bodega and ...

Sports footwear has a rich history of Olympic tie-ins. Some of the greatest Nike, adidas and PUMA pieces were built around that pivotal summer event — the Dream Team USA colourways, L.A. Trainers and Onitsuka's minimal running breakthroughs for the Japanese competitiors hark back to glory days, controversies and upsets, but it's such a profitable place to be showing off your brand markings, that every company goes hard in the paint, sand, water and track dirt. It's ...

For a shoe that's so straightforward, the adidas Tobacco seems to attract a certain devotee who can enjoy the finer things in life. Finer things like a low profile trainer that isn't made for much else than just enjoying your everyday existence. Introduced in the very early 1970s, this was a shoe that seemed to chill while adidas innovated with Americanas and Marathons. It is what it is. That's not to say that the Tobacco doesn't ...

Charlie Dark and his Run Dem Crew have got a lot to answer for. He's a 21st century Mr. Motivator, minus the bum bag. For years, we were an unhealthy bunch, stacking up running shoes, obsessing over improvements in the weight reduction of a product, coveting new technologies and breaking down the benefits, as they'd been relayed to us at fancy press launches. Of course, we had no intention of running in them. It was just nice to ...

Nike's Match isn't the kind of shoe that would have anybody jumping for joy, but it has a certain dowdy charm. An unremarkable Bruin-esque spin for tennis that dates back to 1973, nobody's bugging out at the sparse upper unless it's in league with Hiroshi or Jun and his team, but it's a popular pick that's gathering wearers who've been drawn in by the seasonal braces of Blazers, and probably aren't likely ...

1989's Nike Air Max Light is a shoe close to our hearts. Offering the middle ground between 1987's Air Max and the ridged panels of 1990's variation, when it dropped in 1989, the Light was a silhouette that helped spread a bug that we've never quite been able to shift since that first glance. The Air Max Light spread the gospel of the visible air runner to the shelves of provincial stores that never carried the ...

Balancing sustainability with business can be a hard sell, as it doesn’t always sit well with everyone. Fair trade branding on products can sometimes be off putting. It may be confused with an apparent pretentiousness; a brand may seem fake in going green as they’re trying to win public likeability, and when wearable items are concerned, they can be deemed unstylish. This is where Parisian label Veja step in, who run things ethically in sound sporting style. Their ...