Floris van Bommel
About the shoes

This is our most technical sneaker ever. To pull that off, it's also our first shoe without leather. The upper consists of mesh and high-frequency panels of polyurethane, finished with relief prints, colours and logos. The lining is also made of sporty mesh, giving the heel area that proper hyper sport look.

Why am I bringing this up? This shoe from our Premium collection is a bit like our ‘shoe champagne’. It's a style that really shouldn't have existed according to the rules. Shoes from our Premium collection have too expensive materials, too intricate details, too difficult lines, or they are otherwise too experimental. Like those French monks, however, our designers insisted that such deviations are actually great. The solution? We’ve given these birds of paradise their own limited edition Premium corner in our collection – the corner where anything goes. Enjoy this special pair of shoes!“

If you wear crepe soles in winter, they are rock hard because of the cold, until you sit down with your feet against a heater - then they practically melt away under your feet. Natural rubber also tends to turn white and dry out quickly. Back then, we received a lot of complaints. We vowed to never use crepe again. Back to the present: we recently came across this rubber blend at our sole supplier, which is now the outsole of this shoe. It looks like crepe, it's nice and transparent, a bit grainy, feels like crepe too, but it isn't. I was so happy to finally bring back this style. Oh and... this quote by George Carlin is also on my list: "Always remember how stupid the average person is, and realise that half of them are even stupider". But then again, we didn't use real crepe a second time around. I hope that means I'm just above average."

"So you are a Floris van Bommel shoe?" He talks by moving his sole up and down at the front like a lower jaw. The other shoe replies with: "Mpff, mpff". And that, of course, is because it’s indeed a Floris van Bommel shoe! The sole is firmly attached. So, it can't talk. Anyway, the blank stares I’ve received so far in response to this drawing are pretty telling. That’s why I’m explaining it here. This way, should you go for this model, you can focus entirely on the shoe itself. And I’ll spend some time thinking about whether I should go "mpff mpff" more often when trying to be funny."

As a designer, you constantly run into obstacles. Materials react differently than expected, the right tools are missing, time constraints come into play or production machines simply cannot process your design. And that is just the tip of the iceberg. Why am I telling you this? Because this sneaker also is a happy accident! In the original 2D design, the “teeth” of the sole were evenly distributed, with the same spacing everywhere. But when we made a 3D mould of that drawing, the curvature of the sole suddenly created larger gaps at the front. For a moment we hesitated: should we redo it? But we actually liked it better this way. This wider arrangement gave the sole a sportier and more casual look. That’s why we kept it as it was. And what the heck, in the end, life is one big happy accident.