Awake NY and Converse Cook Up a Trio of One Star Pro Collabs
A salute to Awake NY founder Angelo Baque’s favorite ’90s alternative music.
Back in May 2018, Awake NY founder Angelo Baque took to his Instagram Stories to reveal four cancelled One Star collaborations with Converse. To this day, the reason for the cancellation remains unknown — but delay is not denial, and now, five years later, the two brands are dropping three collaborative takes on the One Star Pro plus a concise set of apparel.
Awake NY is constantly exploring, spotlighting and championing New York City culture and subcultures with its products, and this Converse trio furthers that ethos by pulling from the Big Apple’s rich skate and alternative music scene of the early ’90s. Around that time, Converse reintroduced 1974’s All Star as the One Star, and the One Star quickly became a favored silhouette of those scenes. “The One Star always connects back to the early ‘90s punk and alternative artists I really admired, whether it be Nirvana, The Smashing Pumpkins, or the Beastie Boys — music that typically you wouldn’t assume people [from Richmond Hill, Queens] would listen to,” says Angelo Baque, noting that including musicians in the campaign was an important tie-in to the collection’s inspiration. “If you wore a pair of One Stars back then, you didn’t subscribe to the social norms.”
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The One Star Pro is done up in shaggy powder blue, black and grey suede for the collection, the latter duo of which were first seen in the aforementioned 2018 Instagram post. Each features thick Awake NY embroidery across its lateral quarter panel, overlapping the signature star cutout, and is completed by a high-gloss rubber midsole with a heel badge and thick stripe. From a performance standpoint, the One Star Pro upgrades the original One Star with a skate-ified Converse CONS rubber outsole and a molded CX insole. Apparel includes co-branded hoodies, rugby shirts with a large star pattern on the back and graphic tees.
Expect the Awake NY x Converse One Star Pro collection and its accompanying apparel to release via the Awake webstore and the brand’s Lower East Side flagship on October 6, followed by a Converse release on October 12. The shoes are priced at $95 USD, while apparel runs from $50-$120 USD.
For more from the world of Awake, check out Hypebeast’s extensive interview with Angelo Baque about his brand’s progression, its flagship store, the importance of community and more.
