Why Is a Sandal Company Making Leather Tabi Surf Boots?
Surfing in Europe often isn’t like surfing on the tropical beaches of Hawaii or Australia.
In Stockholm’s growing scene, surfers ride the Baltic Sea’s close to freezing waves while the Netherlands' main surfing spots are in the frosty North Sea. These kinds of frigid conditions require specialist gear, like the insulated boots that a team of Dutch surfers is turning into unconventional leather tabis.
Streetwear label New Amsterdam Surf Association teamed up with Japanese shoemaker Suicoke to turn its on-board footwear into off-board wear. The resulting shoe is a neoprene sock and a leather tabi boot Frankensteined into a surprisingly slick shoe.
The split-toed front is where both brands’ worlds combine. Surf boots regularly feature a split toe for extra grip but Suicoke has already produced many split-toed shoes over the years that were inspired by blue-collar Japanese workers’ jikatabi shoes. (Suicoke was also an early proponent of the more extreme “toe shoe,” but that’s a whole ‘nother story.)
Essentially New Amsterdam Surf Association partially wrapped neoprene surf booties in leather, added a matching strap, and plonked it all atop a thick Suicoke sole. And somehow it works. The leather front end almost disguises these as ordinary leather tabi boots while the neoprene sock adds both weirdness and functionality to the equation.
The collection’s accompanying Suicoke sandals, releasing March 30, present a similar approach. These are the Japanese shoemaker's most famous style but tabi-fied and with leather straps running along the top, almost like a Birkenstock Arizona.
It’s a little weird to see Suicoke’s signature techy sandal sporting such elderly sandal straps. But then again, it's nothing compared to Suicoke’s other recent experiments, like its furry monsters in collaboration with Bed J.W. Ford and its contorting puffer boots. Those things even make leather tabi surf boots look normal.
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