RSS Feeds
fashion
OK, Nike Have Gone Nintendo MAD
Posted by Luke Plunkett at 11:00 PM on November 19, 2008
What is this? A mass act of adoration on the part of Nike's design team? Or some strange, off-key marketing exercise on the part of Nintendo? It's difficult to tell, but what is clear is that Nike are loving their Nintendo at the moment. First it was NES-themed Air Max classics. Then a whole range of Wii-inspired kicks. Now it's another NES-inspired shoe, this time the Air Max Terra. It's got a similar theme to the Classics - the subtle d-pad around the sole, the colour scheme - but it's not quite as refined. Indeed, it looks more like a Mega Drive 2 tribute than a NES one.
Nike Air Max Terra Ninety Nintendo NES Collaboration [Crave Online, thanks Sid!]
Those tasteful 
The same kind of kids who dig sneakers are often the same kind of kids who dig video games. 
We'll concede that for goomba stomping purposes, some cleated golf shoes would probably get you out of a bind in the Mushroom Kingdom now and then. But in the real world, these Super Mario World shoes, spied at Super Potato in Akihabara, seem to have limited use. They're certainly fancy and the white still gleams — almost everything in Super Potato has been well cared for — but if we were handed a pair of multi-coloured Mario golf shoes, we'd probably politely decline (or sell them immediately on eBay).
I'm a sucker for ugly game-themed shoes, but even I wouldn't pick these bad boys up. Featuring a blood-red COG symbol, these custom Globe skate shoes sell for $US80.
Being a guy, the shoe is an entirely functional object - like a screwdriver or robot. I don't stand in front of shop windows staring with glazed eyes at expensive Manolo Blahniks. I just don't.
The Year of the Video Game Shoe continues, this time courtesy of Puma who have inflicted two additional Tetris themed kicks on the footwear buying public. While these two are certainly not as horrendous as the 
These are art, not shoes, because unlike the garish-yet-limited run of expensive designer sneakers we normally feature, these are hand-painted. Which means getting them wet or performing any kind of strenuous activity is just totally out of the question. As is wearing them to literally kick a man's arse after a heated bout of Smash Bros. Though hopefully there's one or two moral reasons stopping you from doing that before you have to actually consider "cracking the paint on my new custom Chucks" to be the one that keeps things civil.
One day I hope to be half the video game shoe connoisseur that Crecente is, but I'm quite a long way off. For example, when he saw these Pac-Man-inspired kicks from British clothing company Ben Sherman, I very much doubt there is a measure of time small enough to quantify the time between the initial page load and check out confirmation. I, on the other hand, waited for several minutes, hemming and hawing over $US 60 for a pair of canvas sneakers that I will probably never wear for fear of scuffing them, like the Asteroids Pro Keds I picked up last year. Oh well, I suppose there's only one thing for it. *closes eyes and places order* If you don't see yourself buying them it doesn't count.
I spend far too much of my reasonably-hard-earned money on two things. One of them is games. The other, sneakers. Combinations of the two should be a sure thing for me, then, but in this case, no, no it is not. Puma are re-releasing two versions of their old Disc Blaze sneaks in the Spring, only this time, with a Tetris theme. Not, as you'd be forgiven for thinking, an "opening credits of the Fresh Prince of Bel Air" theme.
