Tyler, the Creator modernizes 2 shoes from the Converse archives
Today, Tyler, the Creator drops two new styles in his ongoing collaboration with Converse: a yacht shoe and a jogger, both of which are 1970s silhouettes pulled from the brand's archives.
Tyler knows you're probably going to wear these sneakers with jeans and a T-shirt. But that's the wrong move, he insists. When I speak with him, he's wearing the jogger with a button up, a cropped rain jacket, and trousers. He'd prefer if you wore these kicks with a more polished look. 'Nah, bruh,' he says. 'Wear them with the ill slacks and the ill sweater.'
As his stage name implies, Tyler is involved in too many different creative ventures to count. He's a rapper and producer, who also writes for an adult cartoon show called The Jellies, and creator of a music festival called Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival. But like his friend and mentor, Pharrell Williams, he's become increasingly well-known for his personal aesthetic and his contributions to the world of fashion.
In 2011, he launched his streetwear label, Golf Wang, and in 2017, he began collaborating with Converse, a subsidiary of Nike, which generated $2.1 billion in 2024. (This was a 14% decline from 2023.) Over the years, his partnership with Converse has evolved into a separate, stand-alone brand called Le Fleur, a nod to his 2017 Grammy-nominated album, Flower Boy. The line is known for its pastel color palette; bold daisy icon, which encapsulates the Converse star; and the way in which it plays with traditional gender norms.
Tyler isn't interested in a total redesign of the Converse silhouettes. For this collection, he worked with Lindsay Almeida, Converse's director of entertainment and sports marketing, to explore the archives. He was drawn to the Naut-1, a yacht shoe first released in 1971, and the Coach Jogger, an Olympic running shoe from 1976. He liked these models because they seemed fresh and relevant. 'I honestly hate the idea of nostalgia,' he says. 'I didn't want to reinvent the wheel because I think these shoes were perfect. I just wanted to do them in new colors.'
And indeed, Tyler designs the shoes in interesting colors. The joggers, which cost $100, come in a teal and yellow, a dark and light green, and a brown and mustard. The yacht shoes, which cost $90, come in a cream with delicate embroidered flowers, a dark brown, and a teal.
While some critics on social media argue that he hasn't done much to bring his own point of view to these designs, Tyler believes that small changes can be impactful. It echoes fashion designer Virgil Abloh, who argued that you only need to change an idea by 3% to create something new. And ultimately, Tyler believes that his strength lies in curating pieces and bringing them together in interesting ways. 'It's in the styling, the way they're worn, the color palettes,' he says. 'I really love wearing a sporty shoe with an outfit that makes folks glitch and say, I didn't know you could wear them like that.'
Tyler still designs for Golf Wang, which is grounded in streetwear, with hoodies and jeans. But he says that Le Fleur's aesthetic is more reflective of his personal style these days. 'I didn't want to have to change Golf Wang because it would alienate folks,' he says. 'But Le Fleur is a mirror to where I'm at in life, with unique styles and colorways.'
Converse has been struggling over the past decade; last year, its revenues declined 14% from the year before and in May, it laid off 2% of its workforce. A decade ago, it relaunched it's most famous shoe, the Chuck Taylor, with new technology, but consumers did not take to the new version and sales dropped. Part of the company's strategy to grow sales was to bring on new collaborators; Tyler was among them. Since the first release, in 2017, products from the collaboration have been popular and allow Converse to stay in the cultural conversation (not to mention connect with Tyler's nearly 17 million Instagram followers).
Still, it's a hard moment for Converse and its parent company, Nike. In an earnings call last December, Nike CFO Matt Friend said that consumers were pulling back on spending. He argued that newness is what would cause consumers to shop. Converse is counting on this new collab to get sneakerheads to pay attention.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Forbes
32 minutes ago
- Forbes
‘Ginny And Georgia' Finally Dethroned In Netflix's Top 10 List By A New Show
Ginny and Georgia Outside of a brief brush with the WWE, Ginny and Georgia has remained on top of Netflix's top 10 list for a full two weeks since it released on June 5. Fans waited years for it to return, and they were not going to miss its arrival at last. But now, at long last, Ginny and Georgia has fallen down Netflix's top 10 list, dethroned by not just one but two new shows. It's now in third, and second place is America's Sweethearts: The Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, the reality series following the auditions for the famed cheerleading team and their performances and drama behind the scenes. This is season 2, which my wife has already watched, and I'm struck by how little drama there is behind the scenes, as all the girls feel like best friends, for the most part. Top 10 The new number one show on Netflix is The Waterfront. Here's the synopsis: This very much reminds me of a previous Netflix series, Bloodlines, and then sprinkling in a bit of Ozark as well. I suppose, given that most people liked those shows, Netflix is trying to find another hit in that vein, as neither are airing anymore. I am interested in the series not because of its concept but because of its cast. First, it stars Holt McCallany, Netflix royalty as one of the two stars of Mindhunter. In giving interviews about The Waterfront, he made news that it was possible that Mindhunter may return for a third season in the form of three two-hour movies, which would essentially be six episodes, but it's all down to David Fincher. In another lead role is Melissa Benoist, who was the CW's Supergirl for multiple years, and she'll always have a special place in my heart for that, even as she's about to be replaced by Milly Alcock in the DCU (star of another big Netflix show in the past month, Sirens). I also know Humberly González, as she played the lead role in a recent video game, Star Wars Outlaws. Oh, and she's in 18 episodes of Ginny and Georgia, the show she just dethroned here alongside her cast. It remains to be seen how The Waterfront will perform. A top spot debut like this is a big deal. It has a 67% critic score, but that's only with six reviews in. There isn't enough data for an audience score yet, so we will wait and see. Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram. Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
