crooked tongues magazine News Features

While we're trying to catch up on shoes we slept on over the last month before February is upon us, the Nike LeBron VIII V2 is an excellent sequel...an 'Army of Darkness' rather than a 'Scorpion King' in the follow-up stakes, even if it is a sequel to a sequel...or something like that. Like the Kobe VI, the eighth LeBron is comfortingly familiar, but innovative enough to live up to the hype. 360 Max Air is always ...

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This continues our current string of gaudy, polarising Dunks in this News section. Remember the times when a scan and unofficial Dunk naming had you hastily phoning Exit (RIP), Flatspot or Slam City trying to reserve a pair? That seemed to peak with the Tiffanys, and of late, Nike SB seemed to dispense with the funny stuff. But there's always scope for a spot of Quickstrike wackiness. We can't help but think the inadvertent dry snitch of the ...

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The newest Fragment effort for Nike—quite appropriately—created a distinctly 50-50 split in the office in terms of opinion. These Dunks seem to be built to polarise, and just in case you've ever dismissed Fragment makeovers for playing it safe, here's your retort. The human mind seems to react well to symmetry—it falls into line with our notion of beauty and it’s a priority for us when it comes to collaborations. In recent years, after ...

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We never seem to shut up about the Nike Lunar Macleay on here, but we think the hyperbole is justified. Nate VanHook and Runyo Chen dropped a gem on us with this silhouette because while it's an indie NSW release, it's way more than a throwaway use of ACG for trend purposes—it actually performs (wandering into thick snow late last year was a fail, but that's the fault of a common sense deficit on our part ...

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This adidas Forum Mid is actually part of a trio, but it stands head and shoulders over its Samba and Nizza siblings. Why? because when it's at its best, adidas basketball is heavy on the flossiness quota. Who the hell could afford Forums to play basketball in on their introduction? The Toronto, Cityline and Instinct were crazy too. Snake effects have been rinsed of late by adidas Originals. What was once exciting had turned into 'Anaconda 3: Offspring' —heard ...

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While pretty much every other brand seems to be bumbling around, engaging in the art of innovating without innovating, New Balance's heritage division seems to be more relevant than ever. The shoe that melted minds and emptied bank accounts—with extensive coverage in 1988 for its $160 price tag—still remains a seminal part of many a shoe horde. We forgot to cover these before Christmas, but to leave them out would be ignorant. It's a slim model ...

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When adidas got hold of the licence to work with NBA colours and imagery without having to look out for the legal papers it was always going to seep into the Originals line. Over the years, the licensed pieces have improved significantly—the urge to splatter the shoes with team names or extra unnecessary tie-in zaniness has paid dividends. We liked the Knicks and Lakers Superstar 2s a whole lot, but these Decade Hi colourways are vastly superior. It's ...

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There's very little point pumping out more poorly spelt paragraphs on a shoe like this. It's the undisputed king of sneakers. There's some office talk as to whether the III takes out the IV as the greatest Jordan, but for that perfect balance of simplicity, Dapper Dan style pattern flossing and premium feel and the way it captured a revolutionary moment for Nike, who's messing with this one? We saw Eazy and Kane rocking this model ...

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adidas Originals seem to be having fun with the fabrics this Spring, but this Campus 80s makes a lot of sense. For the most part, suede on this shoe is a must—it’s that lack of leather sheen that usually lets even the most lairy colour on the upper (offset by white stripes of course) work time after time on this, the very best of the Campus shapes. We’ve been smitten with this release since its Footpatrol-affiliated reissue ...

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Hmm. Sometimes a perfectly good shoe can suffer from the vastness of its legacy, thanks to some cavalier naming decisions. The Nike Air Waffle Trainer is a perfectly decent mish-mash of new and old Nike running pieces, but it bears absolutely no resemblance to its amazing ancestor. If you're not aged and grizzled like us, you might not know that there was a Nike Waffle Trainer released just years after Mr. Bill Bowerman was changing athletic footwear with that ...

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The adidas Questar was futuristic from day one, but this makeup pushes the boundaries and is liable to make some purists kick an inanimate object in fury. We're torn with this one - it takes to some lurid neons with a certain ease, just because the shoe is so next level in the design stakes, but the old silver and grey handled it right too. Following the all-3M (or Scotchlite for the pedants) Footpatrol ZX 800, this one is even ...

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The Reebok Alien Stomper set a precedent back in the day. Firstly, it harks back to a time before Jim Cameron went soft and fixated on fairies and fancy cameras, instead dwelling on the M41A 10-mm Pulse Rifle, Robot Sentry Guns and M240 Flamethrowers...the important stuff. Reebok's custom creation for Ellen Ripley to wear after 57 years in hypersleep was further proof of Cameron's obsessive attention-to-detail, and something that helped fertilise a nascent sneaker preoccupation for the ...

