Here's a little first look at something pretty major from Lacoste and our friends at Barcelona's LimitEDitions store. While you were sleeping, Ricky, Angel and the crew created one of the most impressive sneaker retail experiences in Europe. In fact, cross that out - with their alarmingly precise approach to window displays, it's one of the most impressive sneaker retail experiences there is, period. You'd have to get up early to take the LimitEDitions crown...factor in the fact the Ricky doesn't seem to stop in his plans to stay on top, and it's a tough one to topple. If this sounds like a sycophantic press release, seriously, go check it out if you're on a jaunt to Spain. And if you're a store owner with window space to spare, you might want to take a few notes.

In late January, Ricky opened up the vintage apartment for a clientele to wander round slack-jawed, intoxicated by the memories, high off nerdery contact highs, and dazed by the chance to stare at what was previously "holy grail" jpegs rather than real world leather and mesh. That's where this project fits in. Of course the majors were covered extensively in that space, but one of its key plus-points was the space allocated to other brands. Hi-top experiments, pop coloured and speckled runners, lost technologies...we're getting high off the memories. Lacoste have got some gems in their archive - they don't need to get all revisionist on us, and this over-the-ankle number is no exception. It looks like big things are planned for the brand's Stealth wing in 2010.


Holding out until a shoe was ripe for resurrection, the LimitEDitions team have been let loose on the Indiana High - with elements not dissimilar to the oft-reworked Missouri but with some slightly nicer branding, the original release (pictured) was an oddball design in that it's a hi-topped tennis shoe. K-Swiss did it too with the Classic, but it wasn't a patch on these. At ground level, it's clay court, but onwards and upwards, with that padding and perforation, it looks distinctly wood court in its intent. But kept clean it really works well. The makeups from LimitEDitions have been strong on other brands, as relative newcomers to the sneaker collaboration side of things despite retail veteran status, and these designs prove that they're not afraid to let simplicity shine. This will be the first drop in the model's reintroduction, and one makeup is designed with the males in mind (with ladies sizes available) and the other for women (vice versa on the sizing) and they've just let the colour POP on the outsoles, heel and collar.

Broken-in vintage style leather that's a little softer and heel panels are vintaged too, but evidently not to the over-the-top demolished extent that other brands have pre-trashed their releases, and an 'ED' Fleur de Lys' emboss on the tongue indicate attention-to-detail at work. Extra laces for every match-up taste, extra insoles and some nice packaging are solid extras. Released on Saturday the 3rd of October, each global retail partner (including Crooked) gets their own branded hangtag too. We forsee a market that includes connoisseurs, hipsters, big shoe ironists and young 'uns of both sexes picking 'em up. Props to LimitEDitions and Lacoste for bringing something very different to our attention. We'll be featuring some closer pictures nearer to next month's launch date...