Tag Archives: footwear

Old Nike sneakers are getting shredded and recycled into sustainable gym flooring

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Every sneaker eventually dies, and most of them die badly, tossed into a landfill where the rubber outsole will outlive everyone who ever wore it. Nike has spent over three decades trying to intercept that fate with Reuse-A-Shoe, a program that grinds old kicks and factory scraps into a material called Nike Grind. What started as a scrappy basketball court test at a Nike facility in Oregon has since gone into more than a billion square feet of sport surfaces worldwide. Now it has landed somewhere I did not expect, as commercial flooring backed by the largest flooring manufacturer on the planet. Mohawk Group just folded a small Nike Grind partner called Hero Flooring into its lineup, and the headline product is called Hero Rubber made with Nike Grind.

Reade Palmer, a former rower, founded Hero Flooring (now part of Mohawk Group) in 2014 and spent years pitching Nike before landing an official partnership in 2020. The result is a rubber flooring program built entirely around the size of the recycled granule, with three current styles called Original, Vitality, and Axis. Original uses the finest Nike Grind for a tight uniform speckle, Vitality blends two granule sizes for a terrazzo effect, and Axis goes bold with visible sneaker outsole chunks. All three ship in 17 colorways, skip recycled tires (so no tire odor, a real complaint with rival rubber floors), and carry FloorScore and Declare Red List Free certification. It has already won recognition from the AZ Awards, HiP Awards, and Best of NeoCon, and now rides Mohawk’s distribution into design firms nationwide.

Designer: Reade Palmer (Mohawk Group)

A big chunk of the shoes feeding Nike Grind come from drop bins sitting inside actual Nike stores, which means this floor started life as somebody’s actual Nikes. Grind them up, press them flat, install them in a gym, and now you have got people in fresh Nikes squatting and sprinting on top of dead Nikes. Old shoe, new shoe, same brand, same square footage, closing the loop in the most on-the-nose way possible. I keep picturing some guy doing burpees completely unaware he is standing on last year’s Pegasus.

The three styles are basically the same trick shot at three different zoom levels. Original is the tightest and calmest of the bunch, a fine confetti speckle that would not look out of place in an office lobby that does not want to shout about being made from garbage. Vitality loosens the grain up, mixing two granule sizes so it starts looking like actual stone terrazzo instead of a printed knockoff of it. Axis is the one that goes for broke, with chunks big enough that you can actually clock they used to be a shoe sole. It is basically the difference between whispering “recycled” and yelling it, and I respect that all three options exist under one roof.

Axis is rated for actual athletic use under ASTM F2772, with an energy restitution score of 87.3 percent, meaning it eats a chunk of the impact when you drop a barbell instead of letting your knees eat it instead. Every style skips crumb rubber entirely, which matters more than it sounds like it should, because regular rubber gym flooring made from old tires smells like, well, old tires. Add FloorScore certification, a Declare Red List Free label, and a verified environmental report card, and you have got a floor that is doing its homework. The one thing I could not dig up anywhere, not on Mohawk’s site and not on Architizer, is a price. So budget for a phone call to a rep before you fall in love.

What I like most here is that this floor is not embarrassed about where it came from. Most recycled flooring tries to hide the recycled part, smoothing everything into a boring gray so nobody clocks the backstory. Hero Rubber does the opposite, letting actual shoe chunks sit right there on the surface for anyone paying attention. You show up to lift, you are standing on somebody else’s old kicks, wearing your own current pair, and the floor does not let you forget it. That is a better sustainability pitch than most brands manage with an entire ad campaign.

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adidas Actually Built a Sub-$300 Shoe With Record-Breaking DNA

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Most runners will never own the shoe that broke the two-hour marathon barrier. The Adizero Adios Pro Evo 3 that Sabastian Sawe and a handful of other elite athletes wore into the history books this year was never really built for the rest of us. It’s fragile by design, priced somewhere north of $500, and made for maybe one perfect race before it’s done. That’s the actual problem adidas set out to fix with the Adizero Adios Pro 5: how do you take genuinely record-breaking technology and put it on the feet of someone training for their local Sunday marathon without asking them to spend half a paycheck or babysit a shoe that might not survive the training block that gets them there.

