To Reinvent the Quintessential Sneaker, Our Legacy Brought Back Its Human Touch (EXCLUSIVE)
It's criminal, really, that some generic running shoe is currently the "sneaker" emoji because it really should be the Chuck Taylor. There is no shoe more instantly recognizable, more synonymous with sneakerdom to more people — so much so that you certainly do not need me to tell you that.
There was no question which silhouette Our Legacy Work Shop — the collaborative branch of ultra-vital Swedish imprint Our Legacy — would take on as its next Converse collaboration, even though it's already remixed a handful of Chucks in the past. Chuck forever.
But Chuck is also a million things other than a Chuck Taylor. Like, they make Chuck Taylor heels, you know. And that's fine. Chuck can do all that.
But to get back to the essence of what makes Chuck so great, to bring this titan back down to earth, Our Legacy had to bring back the human touch.
"Vintage shoes [are] irregular, something human. That is so beautiful," Our Legacy cofounder Jockum Hallin tells me, having landed here in New York to, among other things, celebrate the launch of what he's calling Our Legacy's "dream version" of the Chuck (Our Legacy is "constantly looking" to open a New York store, meanwhile). This means going back to the days before modern sneaker manufacturing to reinvent the Chuck as — what else? — itself.
"We pushed to get the hand-pulled foxing and punched-out vent holes and have the factory make them not look the same, which was a fun journey because these factories are normally so perfect and precise," Hallin says. "We didn't want perfection. We wanted human errors that bring out the personality. Our quest is to get that quirkiness back."
That quirkiness manifests in what might've otherwise been considered flaws, but where a quality-control inspector might see mistakes, Our Legacy sees reality. The reality is that nothing in life, nothing real at least, is perfect. These small touches of crude sincerity make everything more meaningful, for they show the human touch. To err is human, and thank god.
Subtle imbalance is key, however, rather than major upsets.
"If you do too much, it's no longer a Chuck and if you do too little, it's the same as [what you see] on the shelves of every store. There's a balance there," Hallin says. "[We] pushed to bring out those little things that the real heads will see but that the general consumer will be like, 'Oh, this is different.' This is also where Our Legacy sits, you know: taking a silhouette that you recognize and making it a little different. Pushing it."
Indeed, Our Legacy works familiar shapes into end results not too far from where they started but certainly distanced enough to be distinct. Its faded jeans, for instance, are sometimes cleverly printed with frays, rather than actually being ripped, and its shirts are typically cut looser, more generous, and far more suave in dyed cotton-wool and Italian rayon.
Here, too, you see the human touch, albeit less in material flaws than in the subtle newness that makes Our Legacy's garments equally approachable and electrifying. You come for the tasteful look, you stay when you notice the thoughtful collar lining and full-armhole'd sweaters. It's not such a coincidence that Our Legacy's Converse, subtly retooled and obviously cool, distills this approach quite singularly.
Plus, it pairs with Our Legacy's trouser oeuvre quite neatly.
"There are sneaker trend cycles but me, personally, I've always been wearing Chucks," Hallin says. "And now is the right time for the Chuck. It's a good shoe for a lot of different pants. It's very easy to wear with a wide dress pant but if you dial it in with the perfect jeans, it's big-boss level, you know? When you see it, you know it."
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