Puma Thunder Spectra

Chunky/Dad is the trend that keeps on giving, it began to gain real traction last year and doesn’t seem to be leaving us anytime soon. I'd like to say it began with the Ozweego in 2014 but it's Balenciaga’s infamous and ugly Triple S that really made waves. The trend revolves around large, overly complicated footwear and has powered down from the fashionistas and kooky influencers in such a way, it’s now become a focus of major sports footwear brands. 

Now I’ve always been vocal on my dislike for high fashion and “fashion” sneakers as a whole; it’s style over substance and I'm a fan of substance. I prefer to have a little more gravitas, performance, history and considered construction in the products that I purchase and wear, which is why I guess I feel somewhat irked that these fashion brands now have taken over the sneaker scene that consumes my daily life. Wearing something just to turn heads with no performance aspect or sports pedigree has never sat well with me. It’s a big debate that I could drone on about for hours so I’m interested to hear your opinions on it.

Now here’s the crux of the article and where I contradict myself, the Puma Spectra - I like it. It’s the most interesting silhouette the company has dropped in recent memory; it's eye-grabbing and punchy and looks great on foot. The Puma branding is almost non-existent, bar a tiny little cat on the tongue tab, the main foam stripe blends into the other panels, owing to a phenomenal colourway execution. The C/W is recognisable - something that I feel is often forgotten about in footwear design; look at the NMD when you see the OG C/W from far away there’s no getting away, you know that shoe and the Spectra has the same effect.

The shoe has a high heel that slopes towards a refined toe area. I’ve worn it a few times now and while it isn’t breaking any records on comfort, it’s not heavy nor clumsy like some of the other pairs that sit alongside it in the chunky category. I mean, compared to say the Triple S it’s rather streamlined (but then I think most things would be!). The material construction is strong with a mixture of leather, fluffy suede, Nubuck and TPU overlays; lacing construction is taken care of with round laces and loops similar to what’s on the Jordan XI. For sizing, I’d suggest going TTS. One of the nicest surprises is the price point, coming in at £110 (€130) you get a lot of bang for your buck and it’s nice to see Puma being friendly on the price point compared with its competitors. 

The Thunder Spectra hits retailers in April with more colours coming out later in the year. Finally no Hyperbole, there's been a big demand on this shoe and I know the numbers are small so make sure you put steps in place to secure a pair.

Massive thanks for taking time to read, thanks to Puma for giving me early access to the shoe and it's design specs and big love to Amber for being a wonderful model.

New Balance: The Return of the 574

This right here is my first post on the blog regarding New Balance, it’s been a long time coming and I’m glad to add a little variety considering how Nike heavy it’s been over the last few months. 

New Balance is a brand that I hold quite an attachment too, when I think NB, utter craftsmanship, luxurious expense, family owned and at first a confusing model numbering system spring to mind. 

I’ve been lucky enough to work closely with the brand over the years, attending various events and media trips and consider the UK team to be a most friendly and endearing group of people who actually have a large love for the brand and you’d be surprised to know that isn’t a common thing in this industry. 

I’ve been wearing NB for a long time but I can only thank or blame my close friend Thomas Lindie for my increased love of all things 'N' and I’d defer to him on all aspects of New Balance, my knowledge on this will only be topline either from personal experience or what I’ve dug up from books so if you’d like to know more about the brand drop him a follow or check out his blog here, another great source of info is Matt Kyte a homie from OZ who truly knows his shit, especially with the 99X or 1500 series. 

So yeah this article focuses on the 574, which if I’m being honest has never been my favourite model but that’s probably because my interest in the brand was flourishing through it’s chunky years where it couldn’t sort it’s toe puff out leaving the already bulbous 574 with a toe box of tank-like proportions. Well, that has now changed and we’re left with a lovely sleek and simple silhouette which has returned in a classic, understated and easy to wear GREY.

To coincide with the relaunch the powers at be at New Balance decided to make March 15th GREY DAY - an event that I can fully get behind and I’m hoping becomes a yearly occurrence, (I mean it’s not like NB are going to run out of Grey shoes anytime soon!) much like Air Max Day and my personal favourite Tracksuit Day from the brand with the three stripes. 

Getting back to the shoes, well it’s the standard NB affair of good materials, strong build quality and subtle colours, the shoe features a mixture of grey, blue and a yellowed heel cap, I’m sure Thomas will batter me and call it the JP colour but I’m writing this at 1 AM so I’ll deal with that wrath when it comes. 

I know NB are going to have a fucking strong year and can’t wait to see what else the brand has to offer, big ups Joe, Tom and the rest of the UK team for the snazzy care package, I'm especially enamoured with the Sneakerfreaker book which I probably should have spent more time researching before writing this article so who knows, maybe there'll be a part two!

