Men's Second Style

Xekello Shilova’s company, ShooZ, makes few things for men. But a number are unisex and these are some you’re going to like. Top quality graffiti for your feet, wrapped onto one of the best sculpted sneaker shapes you’ve ever seen; you can feel the sponginess of the rubber-substitute in those toe pieces.

The first ones I show you have to be Wicked Dice with their vivid colours and striped laces. Here the graffiti is wild spray acrylic paints. I seem to have gotten a shopworn demo copy, as the toes are not in pristine shape. Before I forget, I should tell you that these zneeks all have software size control. Click on a sneaker and a dialogue box appears allowing you to change its size by increments.

In contrast with Wicked Dice, Motley features muted colours, as if done in watercolours and the pigments have largely soaked in to the canvas. The designs are random, suggestive of designs on converse or other sneakers. I’m showing both shoes here to let you see where the labels are. Unlike converse, the round “Z” ankle badge is not on the visible outside, but on the inside of the pair… so they face each other rather than face the world. That’s a welcome touch.

Green Demon looks philosophical and positively Shakespearean. The medium in which this motif was drawn must be chalks or pastels. I love the way that the dominant sea-green colour of the sneaker is taunted at by the deep maroon laces. Lovely.

My personal favourite of the lot, however, has to be colourless (but not odorless) Junkie. You might expect these to be boring compared to the others, but I find the artwork compelling and the lack of colour really only serves to emphasize how good the shape and stitching and details are. The mood, however, is a rather sober, even morbid, so be prepared for that.

Finally, here’s Leopar. More striped laces and, this time, the rubber toe and lining are black! (Thank goodness that sombre touch wasn’t added to Junkie!) These are striking shoes with gradients running from burnt sienna to yellow and white, and that violent gold tongue under the laces! These shoes look dangerous.

The old masters were on to something when they started putting art onto canvas. I’m not sure that this range of high-tops is exactly what they had in mind…

Xekollo Shilova’s Zneeks cost L$410 per pair. The permissions are tricky to describe. They’re certainly copy-ok and no transfer. They’re also, technically, “no modify” in terms of permission. But since they come with that marvelous size-changing software, you can actually modify them — for size. The shooZ main store can be found at addiXion (129, 237, 29).

Tip: when you tell the dialogue box to change size, it goes away and does it, but it’s coming back. The dialogue box for that shoe will return over and over again until you explicitly dismiss it. Do not click the other shoe until you dismiss it or you’ll get totally confused about which shoe it is you’re resizing at any given time.

I also found that I had to take a little time rearranging their placement on my feet… I was poking through the bottoms and sometimes out of one side. Lots depends on the animations and poses you use. Remember, too, that these are not tall enough to come in two pieces for each shoe the way taller boots do. Each shoe is worn as a single attachment — to your foot. As a result, with some stances and poses you’ll find the inevitable poke-throughs.

Photos taken in the tube station of Broadmead (98, 144, 25)