yea, i don’t think the bubble wrap will help…

I’ll be the first to admit, for the longest time I couldn’t give two shits about Y-3 sneaker releases. Magically one day, the first images of the Qasa High showed up on the interwebs, and I damn near lost my mind. From that moment my opinion of Y-3 was completely altered for a moment, and I was determine to own a pair. Was it worth the wait? You goddamn right it was.

If you’re an avid fan of tech-ninja styling as I am, these should probably be at the top of your “to cop” list. The entire upper is essentially a neoprene sock liner, with elastic crossing bands to improve the sock-like fit, with leather heel and toe detailing. As you can see, the shoes come with laces, but unless you have narrow feet or skinny ankles, they serve zero purpose outside of being a nice accent.

Lets take a quick second to talk about the sole. I can say it’s actually as comfortable as it looks, but it does have one weird aspect to it. It’s not a solid platform of a sole like it looks. It’s form is more like a doughnut, the edges round and the entire center of the the sole is missed except for a white plastic stability shank with Y-3 labeling cut into it. Like I said, its comfortable, but you sometimes forget the center is missing and step on shit, squarely hitting only the plate.

Now you’ll hear a lot of people say these are just “Rich Man’s Roshe Runners”, and they would be partially right. At a final taxed/shipped price around 430$, its gonna be hard for me to tell folks to drop the money on them, but its even harder for me to ever tell someone to pick up a pair of Roshes after wearing these. They just make the Roshes look like a bad joke. Interested in a pair, most physical Y-3 stores have them in stock, or head over to the online Y-3 store.

Thank you based Yohji.

All of us remember that pair of shoes we had as a kid that we loved, and essentially beat the piss out of. The end of them usually followed with a period of mourn, regretting that we didn’t have another pair, or that they weren’t built to last longer. This thought process is my assumption of what Ryo Kashiwazaki, the designer and owner of Hender Scheme, went through when he created his “homage” collection. Picking his favorite kicks, he hand-recreated them with natural leather, and gave them a base that could be resoled many times over. With the passing of time, his creations will take on a unique patina, and maintain a durability to possible outlive the wearer.

Some have taken to scoffing at the rather pricey kicks, I can see them as a beautiful recreation of one man’s passion. If Nike put half as much quality into some of their iconic sneakers I could start to see the argument. For now I’ll just have to endure the torture of not being able to afford/fit a pair. Next season of Hender Scheme will bring us a recreation of the classic New Balance 574. Look for them to be available later at Maas & Stacks.

out on a walk with, bosco rawse von pancake III

one of my favorite pieces around SF done by Goser