The summer's here, so throw your boots back into storage and slip some of these warm weather classics on your feet.
It is the time of the year when the brogues are put back in the cupboard and the hiking boots are hidden away. For spring is in the air and that can only mean a change in the discerning gentleman’s footwear locker.
However when you hit a certain age caution is afoot and whilst I still curse the day I decided to do some painting wearing my Nike Omega Flames such flamboyance should be shunned. Whilst a stylish choice contains desert boots, loafers and deck shoes then just because a man has hit (say) forty then he shouldn’t discard the humble training shoe.
However with every man, boy and child bedecked in adidas at the moment the astute chap is looking for something slick and simple and what can be more simple that the humble white plimsoll. Obviously a pair of these can be picked up for a few quid from Primark but here are six pairs that rock the look a little bit better.
Spring Court
As French as Brigitte Bardot a pair of Spring Court G2 (unlike Brigitte) looks as good now as they did in the sixties when John Lennon famously sported a pair.
If they’re good enough for the genius of David Byrne on stage in LA then they’re good enough for you to nip down to Tesco in.
Converse All Star Low
It was way back in 1917 that the Converse All-Star basketball shoe was introduced. The basketball player Charles H. “Chuck” Taylor was given a job as a salesman and ambassador, promoting the shoes around the United States and such was his success that they added his signature to them and we’ve been wearing them ever since.
Sperry Topsider
Jonathan Demme’s Stop Making Sense with Talking Heads is considered by many to be the greatest filmed rock concert ever. Funky magnificence, musicianship second to none and that opening when David Byrne walks on stage carrying a ghetto blaster as the camera pans on his Topsider-shod feet. If they’re good enough for the genius of David Byrne on stage in LA then they’re good enough for you to nip down to Tesco in.
Superga 2750 Coto Classic
If Spring Court is synonymous with France then Italy’s pump of choice is the Superga 2750. Found on the feet of everybody from precocious teenage girls sitting in the local town square to politicians sat at Italian’s top table.
Dunlop Volley Injection
You can pick up a pair of Dunlop Green Flash for next to nothing but if you don’t want to look like the kid from the local sixth form college then I’d advise opting for a pair of Volley Injections. Neat, tidy and the only nod to Australia needed when around at your mate’s BBQ this summer.
Veja Taua
If all the other choices have a heritage going back to our father’s times Veja was established in 2003 by two Frenchmen determined to fight worldwide deforestation, exhaustion of natural resources and Labour exploitation. These are made from organic cotton from north-east Brazil and Amazonian wild latex and look a damned sight better than the usual fair trade products.
All the above shoes should be worn with a polo shirt and tailored shorts whilst drinking a cool summer ale…
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