Le Le x Patta x Converse 5th Anniversary Project | Hypebeast

Good call on Parra, he’s become sort of the poster-child for Dutch street art. It’s always so important to never forget your roots and help develop the local scene to establish a solid foundation before you go bigger. Could you speak a little about your huge collaboration collection for your fifth anniversary? Who exactly is involved and how did you approach each specific project?

Saying Parra or Piet is the poster boy for Dutch street art would do him short. He is a poster boy for Dutch art or better yet creativity in the whole art spectrum period, no boxes or pigeon-holing for him, he’s a far dude.

No one works specifically on one project exclusively, we all put in our 2 cents. A lot of projects are made up from sketch to concept by Lee and I. Lee does a lot of the sketches and I do a lot of the concepts, but that’s only half the story. Afterward, Edson, Tim, Max and the rest of the team go over it and say whether it’s either a good idea or straight crap. So no one specifically does a project for us, however we all work together to make sure the end result is on point. The main perpetrators for our projects have included Walid and Gary from Patta distribution who did the Pro-Keds and Kangol projects. Lee and Tim worked on stuff with Reebok and Eke/Coco worked on a project with girl shoes. We also work with people close to our family, we are currently working on some stuff with graphic designer Vinz and with Edgar, from Paris, who is in charge of all our clothing output. We worked on the Keeps project with designer Raymond “Rebel Ray” Lemstra. With the Asics project, from a little while ago, we used earlier work from inspiring artists Delta, Eric Elms and Parra.

Last but not least I share office space with Parra. He does his art, listens to his music, we barely speak during the day but we always check in. He asks me my opinion about certain projects he works on and I get inspired by his work and ask him about certain color combinations.

The last project we worked on, which really captures the way we work, is our 5th Anniversary Converse collection. This capsule went all the way from a concept of an aesthetic that fits to a brand into everything we like. We translated the varsity jacket into the shoes, branded them with the names Patta and Le Le. Le Le made some exclusive music with a record, organized some events and bam! there you have it. Music, art, fashion, party, people, family… all the good stuff.

Speaking of the Converse project, could you offer some background into this part of Patta’s 5 Year Anniversary? Throughout sneaker history,perhaps no model has become as popular and well-known as the Chuck Taylor All-Star. Was it a difficult feat when working with a shoe that has seen so many different versions and styles throughout its history and what’s the design all about?

We have been working on this project for a long time and it just happened to come out during our 5th Anniversary, which is a perfect match because we love Converse and we wanted to give it our best when working with them. When we heard from Nathan Jobe (Converse) that things were looked good, we immediately said we would do it as long as we could work on the Chuck Taylor, an all time favorite for us. It was definitely a challenge because of the good stuff that comes out from their inline collection including their first string projects like the SOPHNET. Chucks, Wood Wood (PRODUCT) RED joints and definitely the Hiroshi Fujiwara fragment Chucks. They are all straight classics. All we knew is that we wanted it to be simple, as soon as we had the concept it developed really quick. It didn’t take us that long and we were pretty happy with the result which includes a Pro Leather, Chuck Taylor All-Star and varsity jacket. Overall, it’s a pack with nice details and good materials. The whole collection is inspired by the iconic Letterman aesthetic. The varsity jacket comes in a burgundy corduroy and has a reversible gray lining in quilted fleece. Between the Pro Leather and the Chuck Taylor, they have an opposite approach. The Pro Leather comes with a deep burgundy corduroy upper with quilted grey lining while the Chuck is the polar opposite with a quilted suede upper and burgundy corduroy lining. We also got the chance to use a lesser seen Chuck from the 60s, that has higher rands and a cleaner midsole. The stuff really works when you put the shoes and the jacket together, it makes the cycle complete.

The Pro Leather is a shoe that has been seen a few times in the last little while but few have had the chance to put their own collaborative touch on it. Since it (the Pro Leather) has seen fewer versions release compared to the Chuck Taylor, did you have to restrain from putting out something a bit crazier?

Not really, as we worked within the concept. Our first idea for both shoes was to keep it simple. The material use and the colorway are that extra touch in our own respective opinion. I think the Pro Leather hasn’t been worked on that much simply because it’s a little underrated… but that’s just a thought. In the end, its a killer silhouette period ’nuff said! Lets wait until Hiroshi touches it or Stussy… haha, you’ll see!