We’ve championed a few independent lines over the years. Some picked up, some bricked in spectacular style and some, in retrospect, really weren’t that good. For some, the best choice was to bide their time. That’s what Addict did. Dave, Chris and the rest of the crew have definitely put in the hours to get the quality and presentation right. When it comes to casual footwear, no idea’s truly original – a local history of moc-toed, Irish-made classics is bound to enter the mix, and the simpler vulc mid and low cuts are a reliable choice too. After an initial Vans collaboration a fair few years before the mania for dual-labels with Cali’s canvas and rubber empire infected the industry we assumed they’d push that side of things hard, but equipping folk with everything from denim to tents, Addict stayed away from the feet until now.
Never ones to anything by half, this year sees the line finally arrive, and with six models – the Weaver, Wallabee and Desert Trek look of the Scout, Karabee and Cooper, the Naulilus’s air of Sperry and Hockney, plus the simpler Carden and Mura. We caught up with Addict’s Creative Director and co-founder, Chris Carden-Jones to talk shoes…
Chris, to go from designing record sleeves to apparel is a fair old leap, but how do you find the murky world of footwear? In terms of fit and function is it a whole viper’s nest?
A whole new mountain to climb! it reminded me of when we first started trying to make our own cut and sew apparel – only harder! A lot of trial and error, learning the terminology, the materials and processes and the way the ‘last’ you use can alter the look dramatically if its not suitable for the design. With apparel its simpler as the fabric is more forgiving as it flows and hangs on the body, but with footwear the shape is permanent so has to be exactly right and that’s hard to get right – lot’s of rounds of protos, refining and redrawing style lines and how panels interact with each other. So yeah, a viper’s nest is not a bad way to describe it – lots to think about and lots that can go wrong.
Why such a long wait for Addict footwear? Do you feel the stakes are higher in the current climate, whereas a vulc sole and canvas upper was instant profit a couple of years back?
I think in general the stakes are higher full stop. Long gone are the days when brands could put out any old product…everyone’s grown accustomed to quality now and all the new emerging brands have raised the bar when bringing new concepts to market. We’ve always wanted to have a footwear line but never had the time to seriously start down that road as it’s a big commitment to make in terms of opening molds and lasts across full size breaks. We did a limited run of collaboration Addict printed Slip-On and Era with Vans back in 2000, but nothing since then until we made the decision to start this project about a year ago. With what’s around in indie footwear currently we knew we had to go at it one hundred percent in the same way we’d produce what of our top-line tech jackets – detail, good materials, our own outsole moulds etc. so we’ve approached this decision with longevity in mind.
Six models is quite a quantity for a debut drop – are you making up for lost time there?
We were worried that six wasn’t enough!! When we looked around in the market we saw a lot of choice but knew we couldn’t produce a big line straight away – we need to see some traction first. Initially we were going to run the two vulcanized styles Mura and Carden with the Cooper and Scout on the flat EVA sole but the Nautilus and Karabee were added in as we loved the way the protos looked on. We’ve shared materials across some of the styles so as a first release I think we feel happy with the number of them.
What we like with the bulk of the collection is that they’re casual styles with a defiantly sneaker style to them – was there any heated debate about how casual they’d be when you started on this project?
We feel that we like the merge of the two, its also where we feel our consumer is at the moment, its that gap in the mindset of, “what do I wear today, shoes or trainers?” , it’s that smarting-up vibe we all get that we wanted to aim the collection at. There’s always some good go-to’s we all have and we wanted to mix those styles and meet somewhere in-between. For example, we made the choice fairly early on that the Scout and Cooper had to have a fairly low midsole even though the running shoes the inspiration came from tended to be higher – the shallower midsole lends itself to the casual upper.
Beyond the Carden and Mura, while the gut reaction comparison would be Visvim, there’s a definite Clarks influence here; Weavers, Wallabees, even a Desert Trek look on the Cooper – do you think it’s important to retain a British identity on your output?
Yes, we wanted to definitely nod to that British aesthetic, we are a British brand, the design’s been bred here, we’re all English, proud of the mix of influences we’ve grown up with and we wanted to fully embrace it. There’s no point in us trying to look like at say Supra or something that has a real US look, that’s why we looked closer to home for silhouette inspiration. If you look at what’s influenced our clothing and more specifically our outerwear, it tracks a similar path to what’s influenced this footwear line. I think personally as we have no heritage in say running or basketball shoes, we would be mad to try and create these looks, so we’ll leave that to the professionals.
Were there any other models or concepts ditched at the development stage?
There’s definitely some other looks and styles we had that were less familiar, but as this is our first step (excuse the pun) into the footwear market, we wanted to bring familiarity but with our interpretation.
Sorry to dwell on the Cooper here, but it’s arguably the most avant-garde one on offer. Have you got a favourite here?
There are other brands that have mixed the running style outsole with more dressy uppers, we wanted to try and mix the desert boot style in and we feel it worked out pretty well, I like the juxtaposition of the looks. The Cooper divides opinion in the Addict studio like none of the other styles, it’s a personal favourite for me as its got such a strong stance – it looks good with shorts too.
What was the time scale on this collection from start to finish? With regards to lasts, and even brand-new outsole designs rather than variations on the theme, that’s got to add months to the process…
Well it’s been a serious learning curve, well over a years worth of development – especially with deciding on what shape last, and how it was gonna look when we share it across a few models? We knew we really wanted the shoes to have a very flat, grounded feel and not be too techy looking as we are a streetwear brand, not a serious sportswear brand. Also, we didn’t want to go down the route many indies take at first by using lots of say, ‘off the shelf’ parts, we felt it was very important to have our own outsole moulds with branding and Addict styling very much present.
The Carden and Mura feel like the safest additions to the collection, but there’s a lot of detail at work there – there’s even an air of Syd Mead’s (who you’ve collaborated with in the past) futurism in there too on the outsole – you’re not half stepping here are you?
I think we started with the vulc styles, as at first we were playing as safe as possible, and designing outsoles and midsoles can be quite a challenge. We wanted for them to have a classic vulc feel but with a slimmer fit, more like a trainer look on a vulc outsole. The outsole for the vulcs have loads of detail incorporating the Addict stencil logo, icon logo and a repeating tread pattern using the icon too. It evolved over a good few weeks and yeah, I agree its got a geometric feel – a lot of elements that interact with each other.
The pricing on the entire collection seems pretty reasonable, but the use of soft and high pile suedes, plus oil nubucks indicates there’s been no compromise on quality control – is that a tough one to balance without sending things sky-high?
Definitely, just learning how putting a panel here or there can either cost or save you money is a science in itself, so at times getting the base cost right has been a battle. Right from the outset though we wanted a premium feel to this line but with affordability too, so hopefully we’ve managed to get the balance right. Time will tell…
Is the current state of fashion at street-level, focused on all things outdoor, a help or a hindrance when it comes to design? Where are things headed next?
Well, I feel that our slow turn-around may have helped here as this collection does feel more in tune with current looks. Stay classic and you cant lose could be one way of looking at it. We’re just glad we didn’t go down the whole bright coloured patent leathers with huge tongues, tassles, bells and whistles. For the future, we’ll definitely be challenging ourselves to step much further out of the comfort design zone and definitely bring more original flavour in.
Where are you looking to take the range next?
There are plenty of ideas and sketches for new styles and outsoles. It’s just a question of when and how we bring them in to the line, like I said before, we want to build for longevity so we’ll take each step with caution. We’ve learnt a hell of a lot doing this dealing with the factories, suppliers, mould shops and so on that we feel more confident that we can lay the foundations for producing some good footwear to sit alongside our apparel.
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