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Raised in New York City’s Tribeca neighborhood, Salehe Bembury is expected by many to be the next Tinker Hatfield or Virgil Abloh, with the now Los Angeles-based sneaker designer increasingly becoming one of the most eminent designers in footwear. Known for combining urban and streetwear looks with outdoor and hiking gear aesthetics, Bembury’s portfolio includes penning shoes for some of today’s biggest and most lauded brands including Cros, Versace, Moncler, Clarks, Cole Haan, Yeezy, and New Balance, just to name a few. And for his latest endeavor, Salehe has joined forces with Los Angeles-based footwear outfit Brandblack to deliver a hiking sneaker that combines his signature amalgamation of visual themes with Brandblack’s usual rugged built quality and outdoor-ready performance.
Known simply as the Brandblack x Salehe Hiking Sneaker, this collab was a markedly more elaborate project than merely having Bembury bestow an existing pair of Brandblack shoes with a novel color scheme or material array, with the company instead tapping him to pen a completely novel pair of kicks from the ground up. Part performance hiker and part urban street shoe, the Hiking Sneaker is crafted around a set of hardwearing ripstop nylon uppers. This already rugged structured material has been further fortified via a PU rand overlaid with an aggressive rubber mudguard. Alongside topo-pattern heel pull tabs and ultra-unique circular TPU tongue pulls, the trail-ready sneaker also sports a speed-lacing system.
Produced in limited numbers, the entire sneaker is also built atop a Vibram Wraptech rubber outsole. Benefitting from both a partial Vibram Megagrip compound construction and the use of the brand’s Litebase Technology, this proprietary compound is incredibly lightweight yet wildly durable, and more importantly, it affords absolutely stellar traction across an enormous variety of surfaces and terrains. The outsole also utilizes the same proven X-pattern tread found on Brandblack’s existing Milspec Evo and Rare Metal LX Evo models. Decorated in Brandblack and Salehe Bembury branding inside and out, the Hiking Sneaker also features custom cork insoles.
Offered in two different color combo options and in sizes 8 through 13, the limited edition Brandblack x Salehe Hiking Sneaker is available now on Huckberry with pricing set at $250.