The answer, released globally on September 22 at $275, is a shoe that borrows its most important ideas from the Evo 3 and builds them into something you can actually train in, race in, and buy again next season. That distinction matters more than it might sound like it does. Super shoes have spent the last several years chasing marginal gains that only elite athletes could feel, at price points that only enthusiasts could justify. The Pro 5 is adidas’ attempt to close that gap, and from what’s been tested so far, it mostly succeeds.

Designer: adidas

The headline feature is something called ENERGYRIM, a carbon-fiber-infused ring that runs around the perimeter of the midsole instead of the carbon rods threading through the center, which is how most super shoes have handled propulsion since the category exploded. Freeing up that center space means more room for pure Lightstrike Pro foam directly under the foot, which adidas says translates to a 9 percent bump in energy return over the previous version. I’m generally skeptical of percentage claims in shoe marketing, but the logic here actually checks out from an engineering standpoint. More foam where your foot actually lands should matter more than a rod you never directly feel.

What’s harder to fake is the weight. The Pro 5 averages 177 grams, about 23 grams lighter than the Pro 4, which doesn’t sound dramatic until you’re 20 miles into a marathon and every gram left on the shoe is a gram you’re not fighting anymore. adidas has leaned into this a little too cheerfully in its own marketing, but the number holds up across early reviews, and it’s the kind of change runners actually feel rather than just read about.

The geometry shift is the quieter story here, and probably the more interesting one. Stack height moved to 39mm in the heel and 35mm in the forefoot, with the drop dropping from 6mm to 4mm. That’s a flatter ride than the outgoing model, and it’s a deliberate move toward something closer to how the Evo 3 actually rides. adidas isn’t hiding that this is a trickle-down shoe. It’s stating it outright, which I appreciate more than the usual vague marketing about “innovation.”

The upper got real attention too. Lightlock 2.0 adds anti-slip foam pods around the heel, addressing the one complaint that’s followed nearly every carbon racer since the category started: your heel slipping around mile 20 when your form starts to fall apart and you need the shoe to hold its end of the deal. Underneath, a Continental rubber patch at the toe-off zone means grip doesn’t disappear the moment the road gets wet, which matters more than any spec sheet number if you’ve ever raced through a rainy start line.

None of this makes the Pro 5 a shoe for everyone. It’s still a race-day tool built for people chasing a number on a clock, not a daily trainer for easy miles. But adidas tested it with more than 25 athletes across Kenya, Ethiopia, and the US before bringing it to market, and that groundwork shows in a shoe that feels less like a marketing exercise and more like an honest attempt to hand serious runners a genuine piece of the tech that just rewrote what a marathon can look like.

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New Balance’s $200 Cowhide Sneaker Nobody Asked For Actually Works

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Western wear has been everywhere in footwear this year, and if you’ve spent any time scrolling sneaker releases lately, you’ve probably noticed the problem before you could name it. Half the shoes chasing the trend go full costume, fringe and turquoise and all, like they’re auditioning for a rodeo. The other half barely commit, tossing in a stitched detail and calling it a day. There hasn’t been much room in between for someone who actually wants the look without feeling like they raided a theme park gift shop.

New Balance seems to have noticed the same gap, because its new 1890A “Cowhide” splits the difference in a way that feels almost too obvious once you see it. The shoe takes actual cow leather, black and white print and all, and instead of plastering it across the whole upper, tucks it underneath an off-white suede apron. You get the reference without the costume. That’s the whole trick, and it works.

Designer: New Balance

I’ve watched the 1890A evolve since it launched last year as the moccasin cousin of New Balance’s 1890 trainer, and it’s always been the weirder sibling in the lineup. The apron construction alone sets it apart from most retro runners on shelves right now, which tend to recycle the same handful of silhouettes with slightly different mesh panels. This one has actual moccasin stitching running across the front, which gives it texture you can feel with your eyes before you even touch it. The brand already tried a snakeskin version earlier this year, and I’ll admit that one felt closer to novelty than function. The cowhide colorway corrects that. It’s the more grown-up sibling of the two.

What sells me on this particular pair is the restraint. The cow print never takes over the shoe. It peeks out from under the suede, showing up on overlays rather than dominating the whole canvas, and New Balance backs it up with solid color blocking on the vamp, tongue, and collar to keep everything grounded. The eye still goes to the print first, but it doesn’t scream. That balance is harder to pull off than people give it credit for, and plenty of brands chasing Western style this year haven’t figured it out.

