Although I spend most of my time on my bike, the other day I found myself tinkering with my moped while waiting in vain for spring to show up. It got me thinking about a sneaker built for some serious moped riding. I spoke with a friend of mine who rides with the Latebirds, a rad gang of moped tinkerers in Los Angeles, about rendering up a shoe concept for the group. They log some serious miles tearing ass across Silverlake or remote stretches of desert road in California, so Dan was more than willing to give me a few suggestions.

After spending some time in my sketchbook, I ended up with two concepts; One clean leather high top built for rally riding and a low top chukka designed for joyriding. My focus when I started exploring was to avoid sacrificing aesthetics for function. Nobody wants to be riding around on a 30 year old moped in armored Sidi motorcycle boots, so I had to find something that hit the sweet spot between boot and sneaker. 

For the Rally concept, I started with a boot style quarter panel & eyestay contruction. The collar and ankle were inspired by performance basketball shoes, with a partial heel bootie inside for a snug fit and increased ankle stability. I also included a thin plastic heel clip that terminates right before the flex area of the forefoot. This would provide supplemental stability and help prevent a fracture if you need to make a sudden foot assisted stop. The primary material is intended to be a distressed full grain leather with a heel underlay of enamel leather for contrast.

The chukka was designed to be a stylish companion to the Rally version without the functional overkill. Since this was intended for more casual riding I wanted something simple that would make for a great everyday sneaker. I started with a basic chukka construction with a textile binding that wraps around the entire edge of the quarter panel and heel. I included metal eyelets so the quarter overlay could be made of canvas as well as leather. This design maintains the same enamel leather heel underlay for continuity. The clean slim toe is blocked in suede or nubuck to hold up the rigors of other urban transport as well as pair with just about any pant or short combo.

I’m pretty satisfied with each of these concepts and how they sit together. Both share a number of small embellishments such as the color popped eyelets, plastic heel clip woven tongue labels featuring the Latebirds crest and similar executions of the quarter stripe stitching.

I’ve included a video below of the Latebirds in their element… riding, playing with tools and drinking beer. (thanks Babelgum)

I hesitate to post a lot of subjective content on this blog, as the focus of this website is new urban footwear concepts, but I was so repulsed by this bike design that I thought it was worth sharing. 

This collaboration bike, brought to you by Pharrell Williams and Domeau & Peres, is a steel frame fixed gear bike with all of the primary features wrapped in buffalo leather. This useless bike costs about $27,000. It couldn’t be more obvious that this was not designed by people who actually log miles on a bicycle.

Price tag aside, who is this designed for? What I hate about this bike is that it’s a weak concept. Wrapping some bullshit in expensive leather does not make it good or valuable. It’s not designed for city riding because you’d be an idiot to lock up that bike anywhere but the suburbs. It’s not designed to be ridden when there’s any moisture in the air because that leather will get completely destroyed around the chain. It’s not even taken far enough to be in the MoMA. This bike just sucks.

I respect that some people want the most baller variant of any item they buy. But this is like the worst bike ever for almost thirty thousand dollars. Trek has some insanely hot, functional and expensive urban bikes if you want some hot accessories like leather grips and nylon belt action.

In terms of function, you’d be better off with a Huffy.

For my latest design I wanted to balance the simplicity of my previous post with something a little more dynamic. After throwing down some sketches in my Moleskine, I hit upon a thumbnail that had potential. The end result was solid mid-cut skate sneaker that I’m pretty happy with. 

The primary visual element is a color popped eyestay overlay attached to the front quarter panel with a closed seam for grip tape abrasion. The top of the eyestay continues into the main ankle overlay for stability. The heel overlay is offset from the collar lining to keep the achilles notch nice and soft. Because I wanted to add some flavor to this design, I made the tongue pretty long and added a closed seam so it would kick forward nicely.  Lastly, I the sole is a combination of a molded rubber cupsole with a compression molded EVA foam midsole partially exposed at the shank. The heel of the cup has a slightly concave profile that smooths out as it wraps around to the sidewall.

The name is a tip of the hat to the gritty and abysmal skate park in Hyde Park, MA. It’s a park that perfectly reflects the realities of skateboarding in Massachusetts. Concrete that’s chipped and cracked. Warped and destroyed sidewalks from snow maintenance. Black ice on the mini ramp. Skaters and BMX kids who are there year round in any weather.

