Tyler The Creator is a longtime fan of Converse and has collaborated with the brand on a number of fascinating releases, including his Golf Le Fleur line. It’s likely his love of the brand stems from his roots as a skater in LA, where the kicks are a symbol of multiple different subcultures — and often, a connector of those cultures, bringing together punks, skaters, and gangbangers over their shared love of the Chuck Taylor All Star shoe.
When the brand tapped Tyler to create a short film (a commercial, really) highlighting this connection, they say they had no idea what they were going to get. Knowing Tyler, though, they were sure it’d be a reflection of his off-the-wall sense of humor and unique worldview and it’s probably safe to say they weren’t disappointed in the result, a minute-long spot titled “The Really Cool Converse Club.”
The hilarious ad depicts a group meeting of various subcultures tied to the shoe full of members of Tyler’s own wildly diverse friend group and Converse’s longtime brand partners like NBA legends Bill Walton and Marques Johnson, stand-up comic Josh Johnson, actor Tim Meadows, rapper Vince Staples, punk icon Henry Rollins, and Odd Future member Jasper. Converse skaters Milton Martinez and Louie Lopez and actors Errol Chatham, Arsenio Castellanos, and Jackson Randall also make appearances.
Tyler explained his vision in a press release: “I instantly thought about the many pockets of people that wear Chucks – like skateboarders, soccer moms, kids down the street, guys in the neighborhood I grew up with – and I wanted to put them in one place, that was important to me. Everyone wears Chucks…including pirates.” I won’t spoil it for you here but I will say The Really Cool Converse Club has some pretty strict rules.
Watch Converse’s Tyler The Creator-directed “The Really Cool Converse Club” ad here.
As far as must-have accessories go, there has been perhaps no more popular item than the Telfar bag. Although the brand insists on inclusivity in direct contradiction to industry conventions, it has still been practically impossible to secure one of its ubiquitous shopping bags due to its purposely low price point (they max out at around $250, as compared to luxury brands, which can run up to five figures) and the borderline insane demand for it. Anytime it goes on sale, the brand’s website is flooded with fans clamoring to get their hands on one, and they usually sell out in a matter of minutes.
Unfortunately for those who haven’t been able to get one yet, the Telfar shopping bag may reach an improbable new height of popularity thanks to the co-sign of the latest celebrity to be seen sporting one out and about. A paparazzi shot of Beyonce walking around Brooklyn with a bag has gone viral on Twitter, shooting “Telfar” to the top of the trending topics list and leaving fans lamenting their chances of ever being able to purchase one now that the queen of marketing impossible-to-get items (shout-out to Ivy Park!) has put her unofficial stamp on the hot-ticket item.
Ironically, many of the tweets acknowledge that the price point is likely to remain unchanged but the furor has led to many fans realizing that the demand will make them harder to get than ever. Meanwhile, those who already have the bag are rejoicing at having something in common with the pop music queen. Check out more responses below.
beyoncé owns a telfar bag and so do i. i’m a celebrity and nobody can talk to me now. pic.twitter.com/otbnAZXmB1
Rappers and beef go together like burgers at barbecues, but there’s one recurring foe that rappers have been unable to defeat despite repeated attempts: Walmart’s website. Specifically, third-party sellers on Walmart’s website, who love knocking off rapper’s signature products and trademarks to take advantage of fans who don’t want to pay full price to support their favorite artists’ dreams. Rappers who have had to complain about fakes include 21 Savage, whose Jason Voorhees mask and “Savage” chain designs appeared on the site, and Lil Baby, who went off on the retailer for selling fake 4PF chains, last year.
This time around, it’s Kanye West who has a grievance against Walmart, per TMZ, and instead of chains of dubious quality and origin, it’s Kanye’s infamous footwear line being disputed. Kanye and his brand, Yeezy, filed a lawsuit against Walmart for carrying the “Daeful Mens Womens Kids Summer Beach Shoes” — which were really just fake Yeezy Foam Runners — for $25. The third-party listing was taken down by Walmart, but that hasn’t stopped plenty of other bootleggers from selling their fakes elsewhere, as TMZ notes.
