adidas Zeitfrei: The Complete Ride | Hypebeast

Hikmet Sugoer (Solebox – Founder)

You are arguably one of the most active participants in the sneaker collaboration scene, what do you account this success to?

I think the main point is I never really cared all that much about actively going into collaborations. Everything I do is purely because I love to do it. It is my passion, my life, and it seems that it works together like so.

If you turn down a brand for a collaboration, what are some of your particular reasonings?

When I enter any collaboration, it’s mostly on the basis that I love the brand and respect the people behind the brand. And of course, that the brand or model was somehow a part of my life. You asked yourself why many people buying retros? Because they had the shoes as kids. And I’ve been extremely fortunate and lucky to have the ability to put my own interpretations on a handful of shoes.

What are some of your favorite elements of the Zeitfrei?

I love the tongue pocket for the laces. This is what I like on shoes, details. For example, check under the pocket and you will see an additional detail.

For the colorway, what were your inspirations? Why the gumsole?

I love vintage cars and it is a typical color arrangement of a vintage car with a slate gray exterior with red interior. Both cars and bikes have something to do with motion, so together they share some relevancy. Gumsoles, mesh and leather are my favorite materials for a shoe. I have the subjective feeling that gumsoles are more sticky like a racing tire on a car.

How does the Zeitfrei collaboration factor in amongst your other projects

in the past? How would you say it’s different from previous projects?

Because the Zeitfrei isn’t a retro, this is one of the main points why we joined this project. It is something new and a totally new shoe design which can hopefully become the classic of tomorrow, the Zeitfrei. Big thank you to Andy Chiu from adidas for giving us this chance and a big thank you to the Hypebeast posse for pushing things. I think we did in fact create “A Complete Ride” with this collaboration. It’s the perfect match.

As a partner that isn’t traditionally routed in the world of cycling, did you foresee any obstacles?

To be true, I do not think that you have to be active into sports to work on a shoe. Sometimes it is better to be objective. Sure, there will be people who will think about it why we or Hypebeast are doing a fixie shoe. We’ve done it and the shoes are looking great and I hope that people will welcome our work as something new in these saturated times.

From your perspective, how big of a role will bicycles play into the future?

Bicycles are the right way to move from A to B. Even a lazy guy like me uses a bike for short ways. And the best: you do not need gasoline, you do not produce CO2, and you do something for your health.

Did you put together any extra items to go alongside the sale of shoes? Any particular reason why you picked these items?

Sure, a Solebox is not a Solebox collab without something special. We did an air pump for a bike. We worked with SKS, Germany’s leading manufacturer for air pumps. The AirChamp Pro is included in every package with a Solebox branding.