You can thank the mild Danish summer for Soulland’s new kicks Li-Ning’s not condensing at Soulland’s show at Copenhagen Fashion Week yesterday. And still, opinions on the new fully transparent sneakers were divided following the show.
When posted on Highsnobiety Sneakers Instagram account, the new models (which are part of Soulland’s second collaboration with the Chinese sportswear giant) polarized the comment section. “Need these. Promise: I will wear em with socks,” said one of our followers. “Put some socks on pls,” said another.
What was Silas Adler, Soulland’s co-founder and creative director thinking? “I wanted to make each pair almost like a growing mechanism. Whatever you put under the shoe will make it different every day. Colored socks, white socks, [or even] no socks,” he tells me about the brand’s second Li-Ning collection over voice message the day after the show. “For the other model with the cut out toe, I wanted to play around with functionality and make it a bit quirky with the ventilation. It just makes it less serious.”
And there weren’t just shoes that the brand partnered on with Li-Ning. In Spring 2022 the two will drop a full men’s and women’s collection comprising light jackets, vests, base layers, shorts and accessories, all suitable for running. Something close to Adler and his co-founder Jacob Kampp Berliner who have tried to persuade me to take up every six month when I visit Copenhagen, for the past three years with little success.
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But back to the brand. Titled PRE, INTER, POST, Soulland x Li-Ning is meant for more than the run alone. “This one is a clearer story about running and my personal connection with it. The concept is about the state before, during, and after a run. A balance between those three stages is the main focus here,” Adler says.
For those who have no interest in running there are luckily the elegant yet playful loafers in pony skin and structured leather, those are made in collaboration with young Copenhagen-based shoe brand Vinny’s, one to watch according to Adler. If even those aren’t your cup of tea, you can purchase an additional show look, exclusively available as an NFT (the first brand to offer a show look this way?). Haven’t you missed fashion?