Going Ape: X-Large Discusses New Diadora Colab
Way back in 1991, set up shop in Los Feliz, Los Angeles. Adopted by the likes of Mike D and Spike Jonze, the witty brand quickly came to typify LA streetwear. Currently celebrating 25 years in the game, X-Large have linked up with Spain’s for a transcontinental colab of primate proportions. X-Large marketing manager Andrew Tim gave us the scoop on the .
Congrats on 25 years in the game.
Thank you, much appreciated. I think it’s safe to say that 25 years is an incredible feat for any brand in streetwear, and we have used this opportunity as a time for reflection. We released a book titled True OG Streetwear and spent a great deal of time collecting archived items and walking down memory lane with the founders and key individuals that helped the brand become what it is today. Looking back on those years, we realised how much has changed, and funnily enough, how things always come back around. Now X-Large is ready to share our history with the rest of the world.
What’s the connection with 24Kilates?
In preparation for our anniversary, we spoke to our accounts about the upcoming year. Pol from 24Kilates mentioned to me how X-Large’s gorilla logo reminded him of Copito, an albino gorilla that lived in Barcelona. We thought that was an excellent point of inspiration considering it combined our iconic gorilla and 24Kilates’ hometown of Barcelona; not to mention that Copito (Spanish for snowflake) was the only known albino gorilla, so it made for a unique concept.
2016 has definitely been the year of the gorilla.
If only you guys could read the tonnes of Harambe emails we get! [Laughs] The gorilla was our logo long before all that went down. Back when Eli Bonerz and Adam Silverman opened the X-Large shop in Los Feliz, they carried an assortment of workwear brands like Carhartt, Dickies and Ben Davis. They took inspiration from the Ben Davis monkey logo and a painting they saw by Steve Gianakos titled ‘Millions of Gorillas’.
The shoe is so sweet.
Our past collaborations with adidas made use of interesting colours and materials. I wanted to take it back to that, but it wasn’t as simple as saying ‘Okay, use optic white and hot pink – it’s albino!’ We tried our best to define the colours and textures based on Copito. For such a simple colourway, we wanted the materials to speak instead of just using the colour pink to scream attention. Of course, the pony hair back heel is there to mimic the hair of the gorilla. The off-white suede and nubuck complemented the soft pink well. We introduced white kangaroo leather to add some depth to the colour and texture. For our 25th anniversary, we used 3M reflective in our line and other collaborations as an underlying theme to commemorate our ‘silver’ year. We sprinkled some white 3M touches around as our nod to that.
You can’t beat that Italian quality.
We totally took advantage of ’s Italian factory and their craftsmanship. The Diadora crew was very open to our early ideas. I was floored when they didn’t flinch at the idea of using all of these different materials on the shoe! But that’s what you get when you have access to an Italian-made product. I think I might be spoiled forever.
Can you hook us up?
Ask Santa! [Laughs] The shoe is limited to 1000 pairs worldwide and will be sold through the in Harajuku, and . There will also be a limited Stateside release through . Happy hunting!
The will be available from December 17.
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