And hey, not to victim blame here or anything, but they’re not exactly the hardest design to copy, and if the market says they aren’t worth the $75 retail price then that might be something Kanye wants to take note of. Why anyone would want them is beyond me (if you’re paying retail for these, you must really value comfort over style), but ironically, Yeezy is facing a lawsuit from Walmart as well, as Walmart claims his new Yeezy logo infringes on theirs due to a very similar look.
If you live for sneakers, skateboarding, Supreme drops, and all things hip-hop, you have late ‘80s and early ‘90s New York street culture to thank for that. And you’re probably going to love All The Streets Are Silent, a feature-length documentary debut from Jeremy Elkin that explores this still influential period of American youth culture. For the documentary, Elkin reached out to the kids (and Kids) who grew up in the scene — who better to document that golden age of style and music than the people who lived it?
Premiering today at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival as a documentary select, “All The Streets Are Silent” takes you on a deep dive into the streets of New York City, back to the days when skate culture and hip-hop were still rebellious expressions of street youth and not global commodities with rabid fan basesdominated by hype.
The film, which is narrated by Zoo York cofounder and Uproxx Style editor Eli Morgan Gesner uses archival footage and covers notable figures and locales of the era, including Harold Hunter, Club Mars, Supreme, and DJ Stretch Armstrong. The stars of the counterculture are in full effect but at its heart, All The Streets Are Silent is an examination of being a kid in New York City during a special time in pop culture. With guests like Rosario Dawson, Darryl “DMC” McDaniels, DJ Clark Kent, the late Keith Hufnagel, and Yuki Watanabe, “All The Streets Are Silent” offers an exploration of race, society, fashion, and street culture in a culturally significant era in New York City history wrapped in a Paris is Burning meets Kids aesthetic that oozes cool.
Elkin took this project seriously, in addition to linking up with Gesner, he also tapped the legendary Large Professor, the producer that brought us Tribe Called Quest’s “Keep it Rollin” to do the soundtrack. It doesn’t get more vintage New York than that. Check out the trailer for All The Streets Are Silent above and stream it on-demand until June 23rd for $15 here.
It was around this time last year that Kanye West (who turns 44 years old today, June 8) and Gap officially announced their Yeezy Gap partnership. Now, nearly 12 months later, the line is starting to make its way out into the world, even if it feels like more of a soft launch than a full release. In the wee small hours of the morning today (at 3 a.m. ET, as Complex notes), the Yeezy Gap line launched with just one item: a puffy blue coat.
The listing for the item on the Gap website dubs it the “round jacket,” and it’s only available in a light blue color. The jacket is made of recycled nylon, is designed to have a unisex fit, and is priced at $200. The jacket is currently available for pre-order in the US only and is set to ship this upcoming fall. There is no indication of when more Yeezy Gap items are set for release. Complex also notes that West was photographed wearing the jacket while out in Los Angeles a few days ago.
Gap
To promote the jacket, Kanye went with an attention-grabbing stunt: An image of the jacket was projected on the sides of some buildings in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. Also included on the projection are the Yeezy Gap logo and a QR code.
This follows rumors that Yeezy Gap was set to launch in June, so perhaps that means we’ll see more from Yeezy Gap soon.
Rihanna doesn’t miss, ever. Especially when it comes to fashion, RiRi has long been ahead of the curve, and she is frequently a cover star due to that very aspect of her fame. In a recent shoot for Vogue Italy, though, one of the looks had fans thinking about a moment from the Friends sitcom that involved Joey pranking his roommate Chandler. Maybe everyone just has Friends on the brain after the long-awaited reunion racked up Marvel movie numbers, or maybe this layered look would’ve brought Joey’s own version to mind no matter what.
