TROOP & SPX FEATURE!

SPX & TROOP
PUTTING THE RAD INTO RADICAL

Regular Snkr Frkr readers will know we have a soft spot for the old Troop and SPX styles. We might be the only ones... but we don't care! if they aren’t the wildest shoes ever released we’ll eat our hat.

But they’ve always been bit of a mystery as photos and information have been scarce since both brands sank without trace some years ago.in the case of Troop that had a lot to do with crazy rumours that the brand was owned by the KKK and that the acronym stands for To Rule Over Oppressed People.

Luckily for us, we were recently introduced to Englishman Mike Rhodes who was responsible for a lot of the design and art direction for both brands. Here we get to hear some of Mike's great stories as well as peep some original design sketches and photos from Mike’s own archives.

Amazingly, as you will read, he had no background in shoe design at all.
And he was well into his forties at the time he designed these OTT masterpieces!