You can grab the NB574 "Legacy of Grey" at most good retailers, peace.

Nike Vapormax Plus "Triple Black"

My first pair of Nike's (of 2018) arrived last week courtesy of a friend at JD Sports. The Vapormax Plus needs no introduction, with them doing the rounds across Social and the FB groups, but I thought I'd throw in my 2 cents on the pair. Combining a very popular upper with a very popular sole has created the "Nike Vapormax Plus", or as I like to refer the them, the TN/VM.

I've already covered the TN a few journal posts back but the addition of the Vapormax sole warrants this pair a brief write up.

The Vapormax was unleashed on the world at the end of 2016 at the Nike Innovation Summit. It was hailed as a huge game changer at the time, putting a full length Air unit directly underneath the foot, which hadn't been used or seen before, as the tech always included a spacer for a 'walking on clouds' feel. This was seen as being Nike's biggest innovation since 2012's Flyknit (knitted uppers), with both technologies being featured on the launch pair in question. I was instantly excited for the Vapormax, as the sole unit was beautiful and striking, with the shoe upper resembling a Flyknit Racer on steroids. I remember how much I liked the Racer when it dropped, and I remember the dying feeling of wanting a pair on foot as soon as possible, so a "chunky" rendition was well received.

Back to the TN/VM, in terms of comfort they are certainly no Boost beater - many compared the stiff feel of the segmented pods to wearing football cleats and with a complete lack of support around the heel and medial ended with you rolling a foot on many occasions. But they look fantastic and based on style alone I'd still choose the Vapormax over many of it's competitors.

Since the original 'Platinum' colour we've seen lots of different executions - the sole still has major potential and we've already seen multicoloured pods, speckles and even a beautiful 'Volt' version. One of my favourite updates was actually considered a downgrade by swapping the Flyknit for mesh and adding a sturdy mid-foot and heel support cage, which also lowered the insane price point of £170 down to a slightly more realistic £150.

Vapormax Flyknit featuring the "Neon" colour from the Air Max 95.

Vapormax switches the Flyknit for a more supportive mesh and synthetic leather cage.

As we know, Nike have now added a midsole to the Vapormax Plus - which while I feel is a step back from it's original design about being straight on the air bubble, I guess it's more of an aesthetic change as without the TN midsole this would be very odd looking (more than it is already) top heavy shoe. The upper is full neoprene with a TPU cage replacing the fused lines on the original TN. I also appreciate the new TN x VM logo that adorns the heel and footbed of the shoe. For now I think the Triple Black version pictured is the most tasteful of the launch colours.

Comfort wise I've heard a lot of talk about them being more comfortable than the original Flyknit Vapormax. I've tried both the Flyknit and the Plus on at the same time and I've felt no difference in terms of cushioning - obviously the Plus has a more solid and supportive feeling due to it's thick neoprene upper that hugs the foot, but I'd also add because of the neoprene they're also very warm which is a forgotten attribute of the wetsuit material. In terms of fitment, I'd recommend going TTS (True To Size), but a few have also said to 0.5 up. If you're near to a JD or another *ahem* store, I'd advise you go try a pair on before purchasing.

Thanks again JD for the love and thank you Marcus for being a patient hand modeI, took the majority photos below waiting for a train at Waterloo and I'm pretty happy how they turned out. Everyone who's dropped feedback on my writing so far, I've only got love for you,  received quite a few messages to my email and instagram and none of them go unread, until next time!

- Morgan

Sean Wotherspoon x Nike Air Max 97/1 "More Air"

For those who don't remember, in March 2017, Nike celebrated It's second "official" Air Max Day - some like to think of it as a made up event to sell more shoes, but I think of it as a celebration of one of the best shoe-related pieces of technological development, Nike Air.

We had a month long build-up to Air Max Day, with lots of "special" pairs dropping. The year before (2016), Nike gave the fans the chance to vote for a fan-favourite classic Air Max to re-release, with the atmos "Elephant" coming out on top. We (Crepe City, at the time) teamed up with Size? to host a charity event (alongside the March iteration of Crepe City) to raise some money for XXXX and give collectors the chance to win some very special pairs. 

Continuing the 'power in the hands of the fans' theme, Nike decided to conduct yet another vote - this time it wasn't Vote Back, but Vote Forward. The same voting mechanic was used but this time we were voting for designers, influencers, store owners, originators (etc) who had created their own 'homage' to Nike Air with a model of their own. They had free reign on what they could do - with each of the ten entries all being simply mock ups, each designer was simply restricted to the power of Photoshop. As I'm typing this out, I can feel myself coming off a little salty - that's not the case, but at the time there was a lot of drama on the groups about what was going on with the voting system and how some designs weren't getting the (mass) love they deserved. People were already naming this as a popularity contest, as some entrants didn't seem to have the "clout" to pull in votes on their own. I won't dwell on this too much, but all the information on this is not that hard to find so I'll leave that to you to track down if you must.

