At Crooked we see plenty of projects in their infant stage - some make it to release, others come to an abrupt halt at sample stage. Some emerge at the other end short of their original intent. Some surprise us by confounding a complete lack of any anticipation or excitement whatsoever. Sometimes we find ourselves cheering on a collaboration. That's really rare. Like the rest of the population it takes more than a bit of ballistic nylon and storyline to make us cheerleaders for a shoe concept.

When our man in PDX, Mr Chris Law blabbed about his involvement in a commemorative Revelation Records shoe project in association with adidas, we were, in one of those rare moments, truly hyped. Line art indicated something sufficiently non-nonsense too. For those still scratching their heads, Revelation Records was founded in 1987 and through blood, sweat and tears, has made it to 150 releases.

For an indie to still be maintaining in this current climate is a testament to owner Jordan Cooper, who founded the label with Shelter's Ray Cappo, and his dedication to hardcore. For many, the acts on the label like Judge, Battery, Sick Of It All, Farside, Gorilla Biscuits and Youth Of Today, leading to the new(ish) breed like Down To Nothing espouse and represent a lifestyle that defies regional boundaries. The second wave of American hardcore music hit hard. That Mr Law sports a Gorilla Biscuits tattoo on his inner forearm should give you an idea of the dedication to this imprint and the bands within that's not isolated to our onetime art director.

On a purely aesthetic level, with our love for the standard Campus, we'd had a hard time adjusting to a vulcanized version. With Jordan's worldview in mind, this Revelation makeup makes a lot more sense.

Made as a promo item to correlate with the aforementioned 150th release - a 22nd anniversary compilation comprised of classic Revelation songs covered by label and non-label artists, with Terror covering Side By Side, and Set Your Goal covering Gorilla Biscuits among a cast of 20 contributing groups and artists as a benefit for Human Rights Watch, we were very pleased to see this project make it to the other side exactly as the team behind it intended. From the use of the label's familiar black and yellow, to hidden elements like the band logo collage footbed and reflective heel strip, it's exactly as planned. While we're on topic, here's the album tracklist -

1. Sick of It All- Warzone- 'As One'
2. Terror- Side By Side 'Friends'
3. Ignite- Youth of Today- 'Disengage'
4. Death By Stereo- Youth of Today 'Break Down the Walls'
5. Set Your Goals- Gorilla Biscuits 'Forgotten'
6. The Twilight Transmission- Quicksand 'Clean Slate'
7. Ambitions- Bold 'Running Like Thieves'
8. Down To Nothing- Judge- 'What It Meant'
9. Countdown To Life- Insight Out 'Burning Fight'
10. Bold- Supertouch 'Searching For The Light'
11. Damnation AD - Gorilla Biscuits 'Hold Your Ground'
12. Capital- Burn- 'Out Of Time'
13. Backlash- Bold 'Wise Up'
14. The Mediam- Civ- 'Et Tu, Brute?'
15. Triple Threat- No For An Answer- 'Without A Reason'
16. The Scare- Battery- 'Brand New Place'
17. Mikoto- Texas Is The Reason 'Back and To The Left'
18. Walter Schreifels of Gorilla Biscuits/Quicksand- Sick of It All 'Pushed Us Too Far'/'Friends'
19. Ignite The Will- Shai Hulud- 'For The World'
20. This is Hell- The Movielife/Civ medley

The impending 'release' of the shoe also allowed us the opportunity to interview the minds behind the project, bar Claw. We've interrogated him too many times already. He needs a day off.


Jordan Cooper (Owner, Revelation Records)
Jon Sinko (Apparel Category Merchandise Manager - adidas Sport Style Division, ex-Backlash drummer and Revelation Records marketing consultant)

Jordan, I guess, the first an most obvious question is that bringing something that to us, represents a particularly consistent independent success story together with a big brand like adidas could create a few dissenting voices - do you think there'll be any tired 'sellout' accusations? Particularly after the Nike SB/Dischord minor brouhaha a few years back...

Jordan It did cross my mind obviously, but I think Revelation isn't really looked to as a particularly political beacon for anyone. We've gotten called sellout for many years for various reasons, but I feel good about almost every project we've been involved with in the past, even though a few of them involved bigger companies. Personally, I try to live in a responsible way that's also reasonably normal. You can take ethics to paralyzing extremes if you want to. Ian's attitude about the Nike thing was far more casual than a lot of other people's response. To me, I'm not an expert on workers' rights and materials, so talking to Jon and Chris about making a shoe that wasn't exploiting the people who made it and contained no animal products was reassuring.

Jon, how did this whole project come about? Did you make the first contact?

