Monday, November 16, 2009

the bare essentials of chuck

I'm not sure, but I think I love these shoes. They haven't been released yet, but Coolhunting posted about them today. They are a limited release designed by Terence Koh (asianpunkboy) for the Converse 1Hundred(red) line.
They have a striking, paired down simplicity, but I'm not sure if it works. I love the lack of eyelets on the shoelace holes, but why the white eyelets on the sides? I've always assumed that those are for ventilation, but let be honest with ourselves... nobody is going to throw these on to hit the court. These are for strollin, not for ballin. Maybe the vent holes were required, as they are a recognizable design element in all chucks. However, he was able to remove the contrasting stripe that usually runs around the top of the rubber sole, not to mention the diamond pattern in the rubber. I'm not sure why it bothers me so much, possibly its a white on white thing, the fact that white leather and white metal are never going to match, and this shoe is all about simplicity. If you are stripping it down to the bare essentials, why leave the vents?
All that aside, I do love them. The real reason I won't be purchasing a pair is the $150 price tag. I love chucks (I bought a new pair this weekend) and maybe I'm being naive, but I think of chucks as a sort of "people's shoe" the shoe for the masses. I just can't bring myself to pay four times the cost of a normal pair.

3 comments:

Adam said...

Very ceremonial moccasin-like. I don't think I like them, but I've never been a fan of the chucks.

edluv said...

i also saw them on coolhunting this morning. however, unlike adam i do like them, and i'm not a fan of chucks (not adidas).

Justin said...

Ed, it's ok to like adidas and chucks at the same time. Of course adidas has the advantage of not being owned by Nike.