Pokemon and Converse Japan have announced a collaboration that will see the release of four pairs of Chuck Taylors, each of which – appropriately given the shoe in question – is a colorful homage to the series’ earliest roots.
There’s no garish branding or big graphic prints here, just four pairs of shoes in four different and iconic (for the franchise) colors representing four of the most classic Pokémon: Pikachu, Eevee, Charizard, and Mewtwo. Color palettes aside are the only things these give away Pokemon Shoes is a small pixel art Pokemon on the tongue and a small biographical motif near the heel that shows the name, height, weight and number of that particular character.
Each shoe also comes with a special Poké Ball tag (the little plastic tags that hang from the laces of some shoes, like Jordans). With Sneaker Freaker saying that Pikachu gets a normal, Eevee (or here Eievui since they’re Japanese sneakers) a Great Ball, Charizard (aka Lizardon on these) an Ultra Ball, while Mewtwo gets a Master Ball.
If you haven’t kept these things in mind, Pokémon like to shuffle their license around when it comes to sneaker collaborations. We wrote about it a very tasteful release with Fila a few years back while The 2019 Adidas line was one of the best video game sneaker bindings of all timeso good that I ended up buying my kid several couples from it.
This drop is expected to arrive in Japan later this month, with prices hovering around the retail mark for fancier Chuck Taylors ($75). Given that the lyrics were written specifically for the Japanese market and there was no accompanying announcement for a Western release, I wouldn’t hold my breath if you were looking for a way to get these that didn’t involve paying for resale.
