crooked tongues magazine News Features

We like talking about footwear and we're interested in hearing where Reebok's Classics division is headed for the next few seasons. From the NYC launch last week, we could see that they've got some major plans, so it made sense to talk to both the head of Classics and he newly appointed Creative Director, who also happens to be a Grammy winning producer who's married to Alicia Keys. Swizz Beatz would have every right to act ...

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Our feature on Reebok is taking a little longer than anticipated, so we thought we'd throw these up here by way of a brief distraction. The Reebok Kamikaze III was wrongly believed to be Swizz Beatz's signature shoe on the model's sudden Twitter debut a few months back, but he's just on Creative Direction duties rather than creating all-new shoes entirely. We just thought that might be worth pointing out to all those approaching these with ...

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Kenny Anderson is a skater's skater. They're always reliable. adidas has Gonz. Nike has Koston. Converse has Kenny. Supra has Chad. We've seen a few of the new Converse Skateboarding releases affiliated with Mr. Anderson, like the incredibly lightweight Star Player XLT. Those things were so slim and stripped-down that they were barely there — the Converse KA-ONE is a more substantial offering, giving Kenny a signature shoe to match the flagship offerings from other brands, but keeping ...

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How long have we been hunting for these in the UK? Too long. This incarnation of the legendary Rod Laver is the true Rod Laver in our eyes. The original early '70s version is okay, but to be honest, it's not a particularly interesting sneaker compared the Rod Laver Super. Don't believe the talk claiming these are the original version of this shoe. That's not true. After a couple of okay mesh and leather incarnations, the tennis ...

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The New Balance 710 started life as the New Balance Rainier, and while there's some minor differences, the spirit of adventure is intact. Sneakers and hiking shoes are a story that's rarely expounded on — the adidas SL72 was a design inspiration on some early lightweight hiking designs that dispensed with the weightier appearance of their 1960s forefathers, the LD 1000 helped birth the ACG line and when Rainier Mountaineering guide Lou Whittaker hiked in some New Balance tennis ...

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We like 'Look At Me Now' as much as the next idiot, but when we saw Chris Brown wearing some UK-made New Balance 577s last year — Overkills to be exact — we panicked a little. Mr. Brown is many things, but he's not a great dresser, and by wearing those fine SMUs, we thought he might have cursed one of our favourite running designs. Since we last wrote about the 577, they seem to have blown up, shifting from Dover ...

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We like an ASICS GT II makeup when it's done right. 1986's breakthrough design — the first to contain the mysterious gloopy-yet-responsive GEL technology when the rest of the industry was trying to ape Air's nothingness — is a seminal running silhouette that's aged with plenty of dignity. We think (if our maths are correct regarding its birth year) that the shoe is getting a low-key 25th anniversary celebration right here, and while all eyes are on the ...

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New Balance really seems to have broken through and started shifting numbers to an audience who were too dumb to appreciate them before. As more and more shoes underwhelm after a hefty gap between preview and release, UK and US-made New Balances are bringing it. Queues for New Balances? Hipster doofuses ditching the vulc soles for 1300s and 577s? Things have changed, but that new support seems to be giving the brand the confidence to introduce some killer shoes on ...

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This shoe isn't going anywhere soon, is it? Ignore all the dietary nonsense in the press pertaining to the summer months — we recommend grabbing some ASICS Gel Lyte IIIs as a quick fix approach to warm weather weight loss. You've got to hand it to Mr. Ronnie Fieg — he managed to amass queues last night for this silhouette in what's generally an AF1 and Jordan stronghold on the footwear-desire front. That can only be a positive deciding ...

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More adidas Forums? Yes. We can't be stopped in our tiresome adoration for this design. These might not be a true reproduction of the all-black sole joints CL Smooth (an underrated sneaker connoisseur, whose consistency is often overshadowed by Elektra labelmate Grand Puba) used to rock, but black uppers with white stripes is a powerful combination. Is this selection an apology for the pointless AF1 clone variation that appeared a few years back as part of a Consortium relaunch ...

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If you've been mourning the end of the KZK line, you can stop your crying for a minute. These adidas Originals Stan Smiths seem to be inspired by Kazuki's work in a major way, but they're excellent versions of one of the very best adidas designs. It's curious as to how many forms the Stan Smith can take beyond white/green and white/navy, but it seems to keep on working beyond those predominantly white variations ...

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We need to get up and actually do some running at some point. Given the vast stacks of performance running shoes we've amassed and our expanding bellies, there's no excuse. But we don't want to bore the rest of the world by automatically telling you what times and distances we conquered on Nike+ yet running can be a lonely activity — especially if you're a rookie. That's where our buddies at Run Dem Crew come in ...

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The adidas ZX 8000 bears the brunt of the majority of Torsion makeovers, but it stands strong. Even shorn of blue and lemon yellow, this shoe holds up in style. You see "premium" added to boxes as an excuse to charge a premium, but adidas Originals has been applying some beautiful suedes and leathers of late and this makeover adds some extra weight to a running classic. With a hint of the recent OT Tech variations in this black and ...

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We just got back from Berlin where we saw lots of big boots with Vibram soles on tradeshow stands. They looked boring. There's only so many hiking-styles that one can tolerate, but we guarantee that you're going to get assailed by them again this coming winter. Beyond the one-piece innovation of the Native efforts and what's in the pipeline for ACG, the adidas Originals Fourteener is an interesting prospect. We love the Jogging Hi design from back ...

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adidas Originals have been dropping hype-worthy gems inline for the last few months. We've been getting excited about the recent nylon re-workings of the Superstar Vintage and Campus 80s lately, but while the oranges and blacks were zesty and stealthy in their executions, these eggplant colourways of the Campus and Forum Mid Crazy Light bring some classic basketball style and an update of one of the greats together with some Purple City styling (word to Agallah and the crew ...

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Stop with the chav talk. Reebok's '80s output represents a cornerstone of true British streetwear. Remove yourself from the everyman connotations and you can appreciate the smart design that went into the Classic silhouettes, and this Vintage project takes key Reebok models back to their essence. Who else remembers the days when the simplicity of keep fit styles overtook every single one of Reebok's rivals. Every single rival brand. And the key to that triumph? Garment leather — the ...

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The Nike Air Vortex was always the sensible part of the Nike V-Series. Where the Vengeance and Vector were the shoes that had solitary performance selling points, the Vortex had the lightweight and stability angles covered, and the gold, white and blue was a killer combination. But sometimes it's nice to let your hair down, and the output is some brighter versions of this classic. We think it's safe to call the Vortex a classic - loved by runners ...

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Now the hype's long gone, let's be honest — 'Avatar' was a bit crap, wasn't it? This Nike Zoom Kobe VIs a lot better. Beyond the attention to detail on the military and mining equipment, plus the first half hour of 3D pre-migraine, we liked it. The rest was no good. It was the embodiment of the 'True Lies' and 'Titanic' school of cinematic Double Whoppers with cheese. Still, we never understood why there wasn't a slew ...

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These are prettttty good.When we last had a look at Joakim Noah's signature shoe, it was heavily intoxicated for St. Patrick's Day with a green fade that split opinion, but looked pretty good. We like the Le Coq Sportif Joakim Noah 2.0 Pro Model design a lot. It feels like a future cult favourite, simply because — like the man it's made for — it doesn't conform. It's not another bigger brand's sleek, anonymous ...

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