An undeniable part of what makes a clothing collaboration good is when you never, ever saw it coming.
Nowadays though, it feels like we’ve pretty much seen everything done at least once before, and it’s no wonder with brands collaborating with the likes of McDonalds, Shrek & Ben Jerry’s, just to name a few.
The huge influx of out-there collaborations in the last decade has made them seem a bit stale & unimaginative, but 20 years ago this was definitely not the case.
The modern concept of a clothing collaboration is something that only became familiar after the turn of the millennium- in the early 2000s collaborative efforts from designers were seldom spotted, and when they did happen, they were usually pretty mundane and carried out purely for sensible reasons.
But of course, there’s always an outlier, and in 2004 that outlier was Stone Island.
At the time, Stone Island had been picking up where Massimo Osti left off since his departure in 1994. Headed by Paul Harvey the brand continued to push the boundaries of fabric innovation through the medium of technical, serious military-inspired garments.
And then in 2004 they dropped everything to announce one of their first-ever collaborations, and it couldn’t have been with a more unlikely partner.
La Sportiva.
That’s right, Stone Island joined forces with the Italian shoe manufacturer for a limited run of footwear, and the only thing that makes sense about the whole thing is both companies are Italian.
We’re not entirely sure what was going through Paul Harvey’s head at the time, but it appeared that he thought the most logical next step for the brand was to venture into the world of climbing – a far cry from the terrace culture that Stone Island had become highly associated with.
The collaboration itself took the form of two climbing shoe silhouettes, one low and one high, each adorned with Stone Island branding on the sole, heel and tongue.
The low version came in two iterations, one with rubber surrounding the laces and the other without, these were each available in a variety of bright colours including red, green & yellow, and aside from the compass detailing they looked like a pretty standard climbing shoe of the time.
The same cannot be said about the high version though, which looked more like footwear you’d see on a military base than at a climbing gym.
This is in part due to its thigh-high design which incorporated a tubular lacing system that ran right to the top of the tongue and looped around the back of the boot. Some have even equated the system as being modelled from Stone Island’s signature Dutch rope fastening that was present on the brand’s liner garments.
Whatever it was based on, it’s apparent that a great deal of care and attention went into the design of the footwear, and it leaves us asking one question, did anyone actually use these to climb in at the time?
The answer to that question is likely not, due in part to the boot’s high retail price of £195, which in today’s money is around £345.
Unfortunately, we don’t know much more about the collaboration than the above information, and if anyone has any more we’d love to hear it.
Going off Instagram and Reddit comment sections it’s clear to see there are two divided opinions on the subject, with one side showing an appreciation for the design and conceptual nature of the collab, and the other calling them hideous. Both have got a point.
Anyway, we stumbled back across this and couldn’t go without sharing + the thought of a hooligan wearing a pair of absurdly tight climbing shoes to a derby match is pretty funny.
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