NEXUSVII. SPECIAL COLLABORATION MODEL CONVERSE PRO LEATHER 40th. ANNIVERSARY

"Quoted from the designer's Houyhnhnm blog"

The second special project for NEXUSVII's 15th anniversary is a collaboration with CONVERSE's ``PRO LEATHER,'' which is celebrating its 40th anniversary.

This is a special model based on a low-cut model that is unique to NEXUSVII.

Considering the fact that Converse actually supplied training gym shoes to the US military at the time, the shoes were designed with the concept of "Military Officer GYM Shoes" that is characteristic of NEXUSVII.

First of all, the thin 6mm piping tape, which is not found in the original, was a feature that they paid so much attention to that they had four samples made.

In some parts, we required a high level of difficulty, such as sewing two lines of stitches within a 6mm width, but CONVERSE's skills resulted in a stunning finish.

The color of the piping was also intentionally chosen to be different from the OD (olive drab) color of the base suede.

The name on the tongue, which was on the original, has been given an inconspicuous clear embossed finish to match the military concept.

The metal eyelets are a detail not found in the original PRO LEATHER, but they are finished with a black lacquer finish that was used on military training shoes from the 1940s.

We also paid particular attention to the width of the shoelaces used, and incorporated the color of the shoelaces in advance to express fading, which is less likely to occur with synthetic shoelaces.

When this PRO LEATHER collaboration project started, we thoroughly confirmed with CONVERSE that they would reissue the most symbolic part of this model, known as the "Chevron & Star", in the first model.

The shape of the "L" shaped part called the "chevron" that is next to the "star" underwent a minor change the year after it was created, but I personally feel that the "chevron" from the first PRO LEATHER model released in 1976 is the coolest.

I also asked for some difficult things regarding "Star."

The star was attached using a single-stroke stitching technique that is unprecedented in the history of CONVERSE.

This single-stroke star stitching is also used on the back pockets of NEXUSVII.'s denim pants and the sides of the Star Tote bag. It is also one of the reasons why the star part of the American flag was fastened in almost the same single stroke style before the 1950s.

This alone can significantly change the impression of the model, so I paid particular attention to it when making the adjustments.

The entire surface is made of short-pile suede.

This looks more elegant than long-pile suede and is appropriate for the "officer" specification concept, and another big attraction is that it is easier to care for and the color looks more beautiful.

Also, as is common to various "military" style items, we had to make sure the brand icon was not too conspicuous, and we had to use the same color or material as the base to neutralize its commercial function, so we had to make the "Chevron & Star" in the same color and material as the rule. Among those, the sample we had made in short-pile suede had the most beautiful finish, which was a major reason why we chose it.

The sole is black to match the 1940s military gym shoes that were the sampling source.

The heel features "NEXUSVII." embroidered on military patch tape.

This is a detail that could only be achieved in a collaboration model.