Freaky Sneaker Collabs, Luxury Fitness, and US Open Fashion
Happy Labor Day!
Happy Labor Day everyone hope you’re all having a lovely three day weekend. I’ve been running from Williamsburg to Manhattan, steaming, eating good, drinking wine, and evaluating all of my failures of the Summer and how I can lock in for the rest of the year. In a lot of ways September 1st feels more like New Years than January 1st.
I’ve received a ton of new subscribers c/o of
recommending Who Do You Know? I interviewed Kailee a few months back and she just moved her fashion newsletter to Substack so go subscribe.In Today’s Newsletter
Sneakers Are Getting Insanely Freaky
Palace x Vivienne Westwood
Sporty & Rich at the US Open
Aman names Novak Djokovic as its 1st ‘Global Wellness Advisor’
JJJJound Comes to New York
Freaky Sneaker Corner
In a time where the sneaker market hierarchy is in flux and the biggest brand in the world is in a sales slump, sneaker execs and designers are throwing literally anything at the wall and seeing what sticks.
Just a few short years ago, consumers (mainly hypebeasts and resellers) would scoop up any collaborative shoe drop at rapid pace. But as brands realized the only way to sellout shoes was to do a collab, they basically did collabs to death.
Now even hyped releases are sitting on shelves, leaving sneaker brands scrambling to flood the market with interesting, off the wall collabs. Here are a few of the freakiest Frankenstein shoes to come out of this mess—
Nike x Supreme Clogposite: Imagine a foamposite but without the back. These are reminiscent of the foam-based clog shoe so many brands are making right now, but much more rigid and futuristic looking. Coming in black and two other insane colorways… I am stoked to see how many LES bros wear these with massive, billowing jean shorts. What the f*ck is the intended purpose of this shoe? Where would you wear these?
New Balance 1906L: Can’t decide if you want to wear your dad shoe or a loafer? No need to worry, New Balance has you covered with their sneaker-loafer hybrid. This model debuted at Junya Watanabe’s autumn/winter 2024 menswear show and the brand is now rolling them out in multiple colorways. Once again, where is the ideal place to wear a shoe that truly can’t decide what it wants to be? This Vogue writer wore them to find out.
New Balance x Loro Piana: Coming in at a whopping $1500, this luxury collab on the 990v6 is not for the broke boys. Elevated with cashmere lining, upgraded leather laces, and that coveted Lora Piana logo, New Balance is on the winning end of this collab. No word on if any Gift of Kings Vicuna Wool was used in the making of this shoe that will only be worn by CEOs and VCs to Equinox. I feel like high end sneaker collabs like this are mainly done for marketing purposes.
interviewed a bunch of menswear writers last week on this shoe. Go read that.
Palace x Vivienne Westwood
These two iconic British brands are linking up for a capsule collection.
Two years after the death of their namesake founder, VW is now helmed by her husband, Andreas Kronthaler.
In a statement, Palace co-founder Lev Tanju said,
To bring this collection to life was a dream come true and we wanted to shoot the collection in London, our shared home. Palace is independent, Vivienne Westwood is independent, and we admire independence.
The collection features a full range of pants, shirts, jackets, and accessories. You can view the full range here.
I do really like the combined tri-ferg and VW logo used on some of these garments. But overall, this collection is a little outside of my sartorial scope.
But this is great for Palace, who has a long history of successful collaborations with Ralph Lauren, Cavin Klein, and Adidas.
Sporty & Rich at the US Open
Sporty & Rich has been instrumental at bringing the tennis aesthetic to modern fashion.
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova wore a logo adorned, red tennis polo during her match with Iga Swiatek.
This is a major placement for the brand and I am curious to see if any other players this year will be rocking S&R or if more notable players will wear it in future tournaments.
Despite Pavlyuchenkova losing, still a major win for
’s brand.
JJJound is Coming to New York
Last week I wrote about JJJJound’s latest collaboration with Levi’s.
Now the brand has announced they’re hosting a pop up during New York Fashion Week.
The Levi’s collection will be available at 91 Allen St on September 6th and 7th.
Even if I don’t want to buy anything from this collab, I am sure the space is going to be immaculately decorated in typical JJJJound fashion, so I’ll go check it out.
Aman Names Novak Djokovic as Its 1st ‘Global Wellness Advisor’
The luxury hotel brand dropped this news at the perfect time…
In this new role, the legendary tennis player will advise them on elevating their fitness offerings for guests.
This plays into a larger trend I’m dubbing as ‘Luxury Fitness’ where brands are offering $10,000/mo gyms, $40,000/yr curated fitness and medical evaluation programs, and Brian Johnson and Michael Huberman are making a killing promoting advanced methods of health optimization and age reductive practices.
Basically, if you’re rich, dropping a f*ck ton of money on your body is the new wave.
With scenic locations around the globe, this new partnership seeks to add a new dimension to Aman’s luxury hospitality offerings.
This feels like when a brand brings on a guest celebrity creative director for a few retail seasons to spice things up.
Djokovic said—
Over the years, I have cultivated a comprehensive daily wellness routine, combining mental health, nutrition and fitness, that has enabled me to achieve sustained success both on the global stage and in my personal life. Sharing those learnings with Aman guests will be both a privilege and a pleasure.
If anyone from Aman reads this newsletter, email me I want to go on a fitness retreat.
Thanks for reading! I’m going to catch up on some writing today, drink some wine at McCarren, then eat L’Industrie on my rooftop and watch the sunset.
I dropped Who Do You Know? hats last week. Go buy one! Thanks.
See you all tomorrow.
Jake Bell is a content marketing, creative strategist, designer, and writer based in NYC. He specializes in brand building, content strategy, creative direction, business development, and making things cool.
Want to chat? Email me: jake@jb.studio