Vanquish Green/Purple Reflex Patent in NY Magazine

NY Mag featured the Vanquish in their Market Sweep of eighties-inflected sneakers.

http://nymag.com/shopping/marketsweep/56717/

I heart the VANQUISH.

I’m obviously a JUMP marketer and I almost only wear JUMP exclusively, with the exception of my Y-3s, Visvim and Double Identitys, but without any bit of being an Al Bundy shoe salesman, I have to say that the Vanquish, in all honesty, is quite frankly one of the most comfortable pair of sneakers I’ve ever worn.  In fact, whenever I’m at the store, I have people try it on purely for the satisfaction of seeing the reaction on their faces after they put it on!  It’s a construction that’s been proven in the 80s and since we’ve adjusted our toespring, it’s made all the difference.  So here’s some commentary on the pairs I own.  Hehe.

I own the Ivis Patent in Grey.

We’ve done pearlized patent before, but this one actually is different in that instead of having that automobile finish sort of sparkle, it’s more flat but with very inlaid hues of green and pink.  For the longest time I’ve been on a grey kick.  I love anything grey, and I’m still not sure why.  So when I got this sample back, I knew it was going to be one of the first ones I’d wear.  The material was actually almost impossible to find but in the end, we made it happen.

I also own the Grey Nappa.

Harry had told me what sold in the 80s was the really soft nappa leathers that we used.  Having introduced JUMP SNEAKER DELUXE in all patents, this is the first model where we strayed from that initial statement.  When I first got this sample and felt it, it felt like nothing I’d ever felt before.  It literally felt like butter.  So when I put it on, it was like wearing a slipper.  I really could not believe how soft it was and really, why other shoe brands hadn’t used anything like this before? We’ll be bringing in a host of other colors in the nappa very soon.  I’ll keep you posted!

But beyond the materials, there’s something about the construction that makes it really wearable shoe.  In some regards it’s quite basic as a laceup, basketball looking high top but it’s the devil in the details that make it interesting.  The wideset laces, the straight-aligned perfs, the height, the padded tongue and the padding around the collar.  We’ve also priced it at $188 to make it more accessible.  I’d urge anyone to, at the very least, try on this shoe.  I hope this didn’t read as one big marketing message.  I guess it’s tough for the sales/marketing guy to review his own product and sound objective.  Ha!

VANQUISH

Any legit sneakerhead remembers Travel Fox.  We first introduced the Vanquish in the 80s under the Travel Fox brand (see black and white ad).  Travel Fox was part of manufacturer turned brand powerhouse, Hongson’s stable of brands that included JUMP.  It became hugely popular in the US for it’s colorful sneakers and racy advertising.

Back then, we’d sold hundreds of thousands of pairs off the Vanquish construction so we thought we’d reincarnate it with our crazy ass materials and on our new last as part of JUMP SNEAKER DELUXE and KA-POW!  It’s become one of the most sought after shoes from our retailers and will be hitting stores next week.  Sometimes, a classic is just a classic.  Get these killers at Bloomingdale’s and at the SoHo store.

Green/Purple Reflex Patent

Black/Silver Kid Crystal

Violet Patent Croco

Grey Ivis Patent

Grey Nappa

Black Nappa

White Wrinkled Oily Patent

Black Wrinkled Oily Patent

We’ll have these for women’s soon!!!

From the archives.

First of all, thank you for making Project NY such an amazing show for us.  It’s simply fantastic to see such an amazing reaction to our new line as we (from all over the world) have put in so much work into it.

Talking to everyone about the brand, I thought it’d be cool to share some of our old ads from the 80s.  Pretty dope tag for its time.