Author: Tom
Driven by the philosophy of innovation, FILA have transformed into a leading global sportswear brand with a vast archive of successful designs throughout their history.
With its roots lying firmly in the heart of Italy, FILA has always been a brand that at its heart lies a certain sophistication and performance without any loss of a premium feel. Besides their rich Italian roots, FILA have also worked on collections made in both the US and Japan which furthermore solidifies the brands dedication to quality and dedication in producing their product.
Following a recent resurgence, the FILA brand have brought a new line to the forefront. With a sense of secret and mystery surrounding it, the new FILA Special Projects range dubbed SP has been introduced to showcase Fila’s vast archives and levels of experimentation.
The SP product is offered using premium quality materials throughout and bold colour blocking that you wouldn’t find across inline styles. All models within the SP range will feature a green Gecko connection that spreads throughout the collection hinting towards the Special Projects line.
The first shoe to feature within the SP range is the Fila Boveasorus 98 AT. Throughout the streets today, a lot more brands have started to bring a sense of this outdoor, technical styling to the streets making it a more prominent feature within fashion today bringing the Boveasorus 98 AT perfectly in line with this approach.
Presenting themselves with a technical panelled upper with an overlay of leathers and mesh, this technical approach continues down to the midsole where the aggressive tread is built to take on the most unforgiving terrains. Whether you’re out on a trail putting in those country miles, or stomping through the city streets, the Boveasorus 98 AT’s will provide you with the comfort and support needed. The FILA Boveasorus 98 AT SP will be available in 2 colours, a stealthy black version is a more muted approach sitting next to a contrasting volt with hits of 3M creating a break between the silhouette.
The Fila Boveasorus 98 AT are Now Available in-store and online, sizes range from UK3 – UK12, priced at £75.
Chinese sports athletic goods brand Li-Ning was founded in 1989 by former olympic athlete Li-Ning himself.
Li-Ning specialise in sporting footwear in particular basketball and have endorsed a host of former all-star athletes such as Shaquille O’Neal, Baron Davies and Dwayne Wade respectively. Currently they sponsor Portland Trail Blazers shooting guard CJ McCollum.
Aside from athletic footwear and apparel, Li-Ning have ventured into lifestyle fashion too and their latest silhouette, the ‘Arc Ace’ have been brought to attention.
For Autumn/Winter 2019, the Chinese sports pioneer Li-Ning translates the vast beauty and dynamism of China’s national parks and landscapes into a meditation on civilization and nature, positioning our place within today’s, fast-paced world as walkers, wanderers, and explorers. This season’s offering imagines and examines contemporary life as experienced within three worlds—the city, the country, and the journey between the two.
The Arc Ace model is crafted of nylon and TPU panels marked with script at the front and heel tabs. Branding hits around on the side of the toe box, tongue tabs and printed insoles. The standout element of the silhouette is the unconventional futuristic lattice-like midsole inspired by the twisting roots of trees found throughout China’s countryside.
Li-Ning Arc Ace is Now available in-store and online. Sizes range from UK6 – UK11, priced at £150.
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The raffle for the *Unknown* is now live for an in-store only collection until 1PM Wednesday, 18th September. Strictly one entry per-person, multiple entries will be cancelled. Winners will be contacted with instructions of how to purchase their pair.
Good luck!
To enter the unknown raffle for PARIS, Click Here
To enter the unknown raffle for LONDON, Click Here (Please disable Autofill on your browser to enter)
Following on from this summer’s New Balance 990S Triplecell, New Balance are back with a new iteration, the FuelCell Echo.
Since our first introduction to Triple Cell, New Balance have continued to develop the product to create a more breathable and sporty aesthetic to the range. Featuring a mix of mesh and knitted uppers, New Balance have created a new silhouette to the brands already strong arsenal.
Compared to its predecessor the FuelCell Echo’s placement of their Rebound Resin is now on the forefoot, with a foam sole heel piece creating a new feel for the wearer. The FuelCell Echo also takes a different approach on stability – with a inclusion of a visible plastic heel counter, mesh tongue stitched into the inside of the shoe creating a sock like feel and also accented grey embroidery and slightly thicker mesh around the toe to make the knit more sturdy and reduce the movement of your foot.
Coming soon to Footpatrol..!
Along with adidas, for our Communitas project we delved into a key city moment of London, the Notting Hill Carnival. The focus was placed around one of the most well-known bands that perform at Notting Hill Carnival each year and have become fully cemented within heritage of the carnival, The Ebony Steel Band.
As part of this special release, we partnered up with Dazed and 33BOUND to curate a documentary based around all around this special band and their history. Now entering their 50th anniversary, we take a look into the lives of the Caribbean and British People that have become rooted within the history of Ebony.
Last week we hosted an event in partnership with DAZED, 33BOUND and adidas to show the final documentary. Take a look at the imagery below and head over to Dazed Digital to see the full-length video.
Imagery courtesy of Stefy Pocket.
For fall 2019, adidas and YEEZY are set to revisit one of their classic 700 colourways, though this time, introducing it to the 700 V2.
