Sneaker review: Bon Iver's 'Ramos' shoe by Keep
One's choice of footware, like music, is something we all share, but will never agree on. Melodies hit some people's eardrums one way and it gives them pleasure, while those same frequencies, emitted, say, by a rugged Wisconsinite with a high falsetto and a ragged beard can cause others great disappointment or discomfort.
No two sneakers fit the same person the same way. What looks good on Rusty looks a little frou-frou on Randy. What Bonnie wears would look silly at the end of Emma's long legs. And Bon Iver's first pair of shoes, designed for the Keep shoe company in its Ramos style, while at times overflowing with universal grace, are an uneven attempt, hindered not only by a young upstart Justin Vernon's challenged aesthetic, but by a central flaw that renders the rest of the design unworkable.
According to legend that floated in through an open window this morning, Bon Iver's Justin Vernon set out to work on his first shoe at an off-the-grid, rumored-to-be-mystical cobbler's shop on Staten Island, N.Y., deciding first that the color salmon embodied the emotions he was feeling, unaware that a world away in the downtown New York style scene, shoe fashionistas had declared salmon as the new brown mere hours before. It was around dinner time, and the shop was located in the same block as Ruddy and Dean steakhouse, which was having a fish special. Vernon set out to capture the moment.
