it will surprise no-one, that the colloquial term for trainers or running shoes, pretty much does what it says on the tin. origination of the use of the word 'sneakers' to describe certain styles of footwear has been attributed to an american advertising agent, who, in 1917, used the term in reference to the rubber sole, which, he claimed would allow the use of stealth in approaching a third party. the inference was that someone wearing 'sneakers' could 'sneak-up', while those wearing leather soled standard shoes quite plainly could not. however, the word was in use in north america as early as 1887, when a boston newspaper attributed 'sneakers' as a word used by boys when referring to their tennis shoes.
a shorter version of the word ('sneaks') had apparently been used by prison inmates when referring to the warders' rubber soled footwear.
i confess i had always considered the word distinctly american in tradition; in the uk, i have rarely heard it used in context, with the more common apellation 'trainers' mostly used to describe any footwear not of the style your mother would have preferred that you wear to school. and robustness is rarely a trait i would have pointed in that direction. however, i recently read an article concerning the onlne sales platform 'ebay', which has recruited an entire department to verify the legitimacy of highly-priced 'trainers' offered for sale through their website.
it seems that items such as limited edition nike air jordans are ideal targets for counterfeitors keen to fool aficionados into parting with their hard-earned cash. the article gives great credit to the quality and accuracy of several such counterfeits, that had me wondering why, in such cases, there should be any real concern over their provenance. surely if they're every bit as good as the originals, and you're daft enough to spend several thousand pounds on acquiring a pair, then both parties deserve each other? the cost of producing such accurate copies can't have been much less than the price paid by nike and their peers in the first place?
and come to that, i've never heard anyone refer to a pair of 'air jordans' as sneakers anyway.
quoc pham, however, designer and manufacturer of remarkably stylish cycling footwear, has bestowed that very moniker upon his latest release, the distinctly non-velocipedinally named 'weekend sneaker' and, just to follow through on quoc's apparent thought process, it dawned on me that perhaps it was time to upset the concomitant review method, and begin by looking at said items through the lens that created them. in other words, deliberately review them as 'sneakers', rather than cycle shoes.
what provides the option to transform these rather stylish shoes into a pair designed to accommodate pedals with cleats, (or not, as the case may be) is a couple of tread etched inserts held fast to the sole by means of two allen bolts. removal of these reveals the mechanism to which spd style cleats can be affixed, recessed to allow the incumbent to walk normally without affecting duck-like propensities. leaving them in place retains every aspect of 'sneakerhood' that quoc has promised on the box. so, assuming you intend only to ride your brompton using the factory-fitted pedals, or perhaps have no deisre to ride a bicycle at all, how good are they?
temporarily ignoring the adjectival 'weekend', i opted to wear them day in day out even to the weekday travail, despite no notable requirement for chunky, grippy soles, other than the botched resurfacing of the shore street pavement in bowmore. like every new pair of shoes, the 'sneakers' required a smidgeon of breaking-in, not entirely aided by the fact that my daily commute lasts no longer than five minutes. however, to extend that timeline, i wore them for my morning constitutional prior to sitting for extended periods in front of an imac screen and they now fit and feel like a pair of slippers with chunky soles.
if i might briefly compare them with the vans sneakers and their infamous waffle soles, the chunky section of quoc's product is a tad less flexible, though understandably so. bmx bandits might be perfectly happy to fall into a half-pipe in their vans, but the latter are not renowned for their stalwart behaviour in the face of lengthier and perhaps more robust road and offroad rides. the inbuilt stiffness versus comfort has been well judged.
presumably the result of at least modest research, quoc's sneakers feature an idiosyncratic lacing system, one which, i cannot deny, seems to have, for the time being at least, cured the 'loosening while i sit' paradigm that seems to affect all my other 'weekend' footwear. my only concern would be trying to replicate this lacing pattern when the pink-tipped laces eventually wear out. and though i have yet to have the opportunity to verify, according to quoc's website, the outsoles are reputedly watertight, though a peppering of vent perforations over the shoes' uppers might be less forgiving.
the opportunity to wear them over a weekend was unfortunately thwarted by having to spend a saturday playing snare drum in the community pipe band. stylish as the sand-coloured 'sneakers' undoubtedly are, pipe-majors have a propensity to be less than forgiving over non-regulation footwear. i have often been chastened over my wearing of a king crimson woolly hat.
i have every intention of now wearing the 'weekend sneakers' for at least one of their intended uses, aboard a bicycle. there's an outside possibility i might be able to borrow one of the ardbeg-painted dutch bikes installed at the distillery, but you can find out when part two of this review appears in the near future. given the prices mentioned in the ebay article referenced above, £150 is, by comparison, mere bagatelle for a pair of reputable 'sneakers' that you can actually wear without an accompanying security guard.
and until the end of the year, quoc is offering readers of the post a 15% discount on purchases made via his website. simply click over to quoc.cc and enter the code WASHINGMACHINEPOST-15 at checkout. either that, or click the banner ad below.
tuesday 6 june 2022
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