Greetings!
I'm writing this update with a fan blasting into my face on a very humid Sunday night, I've spent the Bank-Holiday weekend recovering from last weeks trip to Berlin.
Feels like I'm flying all over the place at the moment, although I find sitting still for any amount of time frustrating I really can't complain, I've spent the last few weeks hopping all over the UK and Europe and it's been a great first half of the year, seeing new places, meeting new faces and re-affirming old friendships.
This was my 4th time in Berlin and 2nd this year so far and you can read about my last visit by hitting this hyperlink which will take you to my Puma RS-0 article, anyway I've really started to warm to Berlin.
During summer it's beautifully hot and winter savagely cold, I guess I've always had misconceptions and assumptions about Germany, instantly I think Adidas, well-built cars and a people of a reserved and serious demeanour with quite a few skeletons in the closet, not saying the British are any less guilty of a questionable past but I've always felt a rivalry between the two country's, this is probably a little extra for a blog about shoes but I guess it puts into context how different Berlin is from the above, it's a very liberal, anything goes and positive sort of place, well from what I've seen anyway and I like it, everyone I've met has been friendly even with my extreamly limited grasp of the langauge which basicallty consists of Guten Morgen (Good Morning) because it's my name and Danke schön (Thank You Kindly) because I always think if you're going to badly attempt someone's language it's always best to be polite about.
The reason I was in Berlin was for the launch of a new women's exclusive model from Adidas, it's called the Falcon, I actually didn't read the Press Release but I'm assuming the name came from the Falcon Dorf which has now been changed to the awful sounding Yung-1, a bad decision from the three stripes fam in my opinion but I guess they're aiming to be hip and down with the kids now as that audience have moved on from the Boost hype. Oh, I can complain and bore you about this all day as I think it really detracts from a beautiful shoe at an almost embarrassing level, enough so that I'll probably keep calling the Yung-1 by its original name (Falcon Dorf) just in case I'm overheard and laughed at in public or maybe I'll just make my own up.
Anyway, let's talk about FALCON, FALCON, FALCON! Ok, so it's a chunky panelled runner, it's only available in women's sizes currently but I could see this changing in the future, it's very similar to the Raf Simons Ozweego in its appearance although somewhat simplified and missing all those weird plastic bubbles bar a metallic one (that I don't really feel fits with the shoe) near the toebox. The shoe drops the three stripes branding, utilising the Trefoil logo on the tongue in Blue and a Teal script logo on the midsection, I've also seen a mock-up with the stripes added on in post by a good friend of mine and it looks rather decent to be fair.
What I do really like about the shoe is the colour blocking on the outsole, the two orange lines meet at the point of the toe where it meets the suede, it really stands out and shows just how parts of a shoe that are normally forgotten about can really impact the looks and grab your attention, I also appreciate the hidden-stitched pink panel on the heel, it's a nice premium touch and I think it works well.
The creative and marketing behind the shoe is awesome. Very fun and doesn't take itself too seriously making it one of my favourite campaigns to date if you've played Far Cry 2: Blood Dragon you'll know what I'm talking about!
Talking about the creative is a good way to spin this post back to the event, after a big breakfast and a brief visit to Overkill we arrived at the location and walked into a huge dilapidated industrial estate, the first thing to greet us was a huge life-size Tyrannosaurus Rex an unlimited candy floss stand and fairground rides, I could tell this was going to be a good event just from the first 10 minutes.
Inside was a bar serving slushies and cocktails, pick n' mix area, tattoo, fortune teller, magician, braiding and a piercing booth, in the corner was an area with a big ball pool and bumper cars followed by an area made to look like the inside of a supermarket for bloggers to take photos within.
I'd just like to touch on that for a second, now I know I dip in and out of this shallow social culture, aka like and share my shit please family. But yo when you're sat lounging by a ball pool drinking a margarita and watching about a million bloggers live streaming, snapping, taking photos posing, arguing over who found the best spot to take a selfie, well it's hilarious, I've seen it before in America there just doesn't seem to be any modesty, ah I don't know if that's the word I'm looking for, I guess I just still find it embarrassing, it's part of my work, I love my work but watching myself talk or posting about shoes is still slightly corny, don't think I'm not cyberdyne level self-aware.
But again this was probably wasn't helped by the fact that I smashed my phone during my first night in the hotel watching an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in the shower so couldn't join in... I'll get off my high horse.
We got all the content we needed at the event so decided to return to Paul's Boutique to dig through a few piles of vintage, picked out a few gems but nothing in my size this time unfortunately and after trying to get through the airport with 6 pairs of shoes after my last visit I really wasn't feeling carrying anything home with me.
After a quick nap back at the hotel, we returned to the Falcon launch for the evening's entertainment Stefflon Don was headlining, I've never seen her live before and was thoroughly impressed as she put on a wicked set, got the room moving and pulled off a volt two-piece looking ultra fire, I'm a newly converted fan.
That's it for this post, it's a little brief and runs off on a tangent but I hope you enjoyed the update, just wanna say love to Nathan, Alex, Ellie, Justin, Holger, Peira, Kane, Calum, Nessie and of course Adidas for making it a memorable trip, check the photos below for a somewhat timelined look at my time away and you can also hit this link for the offical Size? write up when it goes live.
