While we try not to get too J. Peterman in these posts, with embellished anecdotes of high adventure in the quest for footwear that makes the grade, it's certainly worth noting that we spotted the familiar stocky, tattooed figure of Eric Dressen at a dinner for Syndicate last year sharing a cigarette with Steve Olson, and wondered aloud if he was set to work on a shoe project. Turns out our assumption was correct. And no, to our knowledge, he didn't order a Caesar, Nicoise or Waldorf with an accompanying Salad Dressen. The Alva, Dogtown and Santa Cruz legend was also involved in last year's Boneyards project, indicating that he keeps very good company, and on the strength of these mightily fine Half Cabs, extremely good taste.

A onetime exponent of the Court Force and a man who influenced us on many footwear fronts, and with his career currently taking in ink and needles as well as pools, it was inevitable that his handiwork would make it onto this design in a number of subtle but distinctive ways. In choice of brown, black or grey - of which we've found ourselves unable to pick a favourite - it fits in with Eric's hard wearing day-to-day workwear attire perfectly.


Mixing textures, from suede to a woolier feel to a coarser canvas, the side panel replacement for the usual 'Half Cab' patch promotes Mister Cartoon's Syndicate 'S' while the gold eyelet, signature script on the inner collar and his quintessentially West Coast skull and 13 (we don't profess to be tattoo historians, but we think it reps the 13th letter in the alphabet - M, in tribute Dressen's Mexican descent) image on the footbed demonstrating more startling attention-to-detail from our favourite ranges on the shelves today. Team Vans don't seem to be showing any signs of resting on their laurels when it comes to this collection.