Daiki Suzuki's menswear brand Engineered Garments took the iconic Dr. Martens 1461 shoe and made them into grandpa shoes by adding velcro straps.
They're available in five colors at End. Clothing for $229/pair.
Previously: William Blake Doc Martens and Turn your shoes into roller skates
Demna Gvasalia, luxury brand Balenciaga's creative director, has reimagined Crocs by adding a five-inch thick sole to them.
Of course, the main difference between the two pairs of shoes, besides the platform soles and the Balenciaga-specific flair, is the price.
A pair of ordinary Crocs costs under $50. A pair ofBalenciaga "foam platform sandals" will set you back $850 (a charmless pair is "only" $495). [Its high price didn't stop the shoes from selling out on its release in February, according to Dazed.]
W writes that Gvasalia has "a habit of trolling the fashion industry with upscaled versions of mundane items."
For example, there's the $1,100 calf-skin leather version of the brand's own paper shopping bags, $2,145 leather totes inspired by IKEA's iconic $0.99 Frakta bag, and a high-fashion take on "ugly sneakers" that have been seen on the super-hip crowd, from Hailey Baldwin to Elsa Hosk to Bella Hadid. It's started something of a trend outside of Gvasalia's domains of Balenciaga and Vetements as well, including Tiffany & Co.'s "Everyday Objects" collections (complete with a $1,000 sterling silver "tin" can), Dolce & Gabbana's $110 pasta, and Supreme's paperweight made of $100 bills.
Oh, we remember the "tin" can.
Previously: Mocking the $2,145 "couture Ikea bag" with awesome Ikea bag hacks and This is a $9K ball of yarn
Never let your pristine kicks touch the filthy ground with these thick-soled shoe-sandals. They strap onto another pair of shoes, in this case a pair of military-style, high-top sneakers.
Both pairs are the latest offerings of Chinese fashion brand Sankuanz who unveiled the bulky combo on the runway at Paris Men's Fashion Week in late January.
[Sankuanz] sent male models down the runway wearing high top sneakers — that never actually touched the runway.
"They're transformable sneakers that have an outer layer of protective sandal that you can enter Velcro into and you can strap them on or off," is how Sankuanz publicist Courtney Wittich describes the concept.
But ultimately, they look like big-cushioned, rubber and plastic orthopedic Birkenstocks — with Velcro straps — and you strap them on top of your existing shoes.
Or they look like open-concept galoshes. That's up to you...
"You can walk totally normal in them and it gives you an extra layer of protection and then also height," Wittich says.
I wonder if they were inspired by these vintage Space Boots from the late sixties:
Or maybe by these Moon Shoes:
Either way, the shoe-sandals will be available in August for $355 and I don't think the sneakers are included in that price.
image 1 via Hypebeast, image 2 via Ebay, image 3 via Amazon Read the rest
Fix Your Kicks proprietor Joshua Marin, 20, is a third-generation cobbler whose specialty is restoring classic and highly-collectible sneakers. (Great Big Story) Read the rest
From Oliver Sweeney:
In addition to the items hidden within the shoe, the laces themselves are made from Kevlar. They can act as a friction saw cutting through wood or plastic, so should you ever find yourself zip-tied, you have a fighting chance of escape.
(via Uncrate) Read the rest
My friend JoAnne Yada shared this quirky collection of Muppets shoes the other night on Facebook and I nearly jumped out of my seat. They're so wild and creative, just like a brand for (a certain type of) inner children should be!
Here's a look at some of them:
This pair of heeled boots is aptly named "She's Hip He's Hop" because it features both Miss Piggy and Kermit...
These "Super Couple" heels also feature the famous pig and frog duo...
Then there's "The Great Gonzo" style, stars and all...
And Kerm-y flats...
These "foot stomping vixen heeled boots" are called "Fierce Piggy"...
While these pig-pink satin heels are called, "All About Moi,"
The next three pairs really crack me up. First Statler and Waldorf get their mugs on a pair with these "Boo Hiss" flats...
Folks who identify with Animal may be drawn to these "Louder Louder" red fake-furried heels...
And the best for last... the "Mahna Mahna" shoes, if for no other reason that they'll implant that earworm in people's head...
The collection is by UK-based Irregular Choice and the shoes range in price from £129.00 to £220.00.
And yes, there are more shoes, as well as matching purses and tights.
Star Wars more your thing? Go here. Crazy heel aficionado? Here. Read the rest
Siddharth Mandala, 18, of Hyderabad, India, is developing the Electroshoe as a defensive weapon for women. The idea is that a woman could kick an attacker to deliver a jolt of electricity, similar to a taser, giving her time to escape. From the Deccan Chronicle:
Apart from transmitting a 0.1-ampere shock, the shoe also sends off an alert to the nearest police station. The shoe is run by power generated through the user’s footsteps. Mechanical energy from every step taken is harvested and stored in a rechargeable battery...
