Converse 'Heart Of The City' Pack
Celebrating cityscapes, cultural differences and the allure of both city-living and city-skating, Converse’s latest additions to its ‘Heart of the City’ collection offers a toast towards some of the most iconic skate hot-spot’s associated with Paris, Shanghai and Los Angeles. Curating a global connection inspired by the pulse and avid diversity that skate culture dispenses, the release’s ‘wear your heart on your feet’ tagline is one that keeps individuality and home-town memorabilia alive.
Offering a triage of skate-specific additions as part of the brand’s CONS line, Converse’s Heart of the City pack welcomes creative re-interpretations of the Louie Lopez Pro Ox, the Checkpoint Pro Ox and the iconic One Star Pro Mid. An exclusive release initially inspired by legendary basketball courts such as Paris’ Duperré, Los Angeles’ 1708 - 1798 Ocean Front courts and Nike’s ‘House of Mamba’ all-LED court in Shanghai, this latest Converse CONS release celebrates skylines and skate-able streets that attract skaters of all abilities from all over the world.
Paying homage to CONS Ambassador Lopez’s hometown of Hawthorne, the Converse Louie Lopez Pro Ox arrives as the Los Angeles instalment of the Heart of the City collection. Pairing rubber-backed snakeskin embossed leather with a crisp and clean all-white aesthetic, Converse taps into the city’s luxe yet laid-back sense of appeal. Capturing the high-end enticement of Rodeo Drive’s two-mile-long stretch, the city’s stonesthrow coastal undertone and its ethereal translation from its original name, ‘El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles’ as ‘the town of the Queen of Angels’, these simple yet skate-centric sneakers embody the West Coast city to a T. Paying homage to Dogtown nostalgia, Venice Beach Skatepark and the city's illustrious skyline, Converse’s LA-edit for the Heart of the City commences with the birthplace of evolutionary skate culture. Keeping with tradition, CONS traction rubber and a CX foam sockliner ensure high-end performance functionality well-suited to city-specific hot-spots such as the West LA Courthouse and Lopez’s favoured Green Ledges, whilst the embroidered Chevron Star and tonal ‘Lopez’ branding seals these urban-minded sneakers off with a touch of refined character that mirrors both the team-rider’s persona and skate culture’s explorative aesthetic.
Transporting the collection 5,652 miles across the Atlantic, the similarly-styled Converse Checkpoint Pro Ox lands as the Parisian instalment to the drop. Although a silhouette with a racket-ball legacy, the Checkpoint’s readaptation for skate strikes the perfect balance between form and fashionable function. Mirrored not only by the textured Lopez Pro Ox’s but by comparable high-end inspired launches such as 2020’s Converse x Pop Trading Company ‘Dragonskin’ JP Pro Hi and the adidas Samba Decon’s from Rider Series collaborator Jason Dill, Converse celebrates Paris’ European narrative with a well-earned hint towards its ‘fashion capital of the world’ stature. Styled in archetypal colourings of both black and gravel, the rubber-backed profile pays homage to the city's gothic masonry, cobbled boulevards and its famed skate-spots such as the Trocadéro Gardens and Place de la République. Leather trims adhere to its premium twist, whilst commemorative ‘Paris’ printed insoles tie neatly into the instalment’s ‘heart on your feet’ symbolisation.
Referred to as the ‘Paris of the East’, Converse’s ode to Shanghai takes form via its Converse One Star Pro Mid silhouette. Inspired by the city’s Pudong Skyline, its bustling nightlife and its deep yet youthful sense of appeal, these high-collared rubber-backed sneakers turn their attention to ‘after dark’ aesthetics for their muse. Enticing skaters from all over the world, thanks to established skate-spots such as Love Park (LP) and the Binjiang Green Space, as well as to affiliations with the X Games and Vans Park Series, Shanghai is commonly coined Mo Du, ‘Magic City’ - an aptly titled namesake that captures all the much-loved charm associated with its prosperous skate-specific offering. Brushed-gold Converse CONS embroidery across the tongue tie into tradition and into the city’s silk-trade legacy, whilst the dark laces, cut-through sidewall One Star’s and the all-black rubber CONS outsole cast a striking juxtaposition against the hyper-pink interior lining and the night-club referencing neon-toned sole for a futuristic twist on a courtside classic. Much like its Paris and Los Angeles collection counterparts, a Hanzi-styled insole keeps the city’s pulse-racing appeal grounded regardless of style.
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