crooked tongues magazine News Features

IN STOCK: Click here to buy the adidas Consortium Church's (Tech Onix, Gum) in the Crooked Tongues store now.

IN STOCK: Click here to buy the adidas Consortium Church's (Mustang Brown) in the Crooked Tongues store now.

We know the adidas London pretty well, because we reworked it back in 2009. From that brief it was tough to shift from what made the shoe great - that plain heel, the City Series' cult status, rife with tales of slight variants between licensed adidas factories and the whole leisure shoe concept. That slightly slouchy suede on the upper and leather stripes seemed to define the London though and it's a defiantly European shoe. You'll find no hip-hop crossover here, lad and to call it a "sneaker" would be tantamount to treason. It is what it is. But how much of this shoe is hinged around the colours? That's where we struggled, because the majority of City Series designs are separated from their siblings by a colour and minor detail. Change a shade and does it lose its hometown identity? Some of the size? variations did a decent job, we think we did the shoe proud and these Consortium editions had us a little concerned when we saw the line art, but by drafting in Church's for some truly outstanding suedes and leathers, they don't stray from the DNA that makes this shoe a connoisseurs' favourite.

A fair chunk of fans would prefer to see the shoe untouched entirely, but no silhouette is safe from getting rinsed, but while we recoiled, fearful of some horrific brogue take on classic Church's, it's probably worth mentioning that the bestselling Consul design is like an upper middle class shelltoe. Thus duo of makeups play on the London Olympic spotlight by working in those beautiful materials a union jack and some brogue perforations on the branding. These lose the iconic ‘LONDON’ lettering, but the blue and gum sole versions and darker soled brown and mustard edition (which really reminds us of a size? London) do a good job of keeping the Britishness going. They’re not made in the UK like a good pair of sensible Church’s shoes, but from the uppers to the footbeds and special brown boxes, a collaboration that could have watered down two great brands — one homegrown one and one German import we practically adopted — works pretty well and they're in the Crooked Tongues store right now.

IN STOCK: Click here to buy the adidas Consortium Church's (Tech Onix, Gum) in the Crooked Tongues store now.

IN STOCK: Click here to buy the adidas Consortium Church's (Mustang Brown) in the Crooked Tongues store now.