British artist, skateboarder, and designer, Blondey McCoy, is releasing his own winterized boot-cum-sneaker hybrid in cahoots with adidas SPEZIAL.
McCoy, who founded his own label THAMES in 2012, has worked with adidas on multiple occasions in the past, although this is the first time he’s teamed up with SPEZIAL curator Gary Aspden.
The Blondey Winterhill SPZL, which is set to land exclusively at THAMES on November 3, is a riff on the chunky Winterhill silhouette that first released under the SPEZIAL line back in 2017.
For Blondey, he wanted to “build on, not bastardise” the classic Winterhill, a goal achieved by way of a sleek autumnal colorway, as well as box logo branding on the side and tongue of the sneaker.
McCoy has been a regular wearer of SPZL since its inception in 2014 and despite working closely with adidas in the past, only now has the 26-year-old taken the leap into collaborating with Aspden.
“Gary [Aspden] is a name synonymous with adidas,” said McCoy in an Instagram post.
“Nowhere in the brand is such an encyclopedic knowledge of it more reflective than in his range, Spezial. So working on a product that bears both of our names — the box logo being on the tongue of the right shoe — has been, put simply, a privilege.”
On November 2, Aspden also took to Instagram to reveal the Lawkholme SPZL, the first sneaker arriving as a part of SPEZIAL Fall/Winter 2023 on November 16.
If previous adidas SPEZIAL collections are anything to go by, Aspden will likely continue to drip-feed the remainder of the forthcoming collection between now and then via his IG.