Jon If you mean the comp, Jordan and I discussed a few ideas for Rev over dinner back in 2005- just over 4 years ago now. One of those ideas was a compilation of old Rev band songs done by current bands and having part of the proceeds go to a charity. I guess I'd been feeling- and still do feel- that the current state of the hardcore scene and the larger more mainstream punk/hardcore/emo whatever scene is really lacking any purpose or vision. At least the idea of giving back made sense to me. I remember the when the hardcore scene was about trying to do something- not just about playing loud music, dancing, and looking the part . The whole idea of straight edge or vegetarianism or whatever drove bands back then- it was different and I wanted to try and bring some of that back. And at the time, Rev was, in my eyes, not hitting as hard as they used to.

Jordan and I have known each other since the early '90s but that was the first time we actually met, I think. Or we may have met once before in NYC. I reached out to him cause I was in LA for work and wanted to stop by the HQ and check it out and talk to him about me wanting to be a part of Rev however I could. I grew up just outside of NYC so was lucky to see a lot of Rev bands but he'd moved to Huntington Beach by the time I was going into the City more. We kept in touch as each of the Backlash releases came out- very casual.

Does being a fan up the stakes when it comes to something like this - did you feel extra pressure to help rep Revelation records properly?

Jon Of course. This label and the bands that came from it have meant so much to me personally and musically. It's one of the main reasons why I wanted to be in touch with Jordan to make sure that the new generation of kids were given the opportunity to learn about this label and the bands on it. All of the bands on the comp basically recorded their songs out of the love for this label and what it stands for. We had to turn away some and some just couldn't make enough time with touring. But it was all out of love and respect. We had bands that had toured the world and sold tens of thousands of records and were stoked to finally have a song on a Revelation Release. That's unique.I don't think there's very many labels out there in the hardcore scene like that.

There's so many weak tributes and homages to groups like Gorilla Biscuits - is it nice to be working on something legit here in association with Jordan?

Jon It's been very cool. Especially reaching out to some of the older bands. Like working with Armand from Sick Of It All. Or Cappo helping out with liner notes about the beginning days of him and Jordan starting the label. Or Walter from GB and Quicksand...Tom Capone from Bold. It's history. They're history. Similar to adidas which is why it makes so much sense to me to collaborate.

Did HC lead you into the footwear industry?

Jon Ironically, it did. I put an ad in a free music mag in Portland looking for a new band when my wife and I moved out here and the guitarist I met worked at adidas. Long story short, I've been with adidas for 10 years this month.


Jordan, had you been approached before regarding collaborations?

Jordan No. Actually I'd never heard of them before Jon explained the idea to me. Then I started seeing other ones for sale like the Descendents and Bad Brains Vans shoes and realized that they were becoming more common.

Hardcore has always been something with a strong visual identity - the story of the Revelation logo's genesis has been told before, but is there any relevance in the use of colour, representing a particular political viewpoint, given the conscious content of so many of the label's releases, or was it just a tribute to Dangerhouse?

Jordan Wow, you've done your homework. I don't think the colours we use are a political statement, but the design style that we used in the early days was part of the overall style that a lot of hardcore artwork had in the '80s which was just straightforward and clear about what it was and what was being said. That came from Ray's taste in music and artwork mainly, and showed itself even before the label started in Youth Of Today's music style and artwork. The black and gold in our logo is a pretty standard simple color scheme that stands out so that fits in with that idea as well. I'd never thought about the colour scheme being lifted from Dangerhouse, but Rev's star pattern that was used on a lot of the early releases was inspired by the Dangerhouse Records logo. Ray liked that label and their logo and wanted Rev to have something visual for people to identify us with like Dangerhouse's slanted bars, so he came up with a field of stars. Stars and bars...kind of obvious now that I think about it.

Anyway, the yellow got added to the logo later since most of our early releases had only one or two colours on the covers. I'm not really sure which release got the black and gold logo first, but probably Youth Of Today's 'Break Down The Walls', which was designed by Dave Bett. It could easily have been his idea rather than mine or Ray's actually.

Was there ever any talk of making the shoe yellow, with black detailing rather than the black on yellow of the finished article? Incidentally, we're glad it's the more wearable makeup...

Jordan Chris Law was probably pretty restrained on the design because I think Jon told him that we knew nothing about the crazy underworld of sneaker design. I think he originally sent us a few different designs including maybe a yellow/black version, but from what I remember he said he preferred the black/yellow and that's what we liked as well. We went through a few different iterations after that, but from what I remember the shoe is pretty close to the original sketches he sent us. Some of the more visual people here gave some input on piping and edge colours, which I passed on to C-Law, and that was it.

