Deconstructed footwear continues to have its moment in the sun with Vans unveiling two pairs of sneakers covered in exposed materials. The Chenille Pack, consisting of the Era and Old Skool Cap, gives the shoes a raised checkerboard pattern courtesy of snow white chenille material.
On the Old Skool Cap, chenille paired with exposed foam on the Sidestripe and heel collar for even more texture. Both get a cream suede upper underneath the raised materials along with pink accents, giving them a soft tonal treatment. They look like clouds for your feet, surprisingly smooth for shoes taking a more jagged approach to construction.
All Cap —
The Old Skool Cap first debuted last year as a deconstructed version of the shoe first debuted in 1977. It has a dual-layer tongue, contrasting stitching, embellished loops, and a foam sock liner all in a bid to make the Old Skool more modern. The sidewall, aka the midsole, is also flipped upside down, putting the signature stripe toward the bottom of the shoe instead of at the border of the upper.
A clear line can be traced to it from Virgil Abloh's "The Ten" collection with Nike, particularly the Blazer and its similar foam elements. Whatever you have to say about him — much of the criticism is valid — the industry tends to follow his lead.
Out now —
Both of the deconstructed sneakers are available now through Vans' website. At $80 for the Era and $85 for the Old Skool, there's only a slight price increase from the baseline models. And for under 100 bucks, you'd be hard-pressed to find anything else as cool as these.