See if the above photo doesn’t remind you of the shot where Joey puts on all of Chandler’s clothes in the episode “The One Where No One’s Ready,” in retaliation for Chandler hiding all of his clothes. You can revisit his version of the layered look in the clip above. And though plenty of Rihanna’s celebrity friends praised the look without a second thought, one fan mentioning the comparison in a comment was all it took for the Joey cosplay idea to take hold:
Instagram
Of course, this wasn’t Rihanna’s only look in the shoot either, she had plenty of other high-fashion shots, including the epic cover. Check those out below.
Gap Inc. is due to release its quarterly report in a few days and the brand says its heavily anticipated Yeezy line is on track to launch by the end of June, according to Business Of Fashion. BOF notes that Gap is relying on the nearly $1 billion partnership with Kanye West to lift its sales, hoping that ravenous Yeezy fans will pull the brand out of a decades-long slump which has led to store closures and cost-cutting across its holdings. The company expects over $150 million in revenue in 2022, according to Bloomberg. Details about the line remain sparse, but let’s be real: A sellout is almost guaranteed.
Although Business Of Fashion notes that the “basics category grows more crowded by the day,” other brands which have collaborated with big music stars, such as Fashion Nova, PrettyLittleThing, and Boohoo, have seen those collections sell out in a matter of hours, while over the course of the last year of lockdowns and working from home, eBay flippers and their trusty armies of bots have become more sophisticated than ever in clearing both digital and physical shelves to drive up demand and turn the secondary market into a de facto monopoly (when people are getting mugged for Pokemon cards at Target, things would seem to be way out of hand). Unfortunately for Gap Inc., there’s no guarantee that those Yeezy fans — who will almost certainly fill stores and create campout lines at what Gap stores remain — will buy anything else from the beleaguered brand, which it’ll need to reverse course after 20 years of declining relevance.
The makers of Crocs may want to send Nicki Minaj a gift basket after her most recent Instagram post sent interest in their products skyrocketing per worldwide Google trends. The formerly ridiculed footwear brand has seen its cool quotient increase over the past year as fans post their customized pairs on social media, but Nicki Minaj’s post saw searches for “pink Crocs” shoot up over 100 percent after she posted a nearly nude photo of herself sitting on a desk wearing the comfy foam clogs.
According to MarketWatch, the rise in Crocs’ popularity was likely prompted by both the equivalent rise in comfort styling due to the pandemic and resulting quarantine and the brand’s recent collaborations with pop stars such as Post Malone, who gave free pairs of his collab to students at his old high school and healthcare workers, Bad Bunny, whose collaborative pair glows in the dark, and Justin Bieber, whose Drew House design apparently jump-started the brand’s stock by 11 percent.
It’s safe to say that celebrity endorsements like Nicki’s have brought the brand back from the dead after it nearly declared bankruptcy just a few years ago. Meanwhile, whatever Nicki’s got planned for “F R I D A Y,” you can be sure it’ll stir up its fair share of attention, too.
Don’t get us wrong, Jordan is still the biggest name in footwear. And when a hot new sneaker designer bursts onto the scene, best believe they’re going to want to put their spin on a fresh pair of Jordans above all else, so we don’t imagine another name is going to surpass it anytime soon. But big names are coming (relatively) close, and none of them are known for their skills on a court.
We’re talking not about performance shoes but “performer shoes” (a term dubbed by DJ Clark Kent) — made by people like Kanye West, who has now realized his dream of making a pivot from the hottest rapper in the game to the hottest sneaker and streetwear designer with his Yeezy Brand; Pharrel Williams, who has been toiling away at Adidas for a minute now with his Hu line; J Cole who seems to be constantly pumping out Pumas and actually has the hoops skills to bring in ballers; Bad Bunny, who — despite starting it all off with a few Crocs — is now two for two with his Adidas collaborations; and Beyonce, who continues to make tremendous leaps with each drop of her Ivy Park line.
It’s undeniable that, save for Virgil Abloh and Aleali May, the most exciting sneakers to drop right now are coming from the world of hip-hop. And no name is more exciting than La Flame — yes, we’re talking about Mr. Cactus Jack himself, Travis Scott. Together in partnership with Helmut Lang, Nike, and Jordan Brand, Scott has been dropping some of the most hyped sneaker releases of our modern era of streetwear, offering remixed designs of the aforementioned brand’s most popular silhouettes draped in Scott’s signature dusty desert aesthetic and vibe.
