In this world, only a few things get better with age: Leonardo DiCaprio’s acting, sex, whiskey, that curry in the fridge from the night before, and your favorite pair of Converse. Luckily for us, Converse took what they're good at, namely making sneakers that look better the more you wear them, and applied that idea across an entire apparel collection.
Converse's new Essentials Collection is a five-piece drop of everyday classic streetwear pieces that you can wear easily and with pretty much anything. Like your favorite denim jacket, or the failsafe leather belt you picked up that one time, or that piece of metal jewelry you wear every day, Converse Essentials are crafted from premium cotton jersey that only gets better with time.
So we tested it out on Berlin creative collective, NULLDREINULL (aka 030), founded by Steffen Grap and Karo Rose, to see how it'd handle, as well as get a vibe on what drives them as a collective. Composed of friends originally from Berlin, they were famously asked to contribute to Gucci's recent campaign this summer, which they then did using just their smartphones. Now one of the them, Johannes Schirrmeister, divides his time between Tel Aviv and Berlin, skating and working with kids with autism, while the rest continue to push themselves on their home turf in the German capital.
"I get inspired just by my surroundings," says Grap. "Berlin, skateboarding, my Rose and my friends. And Instagram as well really. Sometimes it can just be a single word written down somewhere or maybe a little picture on a wall. I dunno. All sorts of things could be inspiration and motivation for me, especially in this city." For Schirrmeister, it's the surf, skate and general culture of Tel Aviv "because it's hard to grow up in a country in which war and terrorism is a daily theme." But for Anton Jaeger, "I'm actually only inspired by skateboarding."
We met Grap and the 030 crew as they turned up in a mix of their favorite garms: heavy cotton pants, denim jeans, Chucks and One Stars. "At first mine were black and grey but I didn't feel the colorway 100 percent so I just colored them all black," said Grap about his Chuck One Star. "Oh, and the gold chain is my favorite accessory. Karo gave it to me like a year ago and since then, I've never taken it off." Which kind of says everything you need to know about the Essentials collection.
Available in men and women cuts, the Converse Essentials Collection actually includes a tee, a crewneck, a decent pair of everyday cotton pants, a pullover hoodie, and a full-zip hoodie (oh, and there's a simple backpack too, cos backpacks are always useful). No-nonsense colorways of light gray, off-white, dark navy, full red and black make it instantly wearable, slotting into your weekly wardrobe without any stress. Which is basically what happened when we gave it to the 030 guys anyway...
Check out our exclusive editorial, shot by Vienna-based photographer Lukas Gansterer, before diving into the details and shopping the new Essentials Collection over at converse.com now.
