trends | chinese retro sneaker evolution ::
Thursday, February 26th, 2009:: …first came the original, Huili / Warrior (回力), priced between RMB 30 – 65…
…then came the, also original, Feiyue (飞跃) sneaker, priced between RMB 30 – 65…
…now there is The People’s Shoes (人民牌), a modern, higher-quality and more comfortable, hybrid version of the above two, by Anton Brandt (who, by the way, is cool enough to donate a portion of the brand’s profits to The Starfish Project, a Cambodia-based humanitarian organization), priced at USD 42 (RMB 285)…
…similarly, there is also OSPOP. (One Small Point of Pride.)’s Skywolf sneaker line by Ben Walters, priced at USD 76 (RMB 520)…
…which is essentially an indie-hipster remix version of Tianlang’s (天狼, literally “Skywolf”) classic revolutionary-flavored Chinese military / migrant worker “liberation shoes” (解放鞋), and also the timeless Chinese electrical workers’ “boot,” priced between RMB 10 – 35…
…and of course, let us not forget about the recent return of traditional Chinese “cloth shoes” (布鞋) to the modern fashion scene, priced between RMB 10 – 30…
…and last but not least, my favorite, a shanzhai’d NIKE version of “liberation shoes,” by a young man who actually wears them during military training exercises, priceless. // AjS