Over the last three years, Scott has dropped 14 sneakers and today we’re here to rank every single one of them from worst to best. Let’s dive in.
15. Travis Scott Jordan XXXIII Army Olive
GOAT
Amongst fans of Scott’s sneaker collaborations, these are absolutely hated. It’s easy to see why. I mean… look at ’em!
Some people feel that hate is overkill, arguing that these are slept on but they still deserve their spot at the bottom of this list. It’s not simply that they’re bad — this army olive mesh upper and brown suede heel panel is a pretty solid design for the XXXIIIs and pretty emblematic of the looks to come — but it’s just so boring in comparison to everything else Scott has done with Nike.
It feels mean to place any Scott shoe dead last, but it’s hard to argue that this is better than any of the other shoes on this list.
Find the Travis Scott Jordan XXXIII Army Olive at GOAT.
14. Travis Scott x Helmut Lang Low Top
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Before Travis Scott started lending his aesthetic to classic Nike and Jordan silhouettes, he linked up with Italian designer Helmut Lang for a sleek all-black high-top and low-top sneaker. The Helmut Lang collaborations are soft of an anomaly in the lineage of Travis Scott sneakers, but looking at it does make us wonder what the Cactus Jack label would’ve looked like if it never linked up with Nike. Thank God it did!
Featuring a nylon upper with leather and velcro straps across the heel and upper, the Travis Scott x Helmut Lang was made in Italy and features graphic bull imagery on the tongue and Helmut Lang branding on the heel tab.
It’s… okay. Just that and nothing more. Definitely a step up from the XXXIII, though.
The Travis Scott x Helmut Lang Low Top is currently unavailable on the aftermarket.
13. Travis Scott x Playstation Nike Dunk Low
Nike
Originally, we ranked this one last. It’s a three-way collaboration that coincided with the release of the Playstation 5, which just felt like tacky branded overkill. But the more we look at the design — which is actually kind of dope and borrows from the OG Playstation’s look for its colorway — the more it grows on us. This one is certainly a grower.
We still don’t like the Sony branding on the heel (Playstation logo can stay) but we can’t sit here and pretend that the Jordan XXXIII is somehow better than this sail and light blue upper, with its charcoal grey reverse swoosh and embroidered branding.
Find the Travis Scott x Playstation Nike Dunk Low at StockX.
12. Travis Scott Nike Air Max 270 React Cactus Trails
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You’ll notice that Scott has a definite preference for Nike’s more retro silhouettes, so the Air Max 270 Cactus Trails is unique in that this is one of the most futuristic-looking Cactus Jack sneakers released yet, thanks to the aerodynamic design of the 270. It’s ironic that it’s also the most artificially aged, with a yellowed midsole and a messy mix of textile, nubuck, and TPU Overlays over a dirty cream colorway.
It really earns its moniker “Cactus Trails,” this is a grimy, dusty mess of a design.
Find the Travis Scott Nike Air Max 270 React Cactus Trails at GOAT.
11. Travis Scott Nike Air Force 1 Low White
StockX
Travis Scott’s long and fruitful collaboration with Nike begins with this take on the Air Force 1. Released in celebration of the 35th anniversary of the silhouette, this white canvas take on the AF-1 dropped at ComplexCon 2017 and featured interchangeable removable swooshes that were meant to evoke Scott’s trademark grill.
The laces have a Cactus Jack logo covering them and the whole thing sits atop a contrasting gum sole. It’s perhaps most notable for looking so different than the designs that would come to define Scott’s work with Nike.
Find the Travis Scott Nike Air Force 1 Low White at StockX.
10. Travis Scott x Helmut Lang High Top
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The High Top version of Scott’s Helmut Lang sneaker is a massive improvement over the low. This may be the last time this particular sneaker stays in the top 10 as Scott and Nike have a bunch of rumored releases planned for Holiday 2021. Enjoy your spot, Helmut Lang Highs!