“The basic idea was that it had to be something that women would have with them all the time. Women might forget to carry tasers or other protective devices, but no one forgets to wear shoes before they step out. It was very challenging for me to think of a solution dealing with footwear. My product is basically a prototype. I’m still figuring out ways to make the shoe water resistant and overcome other limitations,” Siddharth said.
(via Weird Universe)
Austin shoesmith Kayla Stojek (AKA "Zombie Peepshow") mods wedges, Vans, heels and other shoes (and boots) with huge, deadly spikes, cute dioramas, horror pumpkins, whimsical scares, and such, all made to order: if heels aren't your thing, Stojek will mod you up some spiky Vans. Read the rest
The new Vans x Peanuts sneaker collaboration is killer. These are just a few of the many shoe styles and graphics available.
Here are the weird adhesive soles you never asked for (though they do appear to be useful).
Called Nakefit, this pair of freaky stick-on shoes adhere to the bottom of your feet to protect them from things like hot sand and rocks. They're waterproof, hypoallergenic, have anti-slip pads and, should you need an unusual way to cover your tootsies, available to pre-order on Kickstarter.
This fine pair of Apple Computer sneakers, a holy grail of Apple memorabilia, will go up for auction on Sunday. The starting bid is $15,000 but they are estimated to fetch as much as $36,000. Available only to company employees in the early 1990s, they feature Apple's far superior rainbow logo. The shoe size is 9 1/2. Unclear if they were ever worn, and if so, by whom.
APPLE COMPUTER SNEAKERS, CIRCA EARLY 1990S SIZE 9 1/2 Read the rest
Why do shoelaces suddenly become untied? Mechanical engineer Oliver O'Reilly and his UC Berkeley colleagues have just published a scientific paper exploring this mystery of the ages. According to O'Reilly, understanding how simple knots work, and then don't, could lead to better knots for surgery, protect undersea optical networking cables from breaking, and enable more realistic animations of hair in computer graphics. From Nature:
The scientists expected that the knots would come undone slowly. But their slow-motion footage — focused on the shoelaces of a runner on a treadmill — showed that the knots rapidly failed within one or two strides. To figure out why, O’Reilly and his colleagues used an accelerometer on the tongue of a shoe to measure the forces acting on a knot. They found that when walking, the combined impact and acceleration on a shoelace totals a whopping 7 gs — about as much as an Apollo spacecraft on reentry to Earth’s atmosphere.
Further experiments demonstrated that simply stomping up and down wasn’t enough for a knot to fail; neither was swinging it back and forth. It took the interlaced effects of the two forces to undo the knot: the repeated impacts loosened it while the changes of direction pulled on the laces.
Andrew Holzschuh took a photo of his shoes every day as he hiked the Pacific Coast Trail, then made a fun timelapse of his shoes' daily wear and tear.
Many hikers forgo hiking boots for trail runners on a well-marked trail like this. Eagle-eyed viewers who know the trail picked up on a detour, to which Andrew replied:
We were forced to skip like 15 miles of trail at crater lake because of forest fires (because it would have been illegal and stupid to walk a section of trail that's on fire) we also had to backtrack here and there for random reasons. to be honest I dont know how many miles we actually walked. but I think it might have ended up being more than the 2663.5
Bonus video: he also grew an impressive beard.
• 4 pairs of shoes (PCT thru-hike shoe time-lapse) Read the rest
Famed psychedelic hot rod artist and comix illustrator Robert Williams has launched another line of rad Vans sneakers! The shoes integrate detail from Williams' mind bending masterpieces “Flaming Cobras”, “Malfeasance,” and “Jalapeña.”
Vault by Vans presents limited collection by Robert Williams (Vans)
David from Atheist shoes (previously) sez, "We've just been successful in raising money for the first Atheist Shoes Missionary Mobile Shoe Shop, which will criss-cross the USA, selling handmade shoes and spreading our European message of godless comfort and joy. The fund-raising is ongoing, as we aim to get a whole fleet of buses on the road. The first US tour begins in September 2016, and will take in Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and Texas." Read the rest
Ian's Shoelace Site has a perfectly simple guide to lacing 45 different ways, with succinct descriptions of the benefits of each.
Previously: • Learn the fastest way to tie your shoelaces • Tie your shoes the Ukrainian way • How to lace up your Vans • Quest for the mathematically ideal shoe-lacing Read the rest
As a Star Wars fan, and self-proclaimed shoe diva, these boots make me tingle somewhere far, far away. They're available from Irregular Choice.
