All things considered, Blondey McCoy has had a pretty cute twelve months. He’s a new dad, he relaunched his freaky-preppy clothing brand Thames last winter, and he made one of the
weirdest-coolest shoes in the world, a clear Adidas Superstar. (The better to see his legendary sock game, my dear!)
Now, McCoy is back with another Adidas Superstar—this one in an adorable baby blue, with spicy red laces and black accents. But instead of dropping it online like some normie, he’s raffling off all the pairs on the Thames site. “I just don’t want people who really want them to have to pay an inflated price for them because a robot beat them to the checkout,” he told GQ by email. Very paternal of him! After gazing longingly at the shoes, we spoke with McCoy about what socks he’d pair with these bad boys, the joys of fatherhood, and his upcoming plans for the Thames label. But don’t linger too long—the raffle closes on Friday at midnight, London time.
First, congrats on your baby!!! How is fatherhood treating you? Have you become a more paternal designer? (Have you been wearing your Thames Daddy shield pin everyday?)
Thanking you! Never have I ever had a better reason to come home, rather than wander the streets at night. I sleep a lot more now that I am a parent, which some might find difficult to believe. The ‘ONLY HUMAN’ shield is my favourite this week, but he wears his ‘MILK MONITOR’ one all the time.
Why'd you decide to do a raffle for these? How limited are we talking?
Limited enough to merit doing a raffle. I just don’t want people who really want them to have to pay an inflated price for them because a robot beat them to the checkout. It seems a little ridiculous to me that that is a problem that I needed to find a solution to, but it is.
This is a wild, frosty colorway—and the red laces are bonkers. Tell me about its iteration.
Well, when the clear ones and the black-and-gum ones disappeared, and I was still being inundated with messages from people who wanted them, I asked Adidas if we could do another. There's really no more interesting a reason as to why I chose to do a colourful one, than that they said I could do two. The classic black and white colour-way will come out in January. I’m sorry it’s not a more interesting answer!