Featuring the same nylon upper with leather paneling and straps as the low, the Helmut Lang high tops are super sleek, militaristic, and represent a Travis Scott era that feels like a distant memory. Not much to say about these that we haven’t said already with the low tops, this is just an all-around better design.
The Travis Scott x Helmut Lang High Top is currently unavailable on the aftermarket.
9. Travis Scott Nike Air Force 1 Low Cactus Jack
GOAT
The Cactus Jack Air Force 1 has always had a Sean Wotherspoon vibe to us. We know what you’re thinking, “WHY BECAUSE IT HAS CORDUROY???” Yup, that’s exactly why. Do you really think this zipped corduroy lace shroud would exist without Wotherspoon’s Air Max 97, which dropped two years earlier? You’re tripping. Wotherspoon MADE corduroy.
The AF1 Cactus Jack features a graphic canvas upper, a brown swoosh on the outer, a black swoosh on the inner, and sits atop a gum outsole. It’s a dope design, but it’s just a little too busy. A comfortable mid-tier release by Scott.
Find the Travis Scott Nike Air Force 1 Low Cactus Jack at GOAT.
8 . Travis Scott Jordan 1 Retro Low Mocha
StockX
This low-top version of the Jordan I borrows the design of the more iconic high-top version with a mocha and black nubuck leather upper and that polarizing backward swoosh on the lateral side. The backward swoosh actually looks bigger here (it’s not) making the sneaker look unlike a Jordan I, that’s kind of cool. The medial side panel features Cactus Jack lining in university red, making another appearance on the tongue, with the Air Jordan Wings on the heel tab.
This is pleasant and middling. Perfectly functional but not going to make a huge scene.
Find the Travis Scott Jordan 1 Retro Low Mocha at GOAT.
7. Travis Scott Nike Air Force 1 Low Sail
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This Sail colorway of the Air Force 1 was Scott’s second release with Nike and built upon the all-white colorway that preceded it. The canvas upper and removable shiny swoosh is still here, but this Sail colorway just works so much better with the gum outsole and canvas construction. It feels like a true transitional sneaker between Scott’s first Nike drop to the more earthy and worn designs that would come to define the Cactus Jack aesthetic.
Find the Travis Scott Nike Air Force 1 Low Sail at GOAT.
6. Travis Scott Jordan 4 Retro Purple (Friends and Family Release)
StockX
We considered not even including this sneaker, as it’s a close friend and family-only release and never had a retail release, but it’s just too clean to ignore. It’s also currently available at StockX, which means someone isn’t being a good friend (we wouldn’t have done you like that, Travis!). This moody Jordan IV features a suede upper in a deep purple with black accents and a grey lace cage.
It’s easily one of the best colorways we’ve ever seen of the Jordan IV period, it’s almost cruel this wasn’t released to the public. Scott has a few more friends and family colorways, but none reach this level of perfection, which makes the StockX sale sting even more.
Find the Travis Scott Jordan 4 Retro Purple Suede at StockX.
5. Travis Scott Nike SB Dunk Low Cactus Jack
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This is a totally personal take, but this pair brings up a lot of nostalgia for me. The bandana-inspired paisley overlays capture so much of the imagery of growing up in and around East LA. This sneaker looks like my childhood, filtered down into a shoe.
The SB Dunk Low Cactus Jack is significant because it’s Scott’s first skate sneaker, utilizing Nike’s ridiculously popular silhouette, dressing it in a tan leather base with plaid quarter panels, paisley overlays, and canvas that tears away to reveal an earthy camo pattern that kind of resembles Nike’s elephant print (but isn’t quite that).
The design is rounded out by thick rope laces, the whole thing really captures Scott’s Cactus Jack aesthetic — muted, yet psychedelic. Scott and Nike have a whole slate of Dunks that are supposed to drop in late 2021, we’ll see if they can match this take.
Find the Travis Scott Nike SB Dunk Low Premium QS at GOAT.