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These are more examples of Gourmet getting all grown up on us from the current season's crop. We've talked to Jon from Gourmet about his love for classic hikers from brands like Vasque, and while the current tradeshow season will be awash with stands selling exotic-looking SK8 Hi x Lanvin imitations, here's an indie that understands what makes footwear great. You can check their collective credentials if you're sceptical. Lately, the Italian names gave way to ...

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Nike Air Force 1s work best as Highs from a visual standpoint, even if Lows are the easiest wear and the Mid stays underrated. Why? Because they're monsters that changed everything for a certain sector of shoedom. Nylon straps remain hugely effective and kept simple (and implementing materials that don't crumple on sight), they're one of Nike's most powerful creations. The Dunk Hi has been sending us off to never-neverland of late, though the Quickstrike Lows ...

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Welcome back, ZX 380.The trouble with making the effort of a reissue is that brands will rinse it over subsequent seasons to justify the outlay. Thus your happy childhood memories are superseded by garish salerack monstrosities. It almost works as an allegory for life in general. So when a shoe returns that's something a little different, we tend to get quite excited, and the ZX line is one of the greatest running shoe dynasties of all time (and ...

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The Nike Match was an interesting bringback move for Nike to make. the story goes that one Mr. Hiroshi Fujiwara clocked a pair in Portland and decided that it would make a good Tier Zero addition. That makes a lot of sense - the Match fits with the then (and now) fixation with fixed gears and a peroccupation with simplicity. Having had a Hiroshi reworking as well as some excellent UnderCover colourways, its gone inline, but with a similar aesthetic to ...

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This shoe looks fantastic, even if it leaves us a little confused. The Terra name is a confusing one...there was the Terra ACG back in '91 (an before that, the Terra T/C running shoe), then there were a few more Terras in the ACG line, before the non-ACG Terra trail running line seemed to spring up in 1996...oh, and there was a Terra tennis shoe around that time too. The whole Terra situation is odd. So this ...

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Before we get bogged down in what's dropping next month, we thought these two Decades were worth covering. At present there's two variations on this shoe in circulation...the wider, more padded B-Ball variation (set to drop in a trio of very good NBA makeups) and this slimmer variation, as reintroduced circa. 2007 after its debut in the mid '80s, when it provided a more affordable alternative to the big-money Forum design. We're pretty divided over which ...

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Ransom by adidas haven't been playing it too safe lately. The mad hybrids of 40 Below monsters and Sorel-esque duck boot designs have been welcome round these parts during the last few weeks. The towering Crest model sat in its box waiting for its day of reckoning. While we don't get the same conditions that our friends at Ransom suffer, thanks to their Canadian location, that boot made short work of a few inches of snow, slush and ...

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The Pegasus line represents an attainable level of beauty from the Nike running collection. It never had the Visible Air to hike up the price beyond reason, but it felt a little more credible than a pair of Air Icarus, Atlas, Craft or Analog. This model was plenty of people's first "proper" shoe...even your dad might have grabbed a pair during a short-lived running phase back in the day. Since the reintroduction of the 1983 Pegasus in 2008 ...

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We were raised on Nike Tennis shoes. Challenge Courts, Mac Attacks, Air Aces, Air Trainer 1s, Tech Challenges, Challenge Huaraches, Supreme Courts, Air Resistances, Challenge LWPs, Max Sweeps, Zoom Challenge IIs, Zoom Ablazes, Zoom Pounces (one of the most underrated Nike Tennis shoes) and Air Oscillates all rocked our world, but nothing had really impressed us in a while. Then the Ballistec line started putting out some good pieces and the Court Ballistec 2.3 had us very hyped indeed ...

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As we said a week or so ago, while the Nike SB Zoom FP might look a little odd off the foot, it comes into its own when it's on. Plus it's made to skate, rather than pose for blogshots. This design is looking to inform the next generation of Nike SB releases (including the much-anticipated Koston 1) and it feels like the sum total of everything the team have been working on up to now. With this ...

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2013

• June (12)
• May (24)
• April (24)
• March (26)
• February (27)
• January (28)

crooked tongues magazine News Features

Nike Air Max LeBron VIII V2

Nike SB Dunk Low Premium Bison/Varsity Purple

Fragment Nike Dunk Hi "London"

Nike Sportswear Lunar Macleay+ (Black/Moss Green)

adidas Snakeskin Forum Mid RS

New Balance 1500 UKG

NBA adidas Originals Decade B-Balls

Air Jordan III White/Cement

adidas "Waterproof" Campus 80s

Nike Air Waffle Trainer

adidas Questar 'Reflective'

More Reebok Alien Stompers

Gourmet "The 27"

Nike Air Force 1 High Premium LE

adidas ZX 380

Nike Zoom Match Classic

Nike Sportswear Lunar Racer Vengeance Terra

adidas Originals Decade Hi

Ransom by adidas Mesa

Nike Air Pegasus '92s

CT Best of the Year: Nike Courtballistec 2.3 Alex Chan & Tate Kuerbis Q&A

CT Best of the Year: Nike SB Zoom FP Shawn Carboy Q&A

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