A great wardrobe has long been built on a foundation of high-quality footwear, but never has your sneaker rotation been as integral as it is today. Whether dressing down at the office to your casual weekend kicks, the sneaker has become the democratic shoe in everyone’s wardrobe, producing its own veritable culture and spawning a multi-billion-pound industry dominated by exclusive collaborations selling for thousands on the re-sale market. Now more than ever, people drawing conclusions from what’s on your feet.
As we welcome in Spring/Summer ’18 at Coggles with hundreds of new arrivals landing on site every week, we pick out our selection of the sneakers you need to refresh your rotation this season.
adidas by Raf Simons
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Celebrating its 10th seasonal collaborative collection for Spring/Summer 2018, adidas by Raf Simons once more delivers a collection of fearless, sport-style innovations and new iterations of classic styles this season. Famous for his ability to distil the essence of contemporary design, Simons uses materials outside of their ordinary context, repurposing them in the collection with innovative structural engineering and intriguing new details.
Alongside his iconic take on the coveted Stan Smith silhouette, Simons’ latest reinvention of the iconic Ozweego is the centrepiece for SS18. This season, the Ozweego III is updated to its signature two-layer design, combining oily synthetic fabric with cabnvas, mesh, and ruber while later in the season we will see the introduction of the deconstructed, summer-ready Replicant Ozweego with an eye-catching design featuring cut-out panels.
Y-3
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Yohji Yamamoto has long been regarded as one of fashion’s foremost pioneers, consistently developing cutting-edge designs that predict (and most likely influence) nascent industry trends. This season, his adidas Y-3 collaboration notably dropped two brand new silhouettes, the Kusari and Saikou, that are exciting new developments in Y-3’s footwear collection.
For the first time, Y-3 has taken two of adidas’ most recent innovations—the Boost sole unit and Primeknit uppers—and developed two completely new structures that underline the brand’s meticulous obsession with fabrication, shape and functionality. The result? Two uniquely futuristic sneakers with a bold visual aesthetic that is distinctly Y-3.
With a reputation as pioneers in the luxury sportswear space, we take a closer look at how adidas Y-3 have once more innovated with the sneaker for SS18 with its Saikou & Kusari silhouettes.
While it may be new to Coggles for SS18, Karhu is built on a rich 100-year heritage involving several Olympic medals and a run-in with a then-little-known German athletics brand wanting to purchase Karhu’s original three-stripe branding. While it has been providing its native Finnish Olympians with running shoes for over a been hundred years, it is only in more recent years that the brand has developed a cult following for its retro sneaker collection. With Kanye West snapped wearing the brand’s relaunched Fusion 2.0 model in 2017, Karhu is set to become one of this year’s hottest brands.
The seasons change, but the need for a clean, minimalist sneaker in your rotation will always remain. Drawing on his architectural studies, Guillaume Philibert’s Filling Pieces has handcrafted some of this season’s finest minimalist silhouettes using fine Italian leathers and meticulous detailing. For SS18, the brand reinterpreted its collection in a modern-day context with exciting new fabrications and colourways.
Converse
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Despite the timeless pull of the All Stars (especially 1970s), Spring/Summer 2018 is all about the One Star for Converse. Featured in an extensive new campaign starring Gully Guy Leo Mandella, Tove Lo, Mabel McVey and A$AP Nas, Converse have re-released the court classics in original 1970s hairy suede in the OG colours of red, navy and black for this season.
Veja
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It’s not often that you find a brand that places as much importance on the environment and ethically-sound practices as it does on style and design, but then VEJA is no ordinary brand. Sébastien Kopp and François-Ghislain Morillion founded the Parisian brand in 2005, with a desire to create stylish sneakers that would last a lifetime as well as having a positive impact on every part of the manufacturing process. The pair headed to Brazil – the only country to have organic, fair trade cotton and wild rubber – to realise their project, where each pair of VEJA trainers is ethically created. Thanks to its transparent manufacturing process and sleek aesthetic, VEJA has swiftly developed a cult global following.
Axel Arigato has been creating sleek, minimal and exceptionally well-crafted trainers since its beginnings in 2014. Based in Gothenburg, Axel Arigato takes inspiration from its Swedish homeland and Japanese design to create contemporary trainers with a difference. Handcrafted in Portugal, the devil is in the detail with these trainers – think fine Italian leathers, calfskin linings and Margom rubber soles.