4. Travis Scott Jordan 6 Retro Olive
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Released at the end of 2019, the Jordan VI features an almost militaristic olive green nubuck and suede upper with a little stash snap pocket on the outer collar. At the time of release, it felt like this was the perfect music festival sneaker to hide your stash in. The idea of going to a concert still seems novel, and this is the second time we’re ranking Scott’s whole sneaker output. Another handful of Travis Scott sneakers will likely drop before we are able to see the rapper perform live again. That’s just sad.
Scott rocked this colorway at the Super Bowl 53 halftime show, leading to its coveted status amongst sneakerheads and Travis Scott fans alike. The design is rounded out by a glow-in-the-dark translucent outsole with sail and university red accent work. Scott has yet to drop something that tops this design since its debut release.
Are the little pockets and zippers stupid and gimmicky? Yes. But forced utility aside, the British Khaki Jordan 6, Scott’s first sneaker of 2021, is in every way an improvement over 2019’s Olive colorway, which it clearly builds off of. Featuring a suede and canvas upper dusted in a mix of British Khaki and Sail, it’s the Bright Crimson accents on the heel, tongue, and branding that really pull this design together.
On top of this earthy colorway, a glow-in-the-dark sole and heel tab adds a nice psychedelic edge to the look, while seamlessly blending in with the rest of the design, never dipping into gimmicky territory, despite you know, being glow in the dark.
Find the Travis Scott Jordan 6 Retro British Khaki at GOAT.
2. Travis Scott Jordan 4 Retro Cactus Jack
StockX
There were several times I came close to ranking this as the number one pick, and while ultimately I contend that it’s probably (probably!) not the best Travis Scott sneaker out there, it is my personal favorite. This use of Nike’s university red and blue here is just beautiful, with its blue Durabuck leather upper and a red collar and insole. Inspired by the Houston Oilers, Scott’s hometown team, the Cactus Jack Jordan IV’s are rounded out by a core black lace cage and heel panel with university blue speckles, and feature Cactus Jack and Jumpman branding on the left and right heel respectively.
I’m already regretting not giving it the number one slot, but not enough to bump it up… yet.
Find the Travis Scott Jordan 4 Retro Cactus Jack at GOAT.
1. Travis Scott Jordan 1 Retro High Mocha
GOAT
It feels almost cliche to rank the Mocha Jordan I Retro High as Scott’s best, but this sneaker release has managed to become emblematic of Cactus Jack as a fashion entity now three years after its original release. The large over-sized backward swoosh looks very gimmicky by today’s standards (though we don’t know that it didn’t always) but that mix of mocha suede paneling again a sail leather upper with university red accents is still one of the silhouette’s best colorways.
Since this insanely popular drop, Nike has since borrowed this same exact color scheme for a stock Air Jordan I, which we actually prefer, since it doesn’t have the backward swoosh. But hey, that’s just us.
Find the at Travis Scott Jordan 1 Retro High at GOAT.
Most of the recent talk around Kanye West’s Yeezy brand is about how his shoes look like Crocs, or how the company fired an intern for violating their NDA contract. But this time, Yeezy’s new logo design is at the forefront of the conversation. Walmart has filed a copyright infringement complaint against the Yeezy brand, saying that the new logo is so similar to theirs that it might cause confusion among customers.
The new Yeezy logo features eight clusters of three dots which radiate from the center like a star. But because Walmart is concerned that the design is too similar to their own logo, they filed an official complaint with the US Patent And Trademark Office, according to Business Insider. They state that the design “is likely to cause confusion, mistake and deception” for their customers, and could lead to people mistakenly thinking the two brands are related. In their infringement complaint, Walmart states that the “false affiliation” between Yeezy and their company would potentially “damage” their brand and the “goodwill” they’ve worked to associate their name with.
News of the copyright infringement complain arrives on the heels of Yeezy’s charitable initiative. Kanye’s company announced that they would be releasing a DMX tribute shirt to honor the rapper’s legacy, with all proceeds from sales going directly to DMX’s family.
Check out a photo of the proposed Yeezy logo above and compare for yourself.
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