Featuring a blend of blue roller knit and premium leather, the upper also features reflective details throughout. A full length drop BOOST midsole makes sure that the 700 V2 is one of the most comfortable sneakers out there.
To enter the raffle, click HERE…
100 Jahre Bauhaus.
A break with traditional ideas and old ways of life, and a new way of thinking in art, architecture, education and society: when Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus in 1919, he established a school of design which still inspires today.
The school was only active for 14 years: as the “State Bauhaus” in Weimar, as a “school of design” in Dessau and as a private education institute in Berlin. It evolved out of the arts and crafts movement and art school reforms.
Its ideas had an impact well beyond the school itself, its locations and its time. It sought to train a new generation of committed designers with all-round skills. Students learnt design basics in their preliminary course. This was followed by training in workshops, where different masters set their personal stamp on the course.
Teachers were called “masters” and included renowned artists and guest lecturers such as Albers, Bayer, Breuer, Feininger, Kandinsky, Marcks, Klee and Moholy-Nagy to name a few.
This 100 year anniversary is not aimed merely at celebrating magnificent buildings and furniture that defined a style but at engaging with the cultural legacy of its central figures.
To honour this century year, we have designed a limited run of T-Shirts that pay homage in our own celebratory way.
The ‘Principles’ Tee shows the conceptual diagram showing the structure of teaching at the that was developed by Walter Gropius in 1922, while the chest features a 3M dual lock-up logo of our Footpatrol Gasmask and the iconic shed-roof silhouette of the archives building in Berlin.
The ’Structures’ Tee plays on the designs of Herbert Bayer. Herbert Bayer was a pioneer of modern typography, graphic design, and advertising. Bayer first studied painting at the school under Wassily Kandinsky before being appointed master of the art school’s printing and advertising workshop in 1925.
He determined the graphic communications style of the Bauhaus by emphasising functionality and clarity in composition, integrating photography and photo-montage and designing and establishing Universal, a lower-case, sans-serif typeface as the standard font for all their publications.
Shop the Bauhaus collection now over at our Footpatrol Webstore.
Back on the 15th August, we hosted an event in celebration of our Footpatrol x Mr Phomer ‘Alley Rats’ collaboration. To celebrate the launch, we teamed up with Keep Hush to curate a night based around the collection.
With this latest collaboration, Mr Phomer set out with the idea of curating a collection that bridged the link between the generation in which he grew up, and the new generation who are adapting their own aesthetic to the time in which he grew up. With a resurgence in 90’s culture, the desire of recreating the handmade aesthetic that became renowned throughout the 90’s as become more prominent.
To coincide with this handmade aesthetic, we had a live screen printer printing some of the designs on to T-shirts for those that attended the event.
Scroll through the imagery below for a recap of the event.
A huge thanks to all those that performed on the night, Denzel Himself, Amy Becker, House of Pharaohs, Subculture, Tysxn Rxmain and Jess Ajose, Keep Hush for hosting the night and Mr Phomer and a big thank you to all those that managed to come down and be a part of the event.
Introducing the second collaboration between Converse and Shinsuke Takizawa’s Japanese streetwear brand, NEIGHBORHOOD.
As one of the original brands known for kick-starting the counter culture Ura-harajuku movement, neighborhood became known for skilfully reinterpreting elements from different cultures. These saw light in the form of motorcycles, military, outdoor and traditional themes.
For this specific brief we teamed up with VC London, a collective of like-minded individuals that support, empower and encourage others to do what they love.
Started in a back street workshop in East London in 2015 by three friends – Gemma Harrison, Maite Storni & Namin Cho, who were struggling to find other women to ride with, VC London was born from a DIY grassroots approach to helping other women to start riding with a shoutout on a small Instagram account.
Shinsuke has looked towards the culture surrounding motorcyclists. Drawing on the connections between Biking culture and influences from the military, Neighborhood have infused this style with two iconic converse silhouettes, the Jack Purcell and Moto Chuck 70.
With these hints towards biking culture, the Chuck 70 features a leather and canvas upper with leather moto pull over straps with text detailing ‘SHIFT’. The Jack Purcell features a rubber molded heel cap with Japanese embroidery translating to ‘Teiko’, meaning resistance.
Alongside the footwear is an apparel collection featuring of T-shirts, sweatpants, hoody and a coach jacket.
Now available online with select items available in-store. For further information on in-store stock availability please call 020 7287 8094.
SHOP the Converse x NBHD Collection NOW over at the Footpatrol Webstore.
Thank you to VC London for allowing us into their workshop, and to Gemma & Namin for the Hospitality.
Footpatrol: For those who are not familiar please could you introduce yourself and VC London?
VC London: We’re Gemma Harrison and Namin Cho 2 of the 3 founders of VC London along with Mai Storni. VC London is a collective of like minded people into motorcycles and action sports that provide spaces and events for others to try out new stuff.
FP: When did you get into riding bikes? Was it something you have been passionate about from a young age?