For all the militancy, it always seemed pretty crazy that sneakers played such a role - Judge seemed so brutal, but they always had expensive athletic footwear! Were guys like Mike conscious of what they wore?

Jordan At first I wasn't sure what you meant by militancy because Judge is usually associated with straight edge militancy rather than DIY militancy. Judge in particular never seemed to me like a band that was fashion conscious. At the same time they weren't an anti-corporate political band. They were mainly an outlet for Mike's personal thoughts. They get pigeonholed as a militant straight edge band, but I think those lyrics are more personal than people who aren't familiar with the band really understand. Mike was an old school hardcore kid and I don't remember him ever talking about shoes. Ray, Porcell and the guys in Bold were the ones who seemed a lot more conscious of clothes. They used to think it was funny if someone laced up their shoes too tightly or kept the string in the hood of a sweatshirt instead of pulling it out and throwing it away.

Fonts have always been so strong from the label's lettering to the 'NYC HC - The Way It Is' one and beyond - were you and David font fanatics? It always feels like the most important but oft-ignored element of sleeve design...

Jordan Another question very close to my heart! Yes, Dave Bett and I spent a lot of time talking about typefaces and lettering. When Revelation started, we, like most punk/hardcore labels, used a lot of Letraset rub on lettering, and some basic computer lettering that was then hand pasted onto layouts. After a few releases and talking to printers we started trying different things including getting certain text done at typesetting companies. If you wanted type to look really good, or to get a typeface that wasn't available on a computer or in rub on letters, you had to go to a company that had special equipment that could output high quality type.

Now you can just install fonts onto your computer and print them, but back then it wasn't that easy. When we were working on 'New York City Hardcore - The Way It Is', I was describing what I wanted it to look like to Dave and he kept showing me different typefaces. Nothing was really working but then he came up with the idea of an inline face which is something I'd never heard of. After a looking at a few of those, we found one and both agreed that it was the one to use. Finding a good typeface that hasn't been overused is always hard and that was one of my favourite type/design matchups. Another typeface that I really spent a lot of time picking was the one that got used on Farside 'Rigged.' The only type on the cover of that record is the logo spraypainted on the amp, but the typeface is used throughout the rest of the record artwork.

David has obviously gone onto the world of more traditional rock artwork - has he seen any element of this project?

Jordan I doubt it, but now that you mention it, I hope there is a pair left over in his size. Hopefully we'll end up making some more of these. There are so many people I'd like to get these to and we only got enough for the bands on the comp and the staff here.


I always heard rumours that Raymond Barbieri was apparently a graffiti-head - did he design the block lettering on the 'Lower East Side Crew' EP? It's crude, but really, really iconic...

Jordan A lot of hardcore kids were into graffiti so that makes sense. The Warzone lettering on the cover of that record was done by Jim Martin from New Haven, CT. He's a well known guy/artist in the hardcore scene, especially in CT where he's done flyers and record covers since the early '80s. He's also been in a few bands over the years...Malachi Krunch and Broken are two I remember. The graffiti style Warzone lettering on the B side label of the first pressing was done by Richie from Underdog/YOT/Into Another.

Could the label have gotten away with a project like this 21 years ago?

Jordan Good question. Probably. Have you ever known a hardcore kid to turn down free shoes?

Were you involved in the creation of the Gorilla Biscuits art for the debut album? They appeared fully formed, with the GB logo plus the gorilla mascot...

Jordan The GB 7" was done by a handful of people. Billy from Side By Side did the illustration on the cover. Alex from Side By Side (who later joined GB) did the layout for the cover and insert. I put it all together and got it ready for production and may have designed the labels and cleaned up some of the type elsewhere. The Gorilla Biscuits 'Start Today' album was designed by Walter and Dave Bett from what I remember and I think Civ drew the little caveman and GB logo.

Obviously sweeping generalisations regarding the changing soundscape of hardcore are tired, but from DIY militancy to a thrashier sound to the conscious releases, do you think the artwork on the releases gradually matured and took more risks?

Jordan Bands that handled their own artwork usually took risks from our earliest releases. Sick Of It All putting a photo of themselves just standing in an alley, a giant chimp on the cover of the GB record, three silhouettes looking like something from a Run DMC album on the Side By Side cover...they all had their own ideas and weren't really following a formula. The artwork on every record is often driven by one person in the band and what it looks like depends on what that person wants and what the other band members like. I think as people's musical tastes change it makes sense that their taste in art will change as well.

In terms of budgets and profit at the very beginning, were the embosses and coloured vinyls a drain on resources? Were you fixated with the notion of giving fans value-for-money? Do you think design and packaging pre-Revelation was, for the most part, lacking?

