Wednesday, September 6

to be or not to be a sneaker

Sneaker - Alife RTFT Mr. Rogers - Black|Teal














I’ve been wearing these shoes every so often during my blogging experience thinking that they didn’t qualify as a sneaker. But as I was sitting on the bus this morning, I thought, what exactly is a sneaker? With the use of patent leather, sneakers look like dress shoes while certain dress shoes are modeled after sneakers designs. The fashion lines are all fuzzy now.

So as soon as I got into the office I looked it up (I sure do love the internet).

Main Entry: sneak•er
Pronunciation: 'snE-k&r
Function: noun
1 : one that sneaks
2 : a sports shoe with a pliable rubber sole

Hmmm…

Sports shoe? Maybe

Pliable rubber sole? Mos Def.

Ok so I guess it’s a sort of Frankenstein-hybrid-semi-sneaker.

Whatever, it counts.

The Alife RTFT Mr Rogers is a pseudo sneaker with a leather loafer upper and a pliable rubber sneaker like sole. The black upper/white midsole/teal lining is killer. You know I’m a sucker for that colorway. The only flaw is that they aren’t the most comfortable shoes in the world. Alife has a thing or two to learn about shoe materials and comfort. The rubber sole isn’t the most flexible in the world and the leather is not so forgiving when walking long distances.

Eh, comfort shmomfort. If I need to walk long distances I’ll wear some Air Maxes.

Alife RTFT is the shoe division of Alife releasing sneakers, slip-ons, loafer/top sider/sneaker hybrids. Based in NYC, Alife also produces clothing and accessories including a multi color denim collection collaboration with levis. One of my favorite urban street wear brands out there right now, they opened retail stores in the LES of NYC and in Toronto. The NYC store is a nicely designed boutique selling (besides their own product) everything from limited edition Nike sneakers, t-shirts and graffiti paraphernalia.

Got these after looking for some shoes I can wear out and at the office when sneakers were not appropriate and traditional loafers were too stuffy and square. Priced half off at Huf, I picked these up and another semi-sneaker permutation by Alife, the Kennedy (to be seen at a future date).

I really do like these shoes from Alife. Designed for the urban prepster, the shoe is analogous to the Hamptons meeting NYC or more regionally, Pacific Heights meeting Soma. I think I’m going to sport my tuxedo print t-shit and Gucci blazer and find a party on the Hornblower to crash.

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