None of that would matter much if the shoe wasn’t comfortable to actually wear, and this is where New Balance leans on what it does best. The 1890A keeps the ABZORB midsole cushioning from the standard version, along with a stable heel built for daily wear rather than occasional statement-piece duty. So you’re not sacrificing comfort to make a style point, which solves the other half of the problem nobody talks about enough. A lot of trend-driven sneakers look great in photos and feel like punishment after three hours on your feet. This one doesn’t ask you to choose.

At $200, it’s not an impulse buy, but it’s priced in line with what New Balance charges for its other premium lifestyle drops, and the materials justify it. Real cow leather isn’t cheap, and neither is a suede apron construction that requires more assembly than a standard mesh upper. You’re paying for the craft as much as the look.

I don’t think everyone needs a cow-print sneaker in their rotation, and I say that as someone who finds the pattern genuinely fun rather than gimmicky. But if you’ve been eyeing the Western trend and felt like every option asked you to go all in or stay home, this is the shoe that meets you somewhere reasonable. It refuses to pick a lane between subtle and bold, and somehow that indecision becomes its best quality.

New Balance has quietly become one of the more interesting brands in sneakers precisely because it keeps taking swings like this one, odd colorways on odd silhouettes that shouldn’t work on paper. The 1890A “Cowhide” isn’t going to convert anyone who hates the Western look outright. But for the rest of us standing in the middle, wondering if there’s a version of the trend we could actually wear to dinner, New Balance just handed us one.

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Dior’s Roadie Boots Turn an Overlooked Sole Into the Main Design Event

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Shoes are usually designed from the top down. The leather, the laces, the silhouette, and the recognizable details tend to receive all the attention, while the sole quietly does the practical work underneath. Jonathan Anderson’s Dior Roadie lace-up boots make a convincing argument for looking down.

Created for the Dior Winter 2026 Menswear Collection, the Roadie takes the familiar language of the retro driving shoe and pushes it somewhere far less expected. The defining feature is its cylindrical sole, an exaggerated rubber structure that gives the shoe an almost architectural profile. It changes the proportions entirely. What could have been a rugged high-top in traditional materials suddenly feels peculiar, sculptural, and distinctly contemporary.

Designer: Dior

That tension is what makes the design interesting. Anderson draws from materials closely associated with his Irish heritage, including traditional Donegal tweed, here used alongside sheep wool and suede cowhide across the main body. The surface feels warm, textured, and familiar, carrying the character of something that might have existed for decades. Underneath it sits a sole that seems to belong to another design vocabulary altogether. Heritage meets experimentation without either side becoming decorative nostalgia.

The construction remains intentionally soft. Dior describes the shoe as unreinforced, allowing it to retain flexibility and comfort despite the substantial appearance of the sole. A padded collar supports the high-top silhouette, while the lining is made from sheepskin leather. Cotton laces run through leather lace loops finished with the Dior logo, adding another small point of craftsmanship to a shoe already rich in detail.

Branding is present, although it rarely interrupts the materials. Dior embroidery appears along the sides, while embossed logos are worked into the tongue and heel. The approach feels more integrated than applied. Even the sole continues the conversation. Its two-piece rubber construction features an engraved Cannage pattern with an inset CD logo, transforming a component that is usually treated as purely functional into one of the shoe’s most considered surfaces.

There is something especially satisfying about giving this much attention to the bottom of a shoe. The sole is the part that actually meets the world. It absorbs the pavement, gathers evidence of where you have been and, quite literally, leaves a print behind. Here, Dior turns that overlooked surface into a design signature. The woven effect and Cannage engraving mean that even the impression underneath carries an identity. It is a clever reminder that good design does not have to stop where visibility does.

The cylindrical construction also gives the Roadie an unusual stance. From the side, the shoe feels almost inflated around the ground, with the outsole extending the visual weight of the upper rather than simply supporting it. There is humor in the proportion, but it is controlled. The result is avant-garde without becoming theatrical for its own sake.