Jordan The GB embossed covers cost a bit more and colour vinyl is always a little more than black vinyl. We always tried to have decent packaging but weren't really trying to fix a problem out there. We started out releasing 7"s with lyric sheets and that was the standard way to do a 7" and still is. Certain bands wanted more elaborate packaging and for certain releases I wanted to do something extra like the embossing on the GB LP. There were a lot of labels and bands before Rev doing great packaging on their record so that was just the model we tried to follow.

Having catered to collectors with limited editions and handmade bonus packaging, are you a collector of 'things' in general yourself? There's definite parallels between the HC 7" collector culture and sneaker hoarders...

Jordan I'm a casual collector of a few things, but I've never gotten to the obsessive point that I've completed any collection. For example, I don't think I've ever had more than one pressing of a certain record. When eBay was in its heyday I went to the effort of finding all the Corgi cars I could remember having when I was a kid and a few more that I didn't have but wanted, but that was a short and simple list. I feel bad for some of my friends who have to have everything especially when it comes to certain bands' or labels' records. It seems cruel to release a record that will oblige the obsessive to buy yet another copy of something they already have.

Bands always seemed to have such a strong idea of what they wanted on their record and their artistic identity - did that passion ever turn into rows over artwork?

Jordan Very rarely. Revelation has never been that focused on marketing our music to the masses so there's never been the need to adapt artwork to suit any particular purpose. I have on occasion disagreed with a band on artwork because I thought that one idea was better than another and, like a lot of people, usually feel like my opinion is right. If the band disagrees, then their opinion is what we go with.

Was there plenty of back-and-forth when it came to the design process?

Jon I really let Chris and Jordan work things out design-wise. I was just happy to be cc-ed on the emails. I'm an apparel guy at adidas so I left the footwear thing up to the experts.

In this era of Photoshop, do you ever yearn for the days of tracing paper, Letraset and hand-written instructions? Has this project let you be the one making specific demands like acts did back in the day?

Jordan Yeah, that was a pain sometimes but it was also cool in a way because you were usually working at full size so everything was visible at once. Computers made it easier so that there was much less thought involved in doing what you wanted to do, you could do anything pretty much. This is the first time I've ever been involved in anything like these shoes so yeah, it was fun. I tried not to give Chris too much input because I figured that he's got a better idea of what people will like than I do.

Why the Campus for this release? Did it resonate with you particularly? We always associate it with the early '90's which felt like a pivotal moment for the scene, and a time when skate, thrash, HC and hip-hop converged commercially...

Jon It's just such a great shoe. We talk about style in simplicity. Can't say much more than that. I've never thought much about why HC and sneakers gel the way they do. I'm just happy we were able to make this relationship happen and celebrate the two coming together.

Jordan I'm not sure who decided on the Campus, but that is the shoe I would have chosen. I've told Jon for years that adidas should make a canvas shoe. I like a simple looking shoe that has no leather on it and has some sort of arch support. It sounds like it would be easy to find, but try it. There aren't that many out there if there are any at all. At least not the last time I checked. When Jon and I were talking about it at first, this was a few years ago, adidas had no canvas shoes out and Nike had stopped making their canvas GT tennis shoes so the only options were Vans and Converse, both of which have pretty flat insoles. The Campus is the perfect model to me because it's got the clean look of the Superstar without the shell toe. Having it in canvas was crucial to me as well.

How does this correlate with the compilation coinciding with this release?

Jordan The whole idea was that the compilation that Jon put together for us was going to come out around the same time as the shoe. For these shoes, every band that recorded for the comp, got a pair for each member of the band. Hopefully adidas will make some more of these to sell so we can get them to everyone who would like a pair.

Jon Yeah. We really did it for the bands on the compilation and then the Revelation team. I think we made 150 pairs to go along with the 150th release for Revelation Records.

This is a pretty niche project - it's great to see it come to pass, and be executed so well - is it the start of many more?

Jon You never know. I hope so. It would have to make sense like this one did.

The mix of faux-leather, canvas and rubber seems pretty vegetarian-friendly. Was that deliberate?

Jordan Yeah, that was the main thing that I wanted.

Jon Vegan materials for the people who care most about that movement. Chris and Jordan really drove that.

Jon, what's your favourite Revelation release?

Jon 'Past/Present- A Tribute Compilation of the Past 22 Years of Revelation.' Haha! Um...honestly, there's so many. How can anyone name just one?

Thanks to Jordan and Jon for taking the time out to talk to us. Shouts to Claw, Scott and all the adidas Originals US crew.

Get familiar - www.revelationrecords.com