VC London: We actually both got into riding bikes at a later stage in life by most peoples standards. I started to ride at 26 after my husband gave me a hand me down 125cc bike and Namin was 25. It started off as just an easy cheap way to get around the city and get some kicks with our friends.
What made you decide to create VC London?
VC London: There wasn’t ever really a decision to start VC to be honest (especially not as it exists today). We we’re just three friends hanging out and having a good time and messing around with bikes in 2014. We struggled to find other women that were into bikes so we went on to offer free riding lessons in a crappy east London car park through a small social media account and it all grew pretty organically from there.
FP: Apart from being a group of friends who love riding bikes, what else do you get up to at VC?
VC London: Alongside our lessons we run events, camps, talks, workshops that provide a space and a platform for people in different action sports and adventure and those that want to try them out.
The biggest event that we present is our Camp VC event in Wales in August where this year we had over 500 people come learn to ride, skate, ride dirt and road, climb, and party with us for the weekend.
FP: We see it with sneakers and fashion all the time people customize their items. Seeing that you build most of your bikes how important is the custom element within your scene?
VC London: The custom element of bikes is all pretty much a form of self expression. Messing around with our bikes has been a way for us to be creative without caring too much about the outcome and learn new skills when we didn’t really feel like we were getting that in our former jobs. We always joke that our bikes are like our personalities. Gemma’s 1966 Triumph bobber is British, loud and a bit lairy , Namins Bobber is dark, with weird details and quirks and Mai’s chopper has a pearlescent paint job that we call the unicorn bike. Ha ha.
FP: How important is the community/family aspect of VC to you?
VC London: The community and family aspect of VC is everything! In fact the strength of our entire organisation is a testament to the individuals and the community that are a part of it, whether thats the team who we run our events with to the people who attend and support our events. They’re all part of the family and without them VC doesn’t exist.
FP: We are here with Neighbourhood and Converse today with a motorcycle heavy collection. How does fashion tie in with VC?
VC London: Myself and Namin come from a fashion background having both been luxury designers for many years so I suppose VC was always going to have some of that interweaved our identity but then motorcycles and style have always gone hand in hand. I guess we don’t look like your stereotypical motorcycle rider all leathered up etc but thats whats exciting about the new influx of people coming to motorcycles. There aren’t any rules to the way you can look when you ride anymore. For us the best stuff in motorcycling is the stuff going on in Japan. You’ve got girls ripping it up on Harley shovel head choppers in hoodies, puffa jackets and Dickies. Now they’re rad.
FP: How do you feel representing and empowering females in what is perceived as a very male dominated world?
VC London: To be honest we don’t really feel like we represent just women. We just represent people having a good time, getting out and doing what you love and sharing it with others. Anyone can get down with that.
FP: Your platform has grown so massively from riding road bikes, to dirt bikes and everything else with two wheels in-between. Whats next?
VC London: We’re just gonna carry on the way we always have, by revolving everything around having a good time with our mates, trying out new stuff, riding and anyone can come join us. It’s been the way VC has grown so organically over the last 5 years and it’ll always stay that way.
FP: What would you say to someone who has never ridden a bike before but wants to get into it?
VC London: Just do it. There is nothing holding you back! That and do your research about how to learn to ride, getting the right training and what bike you want to start with. Starting on something small and working your way up once you gain confidence and experience worked for us.
FP: Where can people find VC and how can they get involved?
VC London: If you want to be a part of what we do you already are. There’s no gang or club to join. Just come along to one of our meet ups, events or shoot us a message.
@vc_london
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After the first iteration of the ‘Sketch to Shelf’ series, Nike continues its documentation of the Air Max 1’s birth with the next stage in its design process.
Initially working as an architect by Nike, Tinker Hatfield became increasingly inspired by the Pompidou Centre in Paris, which soon famously became the inspiration for the Air Max 1. The Pompidou building was based around the idea of being inside out, showing off its inner workings around the exterior, and its this design feature which inspired Tinker to take one of Nike’s existing air units and make it visible.
The first Air Max 1 ‘Sketch to Shelf’ paid homage to those original 1987 Tinker Hatfield sketches, taking the inspiration he found from the Pompidou Centre and putting it down on paper. Playing on the idea of a sketch, it featured several handwritten notes describing areas that needed to be redesigned, and areas that were good to go. One of the key highlights being the scribbled patches of ‘University Red’ that popped throughout, an iconic feature of the original AM1.
The Nike Air Max 1 ‘Schematic’ follows up by exploring the next process in this design stage. Finished off in a white and black colourway, Nike has managed to give the impression that this AM1 has been stripped straight from its digital design stage and brought to life.
The silhouette receives a much cleaner profile, documenting product parts and materials in a clean typeface and moves away from the handwritten aesthetic of previous. Mapping out the different panels from the toe to heel, the lettering indicates what panels will be used, what needs slight tweaks before production and again, what is good to go.
Completing the model, the right shoe has been stripped of Nike branding, instead opting for Tinker Hatfield’s signature at the heel.
The Nike Air Max 1 ‘Schematic’ will be launching in-store and online on Friday 16th August.