The UK's representative was Alex Hackett (aka @miniswoosh), a London based designer and Footpatrol Alumni who creates clothing and accessorises by repurposing Nike product - think training bags recycled as jackets, socks stitched together and turned into turtlenecks and you have a rough idea. Her design was supposedly based around Nike Town receipts - the upper would feature panels made of the Tyvek paper, with the amount of Swooshes to replicate the over-branding and pink laces representing the 'end of ink' warning line on the till receipt. I thought they were decent. They didn't blow me away but they were interesting enough to deserve seeing production. It wouldn't surprise me, knowing Nike, if they were created in very limited number some point down the line.

Vote Forward Finalists 

But going back to the rest of the designs, few were worthy, I really liked the Black/Red Russian Vapormax x 97 that reminded of a Xenomorph straight out of a Ridley Scott film but f**k me we had some disasters! I'm looking at you spotty Air Max 1 and let's not forget the opaque clingfilm wrapped monstrosity. It's almost like they only scanned over the brief, briefly (zing!). I mean come on, Nike calls and you've got a once in a life time opportunity to work with the largest footwear brand in the world to create you own shoe that millions will see and 1000's will have the chance to wear, and you produce that... 

Once the voting period was completed, Sean Wotherspoon was announced as the winner. I hadn't really heard much about Sean before that year but a friend told me he a ran a few consignment stores out in the states and also had a very successful Youtube show - I only watch Youtube for tutorials so that's probably why I was out of the loop. It was probably 3-4 months after the announcement that we saw the very first sample pair. Fast forwarding a couple of months, we saw the first initial release of the Nike Air Max 97/1 in very limited numbers at Complex Con in LA. The reaction in the states was crazy, with the second instalment of Complex Con needing added security and queuing systems to handle the demand. I was lucky enough to see a pair in hand a couple of weeks ago. 

As you can see below, the shoe features a 97 upper combined with an Air Max 1 sole - two shoes a decade a part, combining for the very first time. They feature a full corduroy upper in differing shades, velcro patches and a velvet liner - my favourite touch.

Being honest at this point in time I'm not 100% sold. I have professed my love of corduroy many a time, you only have to look in my wardrobe to see that, but there's something not quite right about this shoe. It's niggling at my mind and I can't put a finger on it. I'm not a huge Air Max 1 fan so maybe it's the sole, or maybe it's the colour palette, as the original render (that everyone voted for, may I add) was closer to Khaki than the Canary Yellow we have now. For those wondering, they fit closer to an Air Max 1 being that it's wide around the mid-foot unlike the standard Air Max 97 so I'd suggest going TTS, when/if you try to cop.

What I will say is Sean & Nike have done a banging job on the launch and it seems that everything has been thought of from special boxes and apparel to corduroy hats and iron-on patches, bravo!

The pair below belongs to my friend Tom who'll you know as @wonkycoma, accompanying me on the shoot alongside my boy Adam, aka DONNY RAGO, aka Birminghams notorious Pokemon kingpin. If you're looking for any design work he's my first point of call and can't recommend him enough. But hey, that's my love and shoutouts done, so as always let me know your thoughts on IG and good luck to all who want to try and grab them when they release over here. 

- Morgan

Nike Air Max Plus (TN) "Game Royal"

Here we are again, thought I'd squeeze out another post before 2018 as I'm slowly getting back into the flow and it keeps me on my toes.

This one is coming from "Shoot From Home" series as right now the weather is awful and the last thing I want to be doing is starting up the bike to go take photos of shoes in the rain, plus I find it helps with creativity as I'm having to make do with whats around me and that's always a skill that comes in handy when I'm on client work. 

If you didn't know Footlocker hold the license on the TN. They have done for many years and on very, very rare occasions have used it to produce some beautiful pairs, last year there were rumours that Nike had challenged them on this exclusivity and while I don't know the outcome we did see some TN's launch with a wider distribution those being the Satin & Nikelab pairs. 

Recently the TN has developed a cult following in Australia which I'm told by friends over there has a reputation as the trainer of choice for junkies, bogans and other miscreants which adds an air of infamy to the shoe that now sees youngsters jumping back on that "cool" that we all know sells shoes, but hey it's all love for the trainers at the end of the day so the only issue I have is how hard it's become to get hold of any decent colours, thankfully they still sit around here in the UK although I could see 2018 being tipping point and we'll start seeing a lot more flying off the shelves and plastered on Instagram.  

Taking it back to the pair I'm actually meant to be writing this about, well it's a Footlocker Exclusive and came out alongside a similar Red pair, I picked both up for £65 each thanks to a mate who works in one of the stores otherwise it's the standard £135.

