It's amazing that serial collaborator NEEDLES has time to devise its many seasonal team-ups while also cooking up its massive collections but you won't hear me complaining. The new NEEDLES x DC Shoes collection is just proves that the NEPENTHES-operated brand is always in the driver seat.
The collaboration itself is classic NEEDLES, with DC Shoes' Spectre realized in monochrome tones save for NEEDLES' signature purple and papillon (butterfly) logo.
Complementary Jog (not track) jackets, tonal patchwork T-shirts, and track pants both merge the brands' logos into a hybrid shape, though only the latter wears a zig-zagging dash pattern across its legs.
Currently, the NEEDLES x DC Shoes collection is available in-store at NEPENTHES' various flagship stores across Japan, ranging in price from ¥30,800 (about $210) for the Spectre sneakers to ¥35,200 (about $240) for the ripstop jacket. A NEPENTHES web store release is planned by August 23.
It's nice that, if this collaboration had to exist, it at least looks this good.
NEEDLES and DC Shoes seem like unlikely bedfellows because they are. I don't rightly know what exactly brings the Japanese clothing company and nearly 30-year-old skate shoe company together — certainly, it feels more left-field than Mihara Yasuhiro and protégé Doublet's collabs.
Or does it? NEEDLES has quietly built a following among the Instagram-savvy streetwear set. These kids, who likely learned of NEEDLES when A$AP Rocky wore its track suits and inimitable 7 Cuts flannel shirts, hold plenty reverence for skate culture.
Perhaps NEEDLES, with its myriad influences and far-reaching collections, is not such a bad fit for DC Shoes at all. Still a strange pairing, yeah, but you can see some throughlines. Plus, it's about time that DC Shoes and the other '90s skate shoe pioneers got their due recognition.
