UNDRCRWN And Adidas Make Sneaker Magic Happen

TS Creator x UNDRCRWN

by Chris O’Leary

Dustin Canalin and Bryon Sheng of UNDRCRWN may be most famous for their ridiculously cool t-shirts with five names on them (think Michigan’s fab-five, or the starting lineup of the 95–96 Bulls). Over the last couple of years, the clothing company out of Philly has worked collaborations on clothing with the likes of Stussy, Eminem, UNDFTD and Rocksmith.

Today, UNDRCRWN drops its latest collaboration, a tweak on adidas’ Command and Create Team Signature series, called adidas Team Signature Command + Create x UNDRCRWN: The Brand for Champions Series. The guys at UNDRCRWN have produced three limited edition (500 pairs of each shoe were made) versions of the adidas’ line.

The shoes are available now at UNDRCRWN’s site and in select trend boutiques and urban specialty stores and are retailing for $125.

Canalin says that when he and McFadden sat down to design these shoes, they wanted to make UNDRCRWN the signature athlete.

“We wanted to put our UNDRCRWN twist on it, so what we wanted to do was create a story or a collection between the three shoes since we’re doing the same shoes that Dwight Howard wears, that K.G. and TMac and Gil wear,” he says.

TS Commander x UNDRCRWN“The whole concept, our tagline is, ‘A Brand For Champions,’ and to just further define the meaning of UNDRCRWN and what we stand for.

“The first shoe was the Commander high and that was a symbol for all things aspirational: Luxury goods, trophy wives, nice cars. So it has a real luxurious twist, like the Gucci colors and at the same time we wanted the ability for K.G. to wear the shoe, so it’s green.

“The second one was the Creator high, which is the shoe that TMac and Chauncey Billups wear,” Canalin continues. “And that shoe is basically the sports version of trophies. It’s the rings, the trophies. It’s pretty literal.”

For Gilbert Arenas’ Creator, Canalin and McFadden decided to focus on longevity. Maybe as a good omen for the frequently banged up guard, perhaps? Who knows.

“The shoe that Gilbert wears is kind of taking things that are classics, things that have been around forever and get better with time. Like the TS Creator Low x UNDRCRWNStanley Cup trophy, things that build meaning as they go along and then just combine that with all of the performance elements, so it has more of a classic look.”

The UNDRCRWN guys are hoping to have K.G. and other adidas signees wear these kicks in the coming weeks, but nothing concrete has been worked out yet.

With the brand’s growing popularity, more collaborations are in the works. Sheng says that they’ll team with adidas again in early 2009 to do a shoe with Mos Def.