COPSON Celebrates New Balance Collaboration in "Notes From An Island" Short Film

London-based label COPSON has released a new short film to celebrate the launch of its summer-ready 247 collaboration with New Balance. Titled “Notes From An Island,” the film is shot and set in Northern Ibiza, a location chosen as it is “another spiritual home” to the label and a place “where spirituality and mysticism reign.” COPSON also goes onto describe the short film as “a story of duality, between your inner world and outer world; and a magical isle where you can dip in and out of hedonism or benevolence.”

To mark COPSON’s latest release, we sat down with the label’s founder Maria Falbo to talk about the “Cannoli Cream” sneaker collaboration and how the brand has changed:

How did the collaboration come about?
Like most things for us, through skateboarding. The European New Balance office is based just outside of Manchester. We studied in Manchester, and so are still heavily connected to the music and skate scenes in the city. The head of NB marketing Europe is a skateboarder that we’ve know for years. All very organic.

What were you trying to achieve with the design?
As it was a new recently introduced style , we wanted to keep things simple, clean and timeless. We opted for a gum sole, and premium leather foxing. The constructed woven upper, allowed us to elevate the 247, offering a subtle premium to the mainline. It was a challenge, to make a contemporary style look classic.

The shoe — and lookbook — are both influenced by European summers. Where has that come from?
As a brand COPSON is heavily influenced by European summers, and all of the associations that come with it. But it goes deeper than that.

We shot our first film in Calabria, southern Italy, to showcase the untouched magic of Italy’s driest region. My family is from the region, and so we spend a lot of time there exploring the rural landscape and communal traditions.

Ibiza was the highlight in this project, another spiritual home to COPSON, where we’d spent a lot of summers. The idea was to show the lesser known north of the island, where spirituality and mysticism reign over the super clubs. This is where the balearic music scene was born, and the hippies discovered their “paradise” in the ’70s.

Everything we do as a brand has to have meaning. The people we work with, the locations, the stories we tell … all share the COPSON spirit, one of transendence, that abstract moment or feeling of bliss, skateboarding at sunset, raving under the midday sun, sharing food with friends, ultimately all the basic ‘good’ stuff that the soul needs.

There is so much empty content, product, stuff out there – we believe in less is more, focusing on the more important things in life.

How does the collaboration tie in with COPSON more generally?
I personally have always worn New Balance. The fact that they are still an independent company is an appeal, which allows for more creative freedom which felt refreshing. As a brand I feel like they’ve always been associated with change makers, innovators, rather than hype. For this reason, we were excited to partner up creatively.

How has COPSON changed since it began?
You could say that our offering has changed as we’ve grown. For some it may seem confusing, as we aren’t following any rules, that of other skate or fashion labels. We’ve ventured into experiences, clothing, collaboration, community.

However the key message remains the same. Good life used to be skating and drinking street beers under the Barcelona sun, now that escapism and hedonism perhaps has turned into a more inward benevolent approach. To live a truly good life, we believe that materialism combined with a deeper exploration of yourself, is where true self transcendence can lie.

With this we believe COPSON can be timeless, and our one purpose lies in providing those feelings for our community.

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Take a look at ”Notes From An Island” above, and head over to the COPSON web store to pick up the New Balance collaboration and a new T-shirt capsule.