CNN
43 minutes ago
- CNN
In pictures: Behind the scenes of ‘Jaws'
From left, Robert Shaw, Roy Scheider, Spielberg and Richard Dreyfuss share a moment of levity while filming on the open water, shortly before the actors' characters face off with the shark. Snap/Shutterstock Shaw, who plays the gruff, shark-hating veteran Quint, lies on the stern of the Orca, Quint's boat. The veteran actor's troubles during the film's production were documented in the play "The Shark is Broken," written by his son Ian. Universal Pictures/MichaelRichard Dreyfuss smiles from the diving cage where his character, shark researcher Matt Hooper, gets up close with the toothy villain. To make that scene feel more real, the crew shot real footage of sharks from a cage in Australia. Universal/Kobal/Shutterstock Susan Backlinie and Spielberg prepare to shoot the film's iconic opening, which doesn't end well for the skinny-dipper played by Backlinie. During production, the crew wasn't sure if the film was "going to flop on its face," Backlinie told CNN in 2010. Louis Goldman/Universal/Kobal/Shutterstock Left: Jay Mello, center, who plays Chief Brody's son Sean, displays a hand covered with fake blood. Right: Onlookers watch artificial shark fins cut through the water during a tense scene. Pamela Schall/WWD/Spielberg, left, and Dreyfuss consider a shark carcass, brought to shore by Amity Island fishermen who believe they've caught the murderous culprit. Dreyfuss wasn't Spielberg's first choice for Hooper, but he was convinced after watching the actor in "American Graffiti." Courtesy Everett Collection Scheider, left, and Spielberg examine footage from the day's production. Spielberg said he cast Scheider after running into the actor at a party, and Scheider recommended himself for the part. The Legacy Collection/THA/Shutterstock
Forbes
43 minutes ago
- Forbes
NYT ‘Connections' Hints And Answers For Saturday, June 21
Connections hints and answers are here. Looking for Friday's NYT Connections hints, clues and answers instead? You can find them here: Time for your first weekend Connections and I will admit, I found this one rather difficult. Though that may be some amount of brain fog given that I am on no sleep with a two-week old… How to Play Connections Connections is the second-most popular NYT Games puzzle game outside of the main crossword itself, and an extremely fun, free offering that will get your brain moving every day. Play it right here. The goal is to take a group of 16 words and find links between four pairs of four of them. They could be specific categories of terms, or they could be little world puzzles where words may come before or after them you need to figure out. And they get more complicated from there. There is only one set of right answers for this, and you only get a certain number of tries so you can't just spam around until you find something. There are difficulty tiers coded by color, which will usually go from yellow, blue/green to purple as difficulty increases, so know that going in and when you start linking them together. You pick the four words you think are linked and either you will get a solve and a lit up row that shows you how you were connected. If you're close, it will tell you that you're one away. Again, four mistakes you lose, but if you want to know the answers without failing, either come here, or delete your web cookies and try again. If you want to play more puzzles, you can get an NYT Games subscription to access the full archives of all past puzzles. So, onto the hints and answers: FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder What Are Today's Connections Hints? These are the hints that are laid out on the puzzle board itself, but after that, we will get into spoiler territory with some hints and eventually the answers. The hints for the Connections groups today are: What Are Today's Connections Groups? Alright, the full spoilers follow here as we get into what the groups are today: What Are Today's Connections Answers? The full-on answers are below for each group, finally inserting the four words in each category. Spoilers follow if you do not want to get this far. The Connections answers are: Connections Well, this felt like a puzzle that was going to be all about alcohol with different types of liquor and wines. But that is not at all what happened here, with the only drink being Brandy in the blue category with a bunch of other non-alcoholic apple productions. Well I guess cider can be alcoholic too. In college I may have put alcohol in apple sauce. Yellow group I thought was pretty straightforward albeit I thought that 'Firm" could be in there too, though I guess you would not call someone stocky that term, exactly, despite being in a similar category of words. I was confused by the green group as I just am not familiar with the term 'concern' used when it comes to the formation of a company. Turns out it's a type of business popular in Europe, which leads to the final group. Purple group had us going to some big and small European countries, albeit only half of them. We have Germany, Luxembourg, Malta and Portugal in a category that again, I thought had at least two words that had to do with wine. Tricky tricky. How did you fare with the puzzle today? Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Bluesky and Instagram. Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
