The most famous Converse sneaker is easily the Chuck Taylor, the 1920s basketball shoe that left the hardcourt behind to become an ever-present staple in contemporary footwear. And in recent years,
high-profile designers from Virgil Abloh to Rick Owens have tapped the silhouette for collaborations. Yet, for Converse’s latest collaboration, A Cold Wall founder and designer Samuel Ross decided to create a brand-new silhouette: the Aeon Active CX, which doesn’t look like any Converse sneaker we’ve ever seen.
The shoe looks like it crashed heel-first into Earth from outer space. It feels more high-performance Nike than something from the more laidback Converse—but that is the point. As a designer, Ross has always brought an artful forward-thinking vibe to his work, precisely what he has done here. (Good reminder, too, that Converse is owned by Nike.) It’s a futuristic laceless bootie with a staggering sole made from ultra-cushy foam. The sneaker has a runway quality to it, from the avant-garde silhouette to the fashionable leather and suede accents. The debut colorway (“Micro Chip and Healing Jade”) is set to drop on April 12, and a second (“Black and Apple Green”) will be released in May.
The bulbous, amorphous sneaker silhouette has been on the rise. Think the Sculpt sneaker by Pyer Moss, the newly introduced Balenciaga Defender, and Kanye West’s yet-to-be-released zippered sneaker-boot. You can officially add the Converse Aeon Active CX to the list. Ross cut his teeth at Off-White and Yeezy, and you can sense the convention-breaking ethos of Virgil Abloh and West has stuck. (More directly, the colors seem to nod ever so slightly to the Air Yeezy 2, while the printed typography on the side feels Abloh-esque.) With A Cold Wall, Ross is known for high-concept design with a distinct point of view, and he has brought that to this collaboration. In other words, there is certainly no mistaking this Converse for a Chuck Taylor.