Brand: 18 East x Padmore & Barnes
Season: Fall/Winter 2021
Release Date: November 5
Buy: 18 East's website and New York store
Editor's Notes: If the 6" Timbs are the official shoe of New York winters, the Wallabee is probably the unofficial footwear of autumn. Local label 18 East is taking the moc-toed silhouette into even colder climes through its latest collaboration with silhouette's OG British maker, Padmore & Barnes.
Lionized by everyone from the Wu-Tang Clan to regular folks in Queens, the Wallabee is a New York staple. Clarks' version is the more famous one but it borrows elements of the Padmore original, which debuted thirty years before Clarks bought the Irish company (Padmore has bee independent since the mid-'80s).
Versatile and comfortable, the moc toed style is one of those shoes that does it all. Except, of course, when it gets rainy and that crepe sole starts losing grip on the sidewalk.
18 East's second Padmore & Barnes shoe solves that issue, setting up the beefy silhouette for all-season wear.
Winterized with Vibram Morflex soles, these black leather stompers have been treated with beeswax for natural water repellancy and swap out the usual flat laces for some spiffy speed laces with 3M trim, boosting both visibility and ease of wear.
There are plenty of smaller tweaks throughout but this is a riff on a classic, rather than a major revision.
In fact, you can see that mentality throughout 18 East's latest drop, which includes these kicks. Plenty of its fan-favorite silhouettes return in fresh fabrications alongside a few new styles.
Part of 18 East's success, really, is that its drops nattily tweak familiar shapes with tactile textiles. The wheel isn't reinvented but it is revamped.
Same goes for 18 East's Padmore & Barnes collab. If it ain't broke, why fix it?
