FROM PARIS: LE FLOW ARTISANAL SNEAKERS

Mania. Fashion. Current. So many words that more or less mean the same thing: following a flow, a system, a trend. Exaggeratedly or not, these expressions creep into our lives, often without we noticing it. The florid period that has returned to the sneakers, still at its peak, did not surprise the fact itself, but rather how the various brands – from those strictly sports to those who parade in Paris for the High Fashion -, have re-read this particular accessory. In particular, it strikes today the interpretation that Le Flow, a brand from the “city of lights” founded by ex-basketball player Lionel Le Floch in 2016.

The skins are the best, and they are picked meticulously among the French and Italian companies in the industry. On the aesthetic level, the brand shares the collection of sporty shoes with the typical sneaker design, from those that recall the iconic style of basketball, the designer’s sport he has decided to pay a tribute. But the inspirational sources are not limited to the active world, but they range in other diametrically opposite fields: music and art. And if in the first case hip hop and jazz are the favorite genres, photographer Kevin Couliau and artist Akihito Takuma are the main names of the last category. In particular, Takuma, a Japanese painter who recently exhibited in Osaka, with whom Le Floch collaborated on the realization of the Navy model sole, released in the winter of 2016. Or rather, its color. The process is quite simple, although its production is complicated: a blue paint tint is injected in the sole that, following an artist’s design, takes shape gradually, until the end result, when the model is complete.

The Flow is a brand to keep an eye on for its aesthetic, productive – all shoe models are made by hand -, and innovative features. It represents, since just a year, an interesting diversion in a sector, that of the sneaker, too saturated. Competitive.