Cool Hunting

Jason Markk x Staple Sneaker Solution Set
It sounded like a good idea, but when we first heard about Jason Markk sneaker solution, we had our doubts. Even after all the rave reviews, I wondered if I couldn't get the same results with a little soap, water, a toothbrush and some hard scrubbing and skip the fancy packaging. Then good ol' Jeff Staple lent his cred with the recent release of...

Reebok Timetanium
John Maeda, graphic designer, computer scientist, MIT professor and author of Laws of Simplicity, teamed up with Reebok to create the Timetanium Ventilator, a sneaker that's been getting attention lately for how it merges math, technology and nature into a wearable product. The sneaker is a representation of time, one of the most important mantras defined in Maeda’s book. His handwritten code limns the...

Clear Box
Taking sneaker obsessions to another level, this Clear Box, by Japanese designer Neo, is actually useful when choosing which shoes to wear and good-looking—well, depending on which pair you have in there. Perfect for those who have a grip of sneakers or even just to display a prized possession, we think the plexiglass box would make for good stock packaging for a sneaker company...

An Interview with Mihara Yasuhiro
For the past seven years Japanese designer Mihara Yasuhiro has been collaborating with Puma on a line of wildly inventive sneakers that has become known—with features like patterns, drips, fur, studs, stripes and metallics—for adding a true avant-garde edge to shoes. The current Spring/Summer 2007 collection marks Mihara's fifth collection with Puma that includes limited edition re-issues of the MY-1 Peace, featuring a variation...

Alexandre Herchcovitch Sneakers
At the Alexandre Herchcovitch show at São Paulo Fashion Week, the diamond patterns, gold and fluorescent hues he used on sneakers caught my eye. After the successful show, while everyone swarmed the designer backstage, I was able to get a few pics of the hi-tops as they were being put away (click images for detail). While I don't know much about them except that...

T-Book x Peter Schmid Sneakers
With British t-shirt company T-Book's tessellating expressions of love and the German Puma designer Peter Schmid's high and low-tops, these may be the most romantic kicks out there. Laser-burnt with T-Book's clever, M.C. Escher-esque "Don't Kiss Goodbye" (pictured left, click either image for detail) or with their "I Love You" repeating script pattern (pictured right), the process takes about an hour for each pair....