Crit my Kicks

[FATE]

Hey all, I'm designing a pair of Nike Dunks and I was wondering what you think of the different styles I have laid out. Suggestions for other designs are welcome as well.

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http://www.fatemedia.com/shoes.gif

Edited by FATE on Dec 16, 2005 at 09:27 PM

[zimzima911]

They are ok, colors are decent, im not really diggin the design though, whats the story behind it? Make a rasta colorway, there is yet to be a rasta dunk...there needs to be

[ten100switch]

number eight is the most interesting to me, but the print is a little too hawaiian floral for me I like floral designs just not ones that look like they could be on boardshorts.

[ngbetter11]

i agree..the birds and the trees dont seem to work well with each other..i dunno why...

but i like #8 too...cause some of the print doesnt show, and it looks very minimal but at the same time pretty interesting.

[artificialsky]

WACK

[heartsandcrafts]

ditto,

and the trees look like silhouettes of parsley

[vahid]

looks pretty good. i think the "trees look like parsley" comment is pretty funny and may have ruined it for me a bit.

#s 1,2 and 8 are the best - the rest don't have enough contrast.

two issues i would be wary of w/ the shoes

1. what is the shoe going to look like once the design is printed on? you seem to have drawn the design right onto the stencil without taking into acct the fact that the surface of the shoe is curved. it's going to look quite a bit different w/ the relief of the different pieces and the curve of the shoe.

1.5. so maybe it would be a good idea to make the designs more discrete? ie keep the trees restricted to one piece of leather, don't let them "creep" up onto the other parts.

2. similarly, maybe it would look better if the birds weren't scattered over two or three pieces of leather? i have a feeling they're going to look weird w/ the relief of the different swoosh/shoe parts.

2.5 also don't forget the strong swoosh is one of the defining elements of the dunk design (along w/ the strongly defined toebox), the dunk looks sort of "wrong" to me (too busy, slightly chaotic) w/ the birds breaking up the space of the swoosh ... maybe you should move the birds so they are to either side of the swoosh?

are you aware that loomstate is releasing some vans w/ a very similar "birds + trees" vibe?

[vahid]

ok on 2nd thought

#s 1 and 8 are definitely strongest

#1 you may want to resize the birds a bit, pull back the trees, otherwise it's nice. not sure what the printing process is going to be.

#8 not only looks good, it also looks much more practical to execute. i like the way the birds look in this version - they don't clash w/ the swoosh so much, it looks much more airy + spacious + harmonious, which obv works better w/ the theme of "birds and trees". you may want to take the pattern off the "lace loops" piece of the dunk, it looks a bit arbitrary there. i like the trees in the toebox, put maybe it would look better w/ some sort of scatter print of leaves + birds? remember, most people are going to see the toebox from a different angle as they are the side of the shoe, so you might want to go w/ a different design.

i really like the magenta+pink+black colorway. it suits the design. any chance of integrating the 2nd design w/ the 1st colorway?

[FATE]

Nope, link me up to the Vans stuff.

I gotta agree with the hawaiin print shirt thing. It's actually a modified camo pattern, the "Trees", they're actually just regular vegitation. Parsley, if you will So I'll probably ditch that aspect all together.

I couldn't care about the nike swoosh being blatant or not. Nike does a good job making sure its logo is always visible, on all its shoes, all its commercials. I think I can play with it here and not worry about it. It's not like someone is going to be confused because the logo has a bird sillouhette over it.

Vahid, also, it will look fine on the curved surface and across multiple piece of leathers. You might think it's a concern, but it's not, I've done it before and it simply adds to the aesthetic. It may be interesting to keep the trees in one piece of leather though, to treat them like a panel, I will work on that idea.

If ya'll have any designs or ideas you think might be cool, hit me up. I'm going to resell these after they're printed, so if I use your design I'll give you the base-Dunks price, nothing more than a white pair would cost.

Thanks for the comments guys, I appreciate the criticism. I wouldn't want to waste my time and a pair of shoes on this.

[FATE]

Also vahid, I even tried to simulate the side view of the curved toe by scrunching up the pattern there. I got it taken care of

Edited by FATE on Dec 16, 2005 at 09:29 PM

[FATE]

Vahid, the Crimson/pink/black color combo is my favorite as well, so it will definitely be in some revisions of this design I'm doing. Thanks for taking the time to comment, buddy, I really appreciate some outside opinions and thoughts on this stuff other than "WACK" from artificialsky.

[vahid]

just curious, what's the process you use?

def let us see the finished product!

[FATE]

Handpaint them actually, I've done a couple others and they look excellent with some superthin leather paint I order. The paint doesn't wear and it goes on thin enough to keep the material smooth and natural, allowing the grain of the leather to stay true.

Edited by FATE on Dec 16, 2005 at 09:33 PM

[SENDkylHISPASSWORD]

I would expect good things from loomstate, from what the models are wearing on the sit it looks good. These are some pictures, nothing excited. I don't like sk8 his though, i only really like "Era" or "Authentic" Vans, non enough collabs on those models. That's why I just picked up a pair of Trovatas.

could have been so much better...

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