Not sure if anyone has written about this, but a couple years ago some local skaters took the time to build and pour a bunch of concrete ramps that were hilariously omitted from the original plans. There were literally no good approach ramps in the park aside from one shallow double sided funbox that was more suited for BMX. The ramps that these kids poured weren’t exactly an homage to German engineering, but they added some key features that were totally missing. Sure enough, someone from the city eventually started creepin’, and shortly thereafter they were all demolished.

So, thank you lawyers and insurance agents and all the other people who ruin everything for everyone. 

For the first post of the new year I decided to go back to basics. Using elements from a previous thumbnail sketch, I whipped up a clean, low-cut versatile bike sneaker for bombing around the city. I started with a simple blucher construction with a low cut sidewall. I then incorporated a classic court style toe on the cupsole to fit snug with slide in pedal clips. 

The upper features a continued evolution of my initial branding elements. The lateral stripe has a slightly faster pitch than the absolute perpendicular stripe of previous designs. The logo execution is a small woven label flag stitched under the lateral eyestay. I think the asymmetrical design of this concept adds some dynamism without pushing it far outside of the aesthetic I’ve developed so far. 

The mesh underlays are constructed from a breathable spacer mesh on the quarter joined via closed-seam with a tight single layer textile at the collar. In addition to adding comfort and breathability, the two contiguous meshes will add substantial material depth. 

The blog is going back into an active state after a busy stretch of living this existence to the max. November brought on a crippling extracurricular footwear design project that coincided perfectly with an enormous deadline. Once I collected the remaining pieces of my soul, I began work on a refined Illustrator version of one of my most recent sketches for a new urban clipless bike shoe.

I had this design on my screen for weeks and I continued to finesse the lines and details because it never quite felt finished. After repeatedly walking away from it, I came to the painfully obvious conclusion that I hated the design and I should just move on. Overlooking this fact set my blogging back substantially because I couldn’t just throw it in the dumpster. Not every post is going to be the best thing I’ve ever done, but there’s already enough shitty work on the internet so I try not add to it.

Anyways, the holidays are over and we’re gonna get back to regular content. Enjoy!

After taking some vacation time in the Pacific Northwest and coming back to a tornado of insane deadlines, we’re back with some sneaker ideation. Here are a few sketches from my moleskine that I worked on while in transit. There was one thumbnail that I thought could work for an update to my previous clipless bike design so I did a quick marker sketch in a larger scale.

I was so pleased with my previous marker sketch that I couldn’t wait to get it into Illustrator. While I had to finesse a few lines and I changed the logo to a tonal deboss, there wasn’t really a whole lot else I felt compelled to change. 

I slimmed out the outsole slightly and increased the radius of the soleplate edge to provide smoother action when worn with bike clips. One of my biggest complaints about vulcanized rubber shoes is how the 90 degree edge of the sole base is always creating friction when you go to slide your foot into the clip. Those few seconds of fumbling are a giant pain in the ass when you’re trying to take a left at a busy intersection. The slim vamp and minimal toe will allow flawless clip function while the top half of the shoe can have the tongue popped for stylish city riding.

The name is a nod to the pot hole riddled avenue of death which I ride the most.

Decided to bust out my markers the other night while watching TV and came up with a mid cut bike/skate sneaker that I’m pretty happy with. The pattern lines are reminiscent of previous mid cut designs while having its own personality. I’ll definitely render this guy up in Illustrator so I can finesse some elements and add just a little more flavor.

Some random nonsense from yesterday. My brother was busy lighting dudes up in Call of Duty so I had some time to kill. 

After cleaning out a bunch of old, heavy busted skate shoes from my closet I started to think about ways you could save weight and increase airflow while still preserving durability. After a few trial thumbnails, I landed on a super clean low skate silhouette that I thought was worth exploring.

The main functional element of the upper is the closed seam that separates the durable synthetic leather or nubuck vamp from a breathable 2-layer sandwich mesh in the heel. This will give the sneaker an indestructible front end for flip tricks, while maximizing comfort and airflow in the rear. The placement of the closed seam also maintains the perpendicular line element that has been featured on most of my previous designs. The toecap is designed to be a hot melt synthetic nubuck to add texture. Because the toecap will be bonded to the vamp material through heat, no stitches are necessary. 

This was also a chance to loosen up my placement of the logo and stripe detail. After a couple weeks of exploration I determined that a design DNA of all my previous concepts could be maintained with numerous placement executions. I’m pretty happy with the results.