It’s official: Animal Collective have designed a collection of sneakers for Keep. The first they’re revealing is Avey Tare’s “Avey Tare Ghost Tobin.” The next three will pop up over the next three weeks: Three adult styles, one for kids. Per usual with Keep, the shoes will be canvas based/”cruelty free.” Following that line of thought, all profits go to the Socorro Island Conservation Fund, “a non-profit working to preserve the unique biosphere of the Revillagigedo Archipelago off Baja California, where illegal fishing, in particular of its shark population, is a continual threat.” Read Geologist and Deakin’s thoughts about the charity and the ocean while you take a closer look at Avey Tare’s kicks.
Geologist:
After much discussion we decided we wanted to give money to a small under-funded organization to which we felt a personal connection. Josh and I have been scuba diving together for a number of years and the Revillagigedos was one of the most amazing places I have ever seen. Hopefully this project will protect the animals of the Revillagigedos through at least one more fishing season and draw more attention to the global problem of illegal fishing.
Deakin:
The trip that Brian and I took to the Revillagigedos in 2007 has driven me to go diving when I can and learn as much as I can about the state and health (or lack thereof) of our oceans. Whereas I once saw sharks as a potentially frightening creature and little else, I have come to understand that they are a crucial part of a highly stressed and collapsing ecosystem.
The Animal Collective guys have known Keep founder Una Kim since high school, played shows in her basement before they were Animal Collective, etc. The shoes are available for pre-order at Keep from today (9/27) through Halloween (10/31). Keep note: “[T]he shoes will also be released in limited numbers in select stores around the world starting March 2011.” Don’t care about footwear? “Pre-ordered shoes will come with a bonus cassette of previously unreleased music and will be delivered direct to the customer in the Spring.”
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Ya know, sometimes when you see that a musician has designed clothing, or footwear, or something outside of their established creative comfort zone, one can wonder how much they actually participated in the design. Looking at these shoes and their magic marker chic, though, I don’t much doubt that Avey Tare had a hand in designing them. Which I think is a very good thing, don’t get me wrong!
I love the fact that the profits go to a noble cause, but I much prefer Wayne Coyne’s sneakers:
Those are undeniably great looking shoes, but all the proceeds go to benefit the Embryonic Jesus Yolk is the Big Ol’ Bug Now restoration fund, and frankly I would rather support the Animal Collective cause.
are we going to get a premature evaluation of age of adz??
Somebody finally said it.
Finally! Fuck starving cancer kids, it’s about time we started throwing a bunch of money at sharks.
rather than wear those crappy sneakers?
horrendous. Why have a sense of design when you can make painfully mediocre music that hipsters have to pretend hasn’t taken the epic dive into the abyss of self-importance and gimmicks–which brings us to precisely why these shoes are so bad.
are they skateable?
Animal Collective have been a pretty awful band for years now. I was a big fan until they released Strawberry Jam, and i had the unfortunate experience of watching them fumble their way through a god awful live show in NYC around the same time. I saw these sneakers at Other Music in NYC yesterday and all I can say is that besides the laughable designs, they feel terrible too, like bootleg Vans or Converse w/ awful Chukka boot-style gum soles, They were selling for 75 bucks a pair. I guess it’s good that proceeds are going to a charitable cause, but these things are horrendous looking. A friend later told me that they were being sold on ebay for, what I assume was a lot more than 75 bucks.