éS & Crooked Tongues Present The Foothills Project

In a departure from their usual collaborations involving major athletic footwear brands on mostly running silhouettes, Crooked Tongues partners with éS on The Foothills Project. With almost 10 years under the Crooked Tongues name, the team over London put together a solid package beyond just footwear which also includes products that compliment each design. Each model gets its own exclusive accessory including a 3-layer jacket, ripstop cap and backpack. The collection is available now at CrookedTongues.com/Store. A more comprehensive insight into the project is seen below through a press release in addition to an editorial.

éS & Crooked Tongues Present The Foothills Project

Simple shoes are all well and good, but there is a safety creeping into the industry that is taking the edge out of sneaker design. Rapidly approaching its 10th Anniversary, Crooked Tongues was built on coverage of avant-garde performance designs. With a nod to this heritage, it is time to take it back to before the basics. Plain and vulcanized design would squander an immense opportunity to tell a unique design story from an unexpected alliance.

Since 2000, Crooked Tongues has provided the definitive online resource for an audience looking for information, insight and cultural context on sneaker culture, plus a place to buy from a handpicked selection of the best of the brands. After working on a number of collaborative colourways of classic shoe designs, it was evident that there was a need to go the extra mile and work on a completely new model – something from the ground up.

Meeting through a mutual respect, éS needs little introduction. Founded in 1995 by Pierre Andre Senizergues, it’s been the birthplace for some of the most innovative and technically advanced skate footwear ever created. Built during one of the most creatively abundant periods for sneaker design, éS delivered shoes like the S-L-B, Accel, Contour and Ezio, and numerous iconic signature models and has continued driving momentum to skate design.

Together Crooked Tongues and éS have built on a preoccupation with hiking aesthetics, inspired by the rolling green foothills that form the backdrop of éS headquarters, and merged them with contemporary outerwear with skate shoe styling. The Foothills capsule collection coordinates classicism with the cutting edge.

Born from combined lifetime bids of studying, obsessing, scrutinizing and hording, this is something very different. Fortunately it’s all tactically tinged with enough familiarity to minimize any excess shock-of-the-new for the sensitive souls out there. Think sealed-seam technical jackets, iconic images of mesh runners rocked while ascending K2. Inspired by forgotten outdoor wear brands sported by sneaker connoisseurs and skaters alike when inclement weather rendered their standard attire inappropriate.

Premium materials were paramount. At base level, traditional materials were implemented before being bolstered by the peak of technical excellence. For example, take the fabrics you’re familiar with – brushed rubber, pig suedes, meshes, ripstop polyester, weave canvas, oiled nubucks and full grain pebble leathers. Add Sole Technology Institute biomechanic lab’s famed technology that is used by éS, which is present in the System 02 airbag, and that unique asymmetrical fit takes the idea of a ‘Crooked Tongue’ to its logical conclusion.

How do you build on that? For starters, you can embellish them with quick dry linings, and correlating colours. And that’s just the start of it. Each of the shoes gets its own accessory that is sold separately. The black/purple option is coordinated with a matching 3-layer jacket, fully taped, with a contrasting application on the waterproofed zips that doesn’t compromise the stealthy looks. The brown/orange shoe gets a ripstop cap that riffs on decades of durable headwear. Lastly, the grey/pink shoe matches an Oxford weave backpack – perfect for day-to-day essentials or luggage carry-on.
Foothills is more than just a collaboration – it’s a completely new approach to combination product.

The éS & Crooked Tongues Foothills collection has been produced in extremely limited numbers, going on sale at crookedtongues.com and in selected retailers from 20th August 2009.