Between The Lines 001: Mr. Bailey’s “The Simple Things” Sneaker
The Design + Development Of The Shoe Inspired By Pharrell & Takashi Murakami
Words: Daniel Bailey
Photography: John Chen
This whole story started after a last minute meeting in New York City earlier this year, I won’t go into too much detail but it was a moment that I’ll never forget – not only just casually getting to link the way we did, but what this person told me really blew my mind, and in-turn, inspired this whole project (fyi – it wasn’t Pharrell).
It inspired me so much, I reached out to the CONSTRUCT:10061 team (Jay Steere & Jackie Burlage) to see if there was a way to facilitate creating something new, specifically inspired by Takashi Murakami, and also Pharrell – which lead me to a sculpture they created together back in 2008 called, “The Simple Things”.
Pharrell had created 7 essential items, things he used almost daily, encrusted them in all types of jewels and asked Takashi if he could create a sculpture to place the items onto. The premise being to celebrate the simple things in life.
One of the most glaring details of the Mr. DOB sculpture [Fig. 01] would have to be the gigantic teeth protruding from it’s gums, which was a feature I wanted to try and create within the sneaker in more than a purely aesthetic way. After sketching up some ideas and a few early morning calls with David Filar from Vibram, we started to create a sole unit that took direct inspiration from those teeth, but also, as wild as it looked, was totally functional (wearable). From a story telling aspect I also asked if it would be possible to 3D print the 7 essential items found on the tongue of the sculpture (a can of Pepsi, a cupcake, Johnson’s baby lotion, Heinz Tomato Ketchup, a bag of Doritos chips, a Trojan Magnum condom and a Billionaire Boys Club sneaker, that we switch to a Timberland boot) to later be placed in the tongue of each sneaker.
Having developed the sole (essentially a rubber cage with an EVA drop-in) and 3D printing the 7 items, the Timberland GIC/CONSTRUCT:10061 developers (David Haas, Kurtis Schnackenberg & Linda Lai) worked diligently on creating the two uppers to the concept; a removable outer bootie that represented the skin of the Mr. DOB sculpture, and the inner shoe made from 6 multi-coloured layers of suede and a recycled PET bottle lining that represented the inside of the sculptures mouth.
As a final touch I worked with Black Ink Projects to further tell the story of the project through the packaging [Fig. 02]. We created a blacked out casing made from Japanese Takeo paper with a personalised black note card made from pressed coloured card that when lifted revealed a rainbow coloured inner with random teeth scattered around the inside of the box, with the sneakers nestled within.
We created a total of 3 pairs. Below you can see some of the final product images showcasing the different forms of the shoe. Thanks again to everyone that helped bring this concept to life, CONSTRUCT:10061, Vibram, Black Ink Projects, as well as to Takashi for always supporting.
