THE FUTURE IS HERE WITH CONVERSE X A-COLD-WALL*’S LATEST SNEAKER – HIGHSNOBIETY

Mon 13 Jun

When Converse and A-COLD-WALL* launched the Aeon Active CX a month ago, Samuel Ross told us that the brand’s “joint products have become far more radical.”

With their latest sneaker, the Sponge Crater, we are offered a look at what the ACW* founder and creative director was referring to.

Beginning with the Chuck Taylor All-Star Lugged in 2020, the two have been fine-tuning the sweet spot between Converse’s long history of sneaker design and the London-based label’s conceptualism and getting more abstract with every release.

The brand’s latest collaboration is unapologetically space-age, combining new technologies, unconventional designs, and sustainable practices. The end result is a shoe that is reinventing how sneakers traditionally look.

The bulky Sponge Crater embodies Converse’s radical new design language and it’s a long way from the Chuck 70s we all grew up loving.

The laceless limited-edition sneaker has a futuristic aesthetic and the technology to back it up. Straight off the bat, when looking at the shoe you are confronted by a speckled grey exoskeleton that holds a vibrant orange knit upper. That outer body, which includes the sole unit and a backless mule-shaped upper, is created using crater foam.