FEATURE 130
A distant memory of room shoes.FEATURE 130
A distant memory of room shoes.I've known Takegahara (Toshinosuke) from "foot the coacher" for almost 20 years. He's even made the last (wooden molds) for WTAPS boots in the past.
Having trained in shoemaking in the UK, he is both a craftsman and a designer and is extremely knowledgeable about shoes. He once told me, "There's a great synthetic leather available now," and that's how this collaboration was born.
The shape of this one-strap shoe is from a series that uses foot the coachers' original sole called TRI-PAD® SOLE, and we mounted synthetic leather on top of it.
Why did I like this style?
It’s because organic shoes like BIRKENSTOCK and Simple were popular in the 90s. I think there was a resurgence in folklore from the late 60s and 70s at that time, and the older generation, who were influenced by bands like the Grateful Dead, were wearing BIRKENSTOCK.
On the other hand, with the spread of home theaters and cable TV, it was also a time when spending the day watching TV on the sofa at home was considered a status symbol. This lifestyle also influenced fashion, and it spread into the scene with items like sweatshirts and sweatpants sets, as well as room shoes. We admired that kind of life and became attached to room shoes, which were minor at the time. We likened this 90s culture to foot the coacher shoes, and that’s how these shoes were created. They look just like room shoes, but they also have an organic feel to them, which is precisely what I had hoped for.
It’s the same idea as the previous idea of “I want workwear from raregem,” I want my shoes to be made by a shoemaker, and if there’s someone making them in Japan, in Tokyo, I’d like to ask them to do it.
The silhouette is DESCENDANT-like, but it’s hard to pin down to any particular genre, and that’s what makes them so good. The shoes released by foot the coacher are made of a grained texture-like synthetic leather, but we used something with a suede-like feel to create the black and beige colors.
Tetsu Nishiyama
The collaboration shoes with foot the coacher will be available at DESCENDANT stockists from Thursday, 10/3.
*prices are tax-included.
Toshinosuke Takegahara
In 1994, he founded the dress shoe brand Toshinosuke Takegahara (currently AUTHENTIC SHOE & Co.). He then relocated to England, where he worked at the long-established shoe manufacturer Tricker’s. Upon returning to Japan, he started his own brands, including foot the coacher. In 2004, the shoes he produced were permanently stored in the world’s only shoe museum, the Northampton Museum and Gallery, located in the north of England, thus becoming the first Asian shoemaker to achieve this feat.- SHARE
- DATE 2024.9.26
- CREDIT
