Category: Retro Designer Trainers

January 24, 2012

Brand New Spring Summer 2012 Cruyff Classics Trainers

One of the first top footwear brands to appear this season is the very premium and vintage Dutch brand Cruyff Classics. Founded and originally designed by the great man himself Johan Cruyff the brand is getting stronger season by season and for spring summer 2012. Priced between £90 and £110 the range carries with it the signature ‘C Flash’ logo on the outstep as well as gold embossed Johan Cruyff autographs and small metal or leather panels that indicate the style of shoe be it a classic such as Recopa or Vanenburg or a new style for this season, early styles have been launched as Pep, Velasco or Vicenzo. With the summer season also upon us within the next few months (hopefully) we can see superb colours such as white, grey, navy and black which are ready to be matched with shorts, chinos or tapered jeans this year.

The designs have remained fairly classic looking with thin rubber sole units, large metal rimmed eyelets for the laces and a large tongue which was standard among football boots and shoes of the eighties and early nineties. The use of suede, leather and patent is evident throughout while the Velasco are the first pair of Cruyff Classics to mimick common designs of football boots by placing (or hiding) the laces underneath a panel, which in this case is patent leather. These shoes aren’t in the same ilk at the other designer sportswear brands such as Adidas Originals or Nike, but easily hold their own as fashion footwear with the Diesel, G Star and Lacoste style of brands.

Perfect for the coming summer a pair of Cruyff Classics should be high on your shopping list alongside some chino shorts, polo shirts and tapered jeans. Be the first to wear the shoes and show your mates that you’re ahead of the fashion with these amazing Cruyff Classics trainers.

March 21, 2011

Dutch Mastery Forms Cruyff Classics

Back in the 1970s Johan Cruyff was untouchable. He was the master of the Cruyff turn, a focal point for the Netherlands national team and could be seen during the week wearing the blue and red stripes of Barcelona. The famous number 14 was a world superstar and behind the scenes in the process of creating his own, self designed football boots. Johan had become tired of the thick and clumpy football boots of the 70s and believed that they affected his technique thus making it difficult to be a technical footballer. His new boots Cruyff Classics were slim lined and designed for the technical player such as Cruyff or his Dutch teammate Gerald Vanenburg and featured Cruyff’s newly designed logo the C flash. To help Johan through all of these design stages and problems he hired his friend and (coincidentally) Italian footwear designer Emilio Lazzarini, this proved a master stroke as the range really took off in Holland with training shoes and sports shoes following the boots. Cruyff did much of the promotional work himself judging by the old photos and adverts that can be found on the Cruyff Classics website, with his long hair, short shorts and the now famous number 14 shirt being photographed playing football in an early pair of Cruyff Classics boots. He also convinced many a Dutch footballer to get involved with Vanenburg being a help in the design work but also Johan’s son Jordi wore the boots along with Winter, Bosman, Hiele, a young Dennis Bergkamp and possibly the most famous of the collection Marco Van Basten.

To my knowledge a couple of years ago the Cruyff brand re-appeared, but this time in a different market place, the world of fashion. The Cruyff Classics trainers have been slightly modified but are essentially inspired by the boots and training shoes of the 70s and 80s. The iconic C flash logo can be found on the trainers that now appear in a vast array of colours, designs and materials. I bought a pair of perforated suede Cruyffs a few years ago and they’re still as comfy as the first time I wore them. The thin rubber sole allows for the shoes to be super lightweight and fashionable. If you’re looking for a sensible, stylish, and retro pair of Cruyff Classics you really have to be looking at the Vanenburgs, there are many other styles available that are obviously European styled that also catch the eye, it’s all about what you’re looking for, but you really must get a pair of Cruyff trainers in you life. Fully recommended.

March 8, 2011

Back to the Old Skool with Adidas Originals, Nike and Puma Archive

Here at designer shoes and trainers we think the best place to start looking at trainers is among the vintage styles and brands with American owned Nike and German based Adidas Originals and Puma Archive offering a much more popular range over the other retro Brit brands Reebok and Gola. The vintage trainer market is absolutely huge at the moment with the re-emergence of the 80s casual styled clothing bringing the trainer brands back to the forefront of the designer footwear offering. The whole idea around the style is to get yourself a pair of trainers that reflect the 70s and 80s, yet are from the modern ranges that offer a little more of a commercial angle than the true designs from the original era. Some people do look for an original pair of Adidas Forest Hills or a vintage Puma Archive G Vilas but end up paying well over the odds for a piece of footwear history. I’ve always seen this as a bit of a luxury to have, yet as much as I would love to see a pair of boxed original Adidas Trimm Trabs in my wardrobe I think the fear of marking or wrecking them would overcome me and they would sit looking at me for the rest of eternity.

If you already are a keen retro footwear collector or were a child of the casual era and are reliving it then I will probably be preaching to the converted in this article as chances are there is nothing more I can tell you that you don’t already know, however there are a large group of young lads who are really starting to embrace the vintage footwear styling. This really has been brought about by the top brands exclusive big money deals with JD Sports in the UK, who feature a range of Adidas Originals and Nike trainers that you can’t buy anywhere else and range from a unique colour way of Nike Air Max through to an eye catching pair of suede Adidas ZX 500s. Because of the accessibility of the designer sports clothing stores the style among teenagers and lads in their 20s is becoming increasingly more casual again, but in a more modern era. The track tops, hooded zip tops and jogging bottoms is a much more relaxed casual look but still embodies everything from the 70s and 80s with groups of lads being seen in brightly coloured, designer named clothing and some amazing modern classic trainers. The basics are there, they just need the little nudge and a tale of what it meant to own a pair of Forest Hills back in the day. Now this isn’t to say that if you spot a pair of bright blue Puma Dallas that you have to throw out your wardrobe and get some tracksuits in. Today’s fashionable guy can match the retro styled coloured trainers with his jacket or jumper and still show off his £100 plus designer jeans and shirt while looking pretty good.

In my opinion the top two retro footwear brands have to be Adidas and Nike, but you have to look for their lifestyle or heritage ranges, as these will contain the less sporty trainers and carry the true vintage gems that you’ll be looking for. Don’t grab a pair of these if you think you’re wearing them to the local nightclub or to a ‘smart’ gathering but do match up with an everyday outfit that sees you down the pub with a few mates, at the football or simply just looking good while chilling out. In short, the trainers made famous by the casuals are perfect for just that – casual wear.