New Balance Blog

London's Crooked Tongues has done four shoes with New Balance as part of a “Confederacy of Villainy” series, limited to 99 pairs each with custom packaging. The first is a 1500 inspired by Black Beard; the remaining three will be revealed over the next three days. Badness! Villainy, feel him in ya heart chakra chart toppa / Star shit stoppa be a smart shoppa…

“Over the next week we'll reveal our latest collaboration with New Balance – the 'Confederacy Of Villainy'. One shoe each day for the next four days allowing you the opportunity to see each shoe on it's own merit.

The technical running shoe that's earnt its rightful place in the hearts of heads worldwide is a prime candidate for some collaborative action, so it took a little more to make the 1500 stand-out after some tight partnerships using this premium performance silhouette. Using a mixture of leather and mesh there's a few asides to the original construction of this shoe, before the animal hides took over entirely. A mix of black, white and grey plus a nicely-timed burst of very flouro red reflects the villain the shoe was themed after – Blackbeard, the hollow-point bad-boy of piracy who allegedly upped the fear factor by rocking lit matches in his beard. Given the dark subject matter, a black midsole was incorporated – it was relevant, so we're unapologetic to the white sole faithful!

While we're on-topic, there's plenty of other details on board – a dose of contrast stitching, both white and red and in line with this 1500's three villainous brethren, a white metal eyelet, and finally a unique tongue label that will only ever grace these four models. And then there's the packaging. Working with BJ Betts, there's some premium pirate skull action at work that should impress those bored with the generic boxes stacked in their closets. It's been a helluva lot of work and cost, but in the years since '04's first wave of CT/New Balance collabos, the stakes have been well and truly raised. As confirmed last week, these are limited to 99 pairs on sale exclusively via the site in early December… “

Via HighSnobiety

This entry was posted on Monday, November 20th, 2006 at 3:24 pm and is filed under All. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.