This balance between eccentricity and familiarity feels particularly suited to Anderson’s approach at Dior. Donegal-inspired texture keeps the shoe grounded in craft and personal history, while the unusual sole pulls it firmly into the present. The Roadie does not discard the traditional codes of luxury footwear. It rearranges their hierarchy, asking the material, construction, and sole to share equal responsibility for the personality of the object.

Made in Italy, the boots come with a dust bag and an additional pair of shoelaces. Dior notes that minor variations in color, sizing, material composition or appearance may occur because of technical limitations, product improvements or differences between production batches, with the physical product taking precedence over online imagery.

The Dior Roadie ultimately feels like a shoe designed for someone who notices the parts of an object that most people ignore. The Donegal textures may attract the first glance, and the unusual proportions may hold it, but the most memorable idea sits underneath. In a category where soles are so often treated as an afterthought, Dior has made one worth turning the shoe over for.

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Pharrell Quietly Revives Adidas’ Weirdest Y2K Water Shoe for $140

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Summer never really wants to let go, and neither does my closet. Every September I face the same annoying puzzle: sandals feel done, sneakers feel too heavy, and nothing in between actually handles a wet dock, a muddy trail, and a sidewalk trip to the coffee shop without looking like safety equipment. That gap between “technical” and “wearable” has been a real problem in footwear for years, and it’s exactly the space Adidas and Pharrell Williams just walked into with the PW Water Moc.

The shoe is the third release under Pharrell’s ongoing Virginia label with Adidas, and unlike the Jellyfish or the Flat Earther before it, this one isn’t chasing runway drama. It’s pulling from something a lot more obscure: the Adidas Adventure Water Moc, a shoe most people forgot existed after the early 2000s. That’s the smart move here. Instead of inventing a new gorpcore silhouette from scratch, Pharrell dug up a shoe that was already built for exactly this problem, water to land, and gave it a reason to exist again.

Designer: Pharell x Adidas

Functionally, it actually holds up. The upper mixes breathable mesh with reflective webbing, and bungee-style laces get tucked under a wide strap so you’re not fumbling with knots every time you take it off at the door. The outsole is lifted from the 2005 Carnuba Adventure Moc, which means deep, aggressive lugs instead of the flat rubber most casual slip-ons get away with. It’s a shoe that seems genuinely fine with a creek crossing, not just a shoe that photographs well near one.

Where it gets interesting, and where I think Pharrell earns his credit, is the colorways. Adidas didn’t sand down the nostalgia to make it more palatable. The Lucid Ray Blue option comes with pink and seafoam accents that are unapologetically early-2000s, the kind of palette that would’ve looked at home on a Bratz commercial or a Limp Bizkit music video. There’s a black and silver pair for people who want the shape without the loud attitude, and a yellow colorway that splits the difference. None of them try to disguise where they came from.

I’ll admit I’m a little biased toward brands that actually go back to their own archive instead of just borrowing someone else’s aesthetic and calling it retro. Adidas has done this a few times now, quietly, and it tends to land better than the loud “vintage-inspired” drops that never point to an actual source. The Water Moc isn’t just Y2K flavored, it’s a real product from that era, rebuilt with better materials and a designer who clearly has affection for it rather than just using it as a trend hook.

At $140, it sits in a fair spot for a collaboration shoe with this much design history behind it. It’s not cheap, but it’s not asking you to pay Jellyfish-level hype pricing for something that’s essentially a reissue with upgrades. That price point also tells you who this shoe is actually for: people who want a functional water-ready shoe but refuse to wear something that looks like it belongs on a kayaking instructor.

What sneaker culture has been missing lately is a bit of goofiness that still functions. So much of the current outdoor-meets-fashion movement takes itself seriously, all muted colors and technical fabric with barely any personality. The Water Moc doesn’t ask to be taken that seriously, and that’s honestly refreshing. It’s a shoe that remembers being weird was part of the appeal the first time around.

Whether it becomes a genuine wardrobe staple or just a fun seasonal pickup probably depends on how much you already like the era it’s pulling from. But as a piece of design thinking, going back into the brand’s own closet instead of reinventing the wheel, it’s one of the more honest moves Adidas has made in a while. Sometimes the best new shoe isn’t new at all. It’s just finally getting its second summer.

