On sneakers

I realized some of you might have been a bit lost with regards to some of my shoe references in the last post. So... let's do a crash course today!

Unless you've been living in a bubble here in sunny Singapore, or if you never look down at people's feet, you probably would have noticed the overwhelming numbers of these on the streets...

With the Stan Smiths there's nothing much to say because they are a staple pair of sneakers not unlike those Chuck Taylors from Converse. Personally I'll never get a pair because they are common af and I prefer to stay out of the mainstream. Now, as for the other pair, -you know, the one with those lego bricks- they're also getting more common but the difference is that THERE ARE SO MANY COLORWAYS OMG I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHERE TO BEGIN. *breathes deeply* Okay, for starters, they're called NMDs which stand for Nomad. It's this marketing slogan(?) by adidas to appeal to "the urban nomad", or in simple English, people who walk around in the city a lot. That's me. Haha. No kidding, but half the time it's because I decide to get adventurous and end up lost/walking in circles.

So, NMDs. Regardless of the colorway, they come in three main forms: R1s, XR1s, and R2s. Those in the pictures up there are R1s. Now wait for it...

These ones with the cool cage on the side are dope-ass XR1s.

The 'lego' bricks on XR1s are much less pronounced, which gives it that sleeker look. Featured here is the Triple White iteration for men.

The women's iteration. Notice the stripey upper and polka dotted laces, giving it that extra detailing which adidas thought females would be more appreciative of. No wrong guesses there.

However, this pair screamed "REGINE" more than all the others. Pink heel tab, nice grey accents in that prime-knit upper, 3M reflective laces, dat cage... What's not to love?!

One might also notice the funny Styrofoam lookalike sole on the NMDs. It's called Boost, and adidas claims that it returns you more energy in each step you take + it's comfortable to stand on. I'm a convert. Ever since I began wearing Boost (shout-out to fam who inducted me), I've never felt as good wearing other kinds of soles like EVA or Lunarlon. Nike's Air Max designs look cool but dang the sole is hard and just not as comfy. Granted, I've not walked in them a whole day to test out the comfort level (and perhaps they need some breaking in to reach their potential) but I've never had to break in my NMDs.

Since we're on the topic, I might as well share about the two breeds of NMDs, namely Mesh and Primeknit. Mesh is your typical sports shoe upper material. It's porous, kind of inflexible, and unsightly if not done right. It's the kind of material which signals to people around you "hey, I'm wearing sports shoes". Modern sports shoes need to look like they can be carried off on the streets, in casual wear. Enter Primeknit (PK). It's a knitted sock-like material, and NMDs have it as a one-piece upper to reduce waste during manufacturing. Honestly, this article does a much better job at describing NMDS than I can. Nike has its own version of knitted uppers too, termed Flyknit. But after feeling both up, I'd say that PK has more appeal. Its level of elasticity varies from the toebox to the heel-area, being more firm at the latter.

This design has been criticized by some on the online community to look like some dude jizzed all over the shoe. You gotta admit, there's somee resemblance...

Wow this post took me longer than I thought. And that's barely scratching the surface. There's still so much more to be covered: collaborations (think Kanye and Rihanna, streetwear brands in the UK and Japan, sneaker boutiques everywhere), other models worthy of mention... I'll save it for next time, and if I get positive feedback on this one. Hit me up if you'd like me to write about other topics like the latest brands and trends I'm following or opinions on the upcoming sneaker drops (drop = release, cop = buy). There are always captions on Instagram going "cop or drop", and countless other variations in street-wear talk that never fails to amuse me. Then again, I'm easily amused.