Sure, we could (and do) talk endlessly about the clothes we love, but for our column Line Item, we ask some of our favorite designers to tell us what they think about the best pieces from their newest collections. Today, Ryan Babenzien of GREATS talks to us about their super shiny Trophy Pack Sneakers, which are available for pre-oreder today.
GREATS brings a couple of things to the market but mostly a disruptive model that allows us to build a high quality, stylish men’s footwear brand at value prices. We don't wholesale or rely on third party retailers to distribute our brand. This is super liberating because we get to design something for customers that is outside of what a big box sneaker retailer wants them to buy. Retail is very monopolistic and we think the consumer is tired of that. Though a few styles may go in and out seasonally, we keep core design styles that we can refresh with color, materials, patterns, over and over.
The Trophy pack, which comes in gold and silver, is definitely a strong look and very different than the first two styles we launched with. But given the current interest in metallic styles, the market response has been overwhelmingly positive. The Wooster slip-on and the Royale lace-up are so clean, there's a lot of guys that can rock it, not just fashion dandies. I mean, Leonardo Dicaprio could have worn this to the Wolf of Wall Street premier and it would have looked right at home.