I've been calling them the poor-mans version of the "Shark" and "Tiger" but while that sounds like an insult they really are quite nice, I can't fault either colour and that's all I have to say, it's a fully synthetic shoe so not much to talk about when it comes to quality but nothing came to my attention, no massive globs of glue and at £65 you could do a lot worse. 

Take a look at the photos and let me know your thoughts on IG.

Peace!

size? x Nike Spiridon "Khaki"

Long time since the last update, I'm currently writing quite an in-depth recap of my trip to Iceland that happened in November 2017, that has put my blog posts on hold but today I had some free time after editing these photos so thought I'd do a little write up.

Once every 2 years or so my family stays at Centre Parcs over in Longleat for the week before Christmas, It's a chance for us to unwind and get in that family time as normally we're at each others throats! Anyway if you haven't been to CP it's like a classy Butlins, you stay in your own Chalet for a week inside a forest buy and cook all your own food and partake in activities such as swimming, cycling and rock-climbing.  

Before leaving for my trip a parcel arrived which I've been excited for since being part of the initial content briefings for the launch earlier in the year, this was size?'s latest collaboration (or SMU - not sure on this one, always get confused as the lines are so blurred at the moment) from a long, fruitful partnership with Nike and the silhouette chosen is one of my all time favourites the SPIRIDON. 

Getting down to the shoe, first of all it comes in a double pack. One a Dark Brown almost Mahogany, followed by the second which is done up in Khaki, while both are beautiful the Khaki really stands out as the winner from the pack, to my knowledge this is the first time that suede has been used on the rand of the shoe, this sealed the deal as I'm a sucker for materials but being honest you could do anything to the Spiridon bar making it an Ultra and I'd still buy it. 

You'll also spot the nice return of the metallic swoosh, It's not the iridescent version you'll find on the £140 models but it's close and looks the business, another nice touch is the leather footbed which I hadn't noticed until I got them in-hand. 

Thanks for taking the time to read this and thanks to size? for the lovely gift, take a look at the images below and let me know your thoughts by dropping a comment on IG for that solid engagement.

Peace!

#AM4LDN (Adidas Made For London)

Thursday while working from home I received a knock at the door, opening it to find a courier holding a nondescript brown paper bag, I signed on the pad and wished him a pleasant ride back up to London. This isn't the first time adidas have sent pairs down by bike but it's generally for some extra special. 

Inside the bag was a plain box, again nothing fancy but I already had an idea what it contained, that being a very special pair, the #AM4LDN which stands for Adidas Made For London a shoe crafted from the brands new state of the art Speed Factory facility. 

Now this a project I have a good insight on as originally I was drafted to help design the London pair. The team was setup to include a wide range of skillsets and consisted of runners, editors, graphic designers and photographers.

I was chosen as the "Footwear" guy, I guess to make sure that whatever we produced was a shoe that people would want to buy at the end of the process.

I must admit I was very, very hyped over the initial emails and meetings but things fell apart and HQ wanted to take a different route using runners only so me and the others got axed, I'm not sure why but being honest I felt honoured to even be asked and no bad vibes were ever felt. 

So fast forward to now where I'm holding the final creation in my hands, it's a wonderful moment but you can't really talk about this shoe without going into the creation process behind it as that is such major element of the story.

Nearly all shoes from big brands take many months to produce before hitting the shop floor, it's a very long process that includes design, R&D, testing, shipping and much more. Speed Factory manages to cut this down to a matter of days, utilising small robotic factories that can be placed in any major city allowing a straight to consumer approach, right now the applications are limited and can only be used for certain styles of shoes but this is soon to change. 

Looking closely at the #AM4LDN pair you can tell where processes have been cut and new ones created to save precious time, support straps are bonded to the upper and heel so the shoe can loose a support cage and heel cup. The straps are also used to tighten the shoe though the laces which sit very nicely (something a lot of brands tend to forgot about). Under the sole is a torsion bar for added stability and this is visible through a cut-out in the Boost which looks great. Finishing everything off is a NFC chip in the tongue which should take you to a website, I've had a few pairs with this tech and being honest I've never used it.

Take a look at my photos below and thanks for reading,

Adidas Campus London "Friends & Family"

Last week I was lucky enough to receive a pair of Campus but these weren't any old pair of the iconic skate shoe, nope these were a "Friends & Family" version gifted out to celebrate the opening of it's brand new store on 15 Hanbury Street right next to Truman Brewery.

The shoe features some of the most luxurious suede I've yet to get my hands on, along with full-grain leather stripes and embossed details on the heel, this is all finished off with some lovely embroidery under the tongue letting you know which pair you got out of the 50 produced, mine is number 42. 

Take a look at the photos below and thanks again to my three stripes fam, I'm deeply humbled.