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Nike launches Air Zoom Hyperslide, pair of slip-ons that heat and massage your feet

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In 2024, Nike and Hyperice got together for a pair of boots that used air compression to massage athletes’ feet. Now, the two stalwarts in their own domains have joined forces again to release Nike Air Zoom Hyperslide – a pair of slides that could easily be the most innovative iteration of recovery slides ever made. Designed to heat and massage your feet after a long day’s work or activity, it uses Hyperice’s recovery technology with Nike Air Zoom cushioning.

The combination makes the slides ultra-comfy to wear after a tiresome day and increasingly relaxing for the feet post-workout. This convenience is made possible with the magnetically connected Hyperslide Pod, which resides in the adjustable, wide coverage midfoot strap of the slide. The pod is removable, but when it’s attached to the slide, it “provides targeted Hyperice heat and vibration massage across the top of the foot,” Nike confirms.

Designer: Nike

The heat therapy and vibration massage help reduce tension and relax the feet after strenuous training, a game of football, or a morning run. The comfort is, however, enhanced by the Air Zoom cushioning spanning the entire length of the footwear. The soft proprietary sole provides responsive comfort for everyday wear, which adds to the primary feature of heat and massage.

The Nike Air Zoom Hyperslide is created in two colors: Black and Beige. Despite the simplicity of the colors, the slides look distinct in their monochromatic finish. The silhouette is smooth and has a high-end construction feel to it, which revolves around the mounting hub for the magnetic pod.

The pod sitting at the top of the foot is the main aspect of the slide’s recovery capability. It is created to provide three levels of targeted heat to each foot, reaching 117 degrees Fahrenheit, or 47 degrees Celsius. The slides also create three levels of vibrations for a 15-minute recovery cycle. The pod is rechargeable and features a USB-C port for fast charging.

The levels of heat and vibration can be customized from the pod on the slides, or via the Hyperice app. For those, like me, who are often confused with the settings, the Air Zoom Hyperslide features onboard indicator lights signalling heat, vibration, or battery level. The slides are designed using feedback from athletes and are now being hailed for their soft cushioning, heat, and vibration working in tandem for post-workout recovery.

If you’re interested, we’ve learned that the Nike Air Zoom Hyperslide will be available globally starting September 29, 2026. The information is not official, but sources suggest the slides created to heat and massage your feet would cost $250.

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PUMA Turns Its Legendary Suede Into a $300 Pikachu Tribute for Pokemon’s 30th Anniversary

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Three hundred dollars for a suede sneaker usually comes with some kind of hook, a designer moniker, a tiny production run, something to point at. PUMA skipped all of that here and just leaned on the Pikachu name, which honestly might be enough on its own. There’s no giant character graphic screaming for attention on this shoe either, which is a little unusual for a collab at this price. Instead the whole thing is built on a few small, well placed details, and that choice tells you a lot about who this release is really for.

That shoe is the PUMA Suede Pikachu, a reworking of the brand’s 1968 silhouette in electric yellow suede for Pokemon’s 30th anniversary. A two tone lightning bolt runs through the Formstrip, a glossy red heel patch nods to Pikachu’s cheeks, and a small enamel charm hangs from the laces instead of some oversized keychain. The outsole is translucent and honey colored, veined with cracked lightning lines like it’s mid charge. It releases July 25 at a pop up in Brooklyn, following a Mewtwo Suede last winter and an Espeon and Umbreon collection back in April. Whether $300 feels fair probably depends on how deep your Pokemon nostalgia runs, and I’ve got more to say on that below.

Designer: PUMA x The Pokemon Company

PUMA ditched the usual flat suede nap for something with a slightly raised, almost fuzzy texture on the upper, and it works better than it has any right to. It doesn’t look like yellow suede pretending to be Pikachu, it looks like the material itself got the memo. That’s a small manufacturing decision most people will never think twice about, but it’s exactly the kind of restraint that separates a thoughtful collab from a licensing cash grab. I’ve seen plenty of character sneakers that just print a face somewhere and call it a day. This one clearly wasn’t approved by someone in a hurry.

The suede shoe’s side stripe has been the same shape for decades, so bending it into a lightning bolt without losing the silhouette’s identity is a genuinely tricky bit of design math, and it’s the real flex of this shoe. They pulled it off by layering a mirrored silver bolt over the classic black stripe, so it catches light instead of just sitting there as a flat graphic. Then there’s the heel patch, a glossy red oval with a small bolt etched into it, which is easily the smartest detail on the whole shoe. It reads as Pikachu’s cheek without anyone having to spell it out, and that kind of subtlety is rare in character collabs that usually default to shouting. Most brands would have put Pikachu’s whole face there instead, and the shoe would have been worse for it.

