Clarks Wallabee, Meet adidas UltraBOOST (EXCLUSIVE)
On paper, a collaboration between adidas and Clarks should not work. We're talking about sneakers and shoes, a crossover that has been attempted and failed a million times prior. But Kith founder Ronnie Fieg can do anything. Only he could make three-way hybrid footwear look as grounded as his Clarks-soled adidas sneakers, which previously tended to look more adidas than Clarks. (complimentary)
Fieg's adidas x Clarks Wallabee UltraBOOST, however, looks much more Clarks than adidas. (also complimentary)
This wild shoe is exactly what it sounds like: the upper portion of a Wallabee and the lower half of an UltraBOOST. Which is to say, it sounds nutty. And yet, it works.
It works quite well, actually, with that perfectly strange Wallabee silhouette balanced atop the streamlined heft of the UltraBOOST sole.
In the Wallabee UltraBOOST, one may glimpse shades of previous weirdo-but-wonderful twofer styles like the visvim FBT, Mizuno Wave Moc, and even New Balance's culture-shaping sneaker-loafer. But this shoe isn't quite like any of those.
That is, it's not a familiar shape offset by something sporty happening underneath — it's two established opposites meeting in the middle. And we all know that opposites attract.
Little wonder that "the final executions are some of my favorite models I’ve ever worked on," Fieg told Highsnobiety earlier this year, when his Wallabee UltraBOOSTs and Wallabee 4D sneakers joined a bevy of other covetable adidas shoes at Kith's traffic-halting runway show.
"I’ve always said that opening a box of fresh Wallabees is one of my favorite feelings," he said. "So, we applied two of my favorite adidas toolings: ultraBOOST and 4D. As you can imagine, this took serious development time."
Fieg's not exaggerating. Even an idea this direct demands ample R&D.
Both iterations of his hybrid Wallabee shoes required adjustments to Clarks' footwear tooling to create a leather shape that'd better fit its new underfoot element. Likewise, adidas had to provide soles adjusted to fit Clarks' refined uppers. It's not as simple as slapping a sneaker sole on a suede shoe — if only!
That the end product, available in six colorways that include high and low versions as drawings from October 24 on Kith's website, app, and stores, is this cohesive can only be a testament to Fieg's eye.
This guy knows shoes.
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