I Dig Your Sole Man

Monday, 22 March 2010

Cort at the Bakery; Sydney

The Bourke Street Bakery in Surry Hills is an iconic weekend destination for many Sydneysiders. Renowned for it's fantastic food and coffee the bakery always has crowds lining up to get inside, but it's well worth the wait, and while you pass the time you can do what I do and look for interesting sneakers.
Among the crowd last weekend I spotted these old school Nike Cortez kicks.
The owner wears these classic kicks regularly after purchasing them 6 months ago when she returned to her homeland of South Korea on vacation and was drawn to their classic style and colouring which she claims goes with any outfit.

Saturday, 20 March 2010

Shoes of the summer; #3 - Nike Free 5.0

To explain my decision to include these next kicks as part of my shoes of the summer, I will need to give you a bit of a backstory.

I suffered a very serious injury when playing football in the UK in 1998, and have had over 15 years of ongoing ankle ligament problems. As a result of this I have had to undergo a number of quite serious reconstruction operations, but nothing has seemed to help, with ongoing pain and discomfort preventing me from walking far, running, or playing any sports.

That is until I started wearing these latest incarnations of the innovative Free shoe from Nike a few months ago.

Amazingly comfortable and lightweight, the shoes combine contemporary style with functionality as they strengthen your ankle ligaments/muscles while you wear them. Within weeks of wearing them I was able to run again, and my ankle now feels stronger and better than it has done for years, and I put that down to the help of these sneakers.

In terms of style, the shoes can be used as runners, or as a lightweight everyday shoe that works well with skinny jeans.

Although this isn't technically a fashion sneaker, due to my personal circumstances I'm a big fan of this shoe, and I look forward to seeing what the future holds for Nike's Free series.

Thursday, 18 March 2010

Grams; Sydney

Some days it can be tough in Sydney to find unique footwear so I'm always pleased to discover new styles, and this week I was introduced to an interesting Swedish brand called Gram by Michael from the hidden gem that is the Surry Hills clothing store Somedays.

Gram's eye-catching styles of sneakers and hybrid shoes all have a clean and contemporary design with great detailing (each shoe has it's weight in grams printed on the heel) that work well for a casual, or formal look.

Tuesday, 16 March 2010

Alexander McQueen - Puma

The loss of Alexander McQueen to the fashion world last month has, and will continue to send shockwaves through the fashion industry. Innovative, unconventional and inspirational, his role in the modern fashion world was one of a pioneer, never afraid to experiment, and always delivering spectacular results.

And in recent years his collaborations with Puma had provided some very eye-catching and interesting shoes that combined conceptual design with a great understanding of how kicks should look and function.

The above shots are of a very rare Alexander McQueen Ribcage sample shoe that I was lucky enough to be recently given by a Sydney PR company. The skeleton inspired design is intended to replicate the human body with the ribcage style design giving support to the shoe's side panels and a silver pendant tooth accessory giving another link to the shoe's animal inspired inspiration.

McQueen's collections were always unexpected and unique and these shoes are no exception which is why they will take pride of place in my collection.

Monday, 15 March 2010

Going Underground; Sydney

The streets have seen me find some interesting people/sneakers over the past few months, but for this post I thought I would head underground.

Jay is a skater, and although he loves everything about sneakers is a massive Nike fan. It was something of a coincidence then that when we met he was wearing these classic Adidas Campus shoes, which are his only non-Nike kicks. He has had these shoes for 4 years so it's amazing that they're in such good condition as they still look brand new and look great as part of his urban skater look.

These shots were something of an experiment for me, as most of my other shots have been taken outside. There was no natural light for these shots so I have tried something a little bit different here by working with the conditions to try and create an atmospheric look.