The outsole is a translucent, honey toned rubber with cracked lightning veining running through it, like the sole itself is holding a charge. Paired with the enamel Pikachu charm hanging off the laces, small and flat rather than the bulky keychain treatment most collabs default to, the whole shoe reads as considered rather than merchandised. Even the packaging plays along, landing in a matte black box with a faint constellation print and gold foil branding, understated in a way that actually matches the shoe instead of overselling it. Nothing here needed to be loud to prove the license was real. That restraint is consistent from the box straight down to the sole.

PUMA opened its 30th anniversary campaign with a family sized Espeon and Umbreon collection in April, followed it with a Pikachu colored All-Pro Nitro 2 for the court, and is now closing out summer with what’s clearly the premium centerpiece of the whole run. Whether $300 sneakers with no performance tech attached are worth the price is a conversation that predates this shoe by years. But if PUMA is going to keep charging collector prices for nostalgia, this is the version of that trade that actually feels earned. The Suede has always been the brand’s most storied silhouette, and saving it for last was the right call. Whether Pokemon fans agree probably depends on how much shelf space they have left for sneakers they’ll never actually wear.

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adidas BB.01 is first 3D-printed basketball shoe built to improve stability and flexibility on court

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While the world is fixated on who’s making it to the quarterfinals of the FIFA World Cup. adidas thinks it’s done enough for the love of the game with the Trionda, and now it’s time to shift focus to basketball. To do that, the sportswear giant is bringing 3D-printed footwear innovation to the hardwood with the launch of adidas BB.01. It is the first 3D-printed basketball shoe to hit the market, in an eye-catching combination of Solar Red and Orbit Grey.

The 3D printed basketball shoe from adidas is a definite head-turner. It’s called the adidas BB.01 “Solar Red/Orbit Grey,” and it’s nothing like the traditional canvas, textile, and foam silhouettes. While most shoe midsoles are molded in factories, the BB.01 is printed entirely from resin in layers instead.

Designer: adidas

The basketball shoe is part of adidas’ Project R.A.P (Radical Athlete Perception). The program ensures that adaptive manufacturing is not just an experimental category but an actual way to create functional, court-worthy footwear. Based on this ideology, adidas BB.01 has been a long time coming.

The much-anticipated footwear finally has a release date and a price. Fans should be able to get their feet into the 3D-printed marvel starting July 14, when it will be available through the adidas Confirmed app for $250. Meticulously combining “cutting-edge digital manufacturing with elite on-court performance,” the shoe features Orbit Grey in the base, which, in contrast, is highlighted by the Solar Red upper cage. The Three Stripes logo is present on the heel, from where it extends upward toward the collar.

Since the footwear is designed to complement the wearer’s performance on the court, its 3D printed midsole is designed to handle the impact and keep the player “stable through cuts and landings.” The footwear weighs only 15.13 oz (428 g) and comes with its most striking resin outer shell on top of the engineered midsole, which utilizes a lattice design across the sidewalls. This form factor allows the shoe to flex with the twisting nature of the foot. Higher-density printing is also carried out around the toes and heels for stability.

adidas BB.01 is not an attractive shoe on the outside alone. On the inside, it also features a soft textile bootie that locks the foot in place, ensuring support and comfort. A flagbearer of the future of 3D printing in the footwear industry, adidas BB.01 will release on July 14, but you can start registering for it as early as July 9 through the company website.

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New Balance’s 3-in-1 modular shoe transforms from waterproof boot to camp slipper, so you pack less

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Many of us would remember the New Balance Niobium Concept 1. Launched back in 2020, the modular silhouette really reformed outdoor footwear with its multi-functional design, which allowed it to be used in more than one way. Of course, many brands have been approaching modular footwear design with the idea of a circular economy in mind, where the shoe can be taken apart for recycling convenience. However, New Balance’s approach is different.

It is working on a pair of shoes that can actually pull off not two but at least three different purposes. This was substantiated by the Niobium Concept 1, which is now flowing as inspiration into the newly launched New Balance TDS MSNB1, which offers similar capabilities but in a new form and colors.

Designer: New Balance

A bold intersection of craftsmanship, innovation, and functionality, the TDS MSNB1 is a revival of the Niobium Concept 1, pulled off in partnership by New Balance and Tokyo Design Studio Revive. The remarkable New Balance adaptability of the silhouette is retained with the addition of Tokyo Design Studio’s signature lifestyle aesthetics to form this shoe that changes shape in “three distinct stages of wear.” It can be worn as a rugged waterproof boot and become a functional outdoor mule when required. When you finally retire to the cozy comforts of the camp, it can also be used as a comfortable indoor slipper.

The modular nature of the TDS MSNB1 is ensured by the use of a specialized system of zippers that run down the tongue and around the heel. These zippers allow the wearer to easily assemble or disassemble the shoe’s components according to the activity or the time of day.

New Balance TDS MSNB1 modular silhouette is available in two colorways. While the TDS MSNB1 Zinc Blue is somewhere close to the tested territories, the Pistachio Butter colorway – in a muted yellow-green – is more enticing and distinct. Both the versatile shoes share the same design language. They comprise a stretch rip-stop upper, a neoprene collar, and welded PU overlays. The tongue is devoid of usual laces and features bungee elastic laces inside, while a zipper runs down the side of the tongue and around the heel.

For its durability as a camping boot, it features an eVent waterproof membrane and a rubber outsole for comfort. Since the design and functionality remain the same, your choice of color is what can make the difference between the two new offerings. You can make up your mind now. The New Balance TDS MSNB1 in both colorways is available starting today, July 2, with each costing $300.

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These MacOS-inspired flip flops are weird, playful, and sadly don’t come with Apple “Find My”

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The mind of David Delahunty is something no LLM can capture. With the speed most marketing teams would be envious of, David churns out idea after idea on his Instagram, turning brands and visual icons into fun products that creatively challenge how you look at logos, shapes, and designs. We’ve covered a bunch before, including an MS Paint-inspired makeup kit, along with this Finder icon-inspired backpack. A recurring theme in Delahunty’s collection, the Finder icon ‘finds’ itself in a new avatar this time – interlocking flipflops.

A lot of his designs lean on heavy visual puns, which make for great eye-candy on Instagram, but on rare occasions they make for great products too! Delahunty’s made MacOS Finder-inspired necklaces (which you can still buy, btw), and it’s about time that these flipflops enter the production hall of fame too. They’re fairly uncomplicated, molded as a single-piece polyurethane flip-flop, with left and right units being blue and white respectively. And no, a Latina mother throwing these at a misbehaving child wouldn’t classify as ‘Airdrop’.

Designer: David Delahunty

When Bill Hernandez and Steve Jobs designed the original Finder icon, I doubt they realized what meme material it possessed. The icon is innately memorable, but it’s also easily reproducible as different products – Delahunty’s flipflops are a great example. The icon is split into two, making it perfect to turn into flipflops, although that weird jagged central cut is a sort of unique challenge when it comes to wearability. However, with a fair amount of planning, it’s easy to account for the fact that the flipflops aren’t entirely bilaterally symmetrical. I guess that’s the beauty about them.

Each shoe is made the same way Crocs are – molded as a single piece with no interlocking, stitching, or gluing of extra parts. This makes each flipflop incredibly strong, fairly comfortable, and long-lasting. The flipflops in question come with cutouts that depict the Finder icon’s face too, which I think is a great idea because they serve as ventilation, so your footwear doesn’t smell like death because the polyurethane isn’t particularly breathable. The cutouts are great for airing the footwear out after a day at the beach too, although try not to get sand into them through the cuts – it’s no fun dealing with gritty shoes rubbing against your feet like literal sandpaper.

Delahunty’s mind works much faster than most people’s hands, so a lot of his ideas get mocked up using AI (it’s honestly one of the best examples of AI enhancing someone’s workflow). That being said, a lot of tweaking needs to be done before these shoes hit production. If you do want to wear your love for macOS on your feet, however, give Delahunty a follow on Instagram and be sure to drop him a message!

The post These MacOS-inspired flip flops are weird, playful, and sadly don’t come with Apple “Find My” first appeared on Yanko Design.