Bang for Your Buck: Common Projects Footwear
- Words Grailed Team
- Date March 8, 2019
Bang For Your Buck is a weekly franchise highlighting a single luxury item or brand that is well worth the financial investment. Cost-per-wear is the name of the game, and each piece featured in this series serves as a prime example of getting your money's worth.
We all love sneakers. Finding a pair that looks just as good with jeans as with suit trousers, however, is no small feat. That was the case, until Common Projects* debuted the Achilles Low back in 2004. While today, every fashion house offers its own take on the luxury sneaker, there is no question that Common Projects is the one that started it all. Before fashion sneakers were commonplace, Common Projects’ high grade Nappa leather, made in Italy construction and no-nonsense minimalism helped propel it the the upper echelons of the footwear world. Originally producing just a few sneakers, the brand now offers an entire footwear range including various sneaker silhouettes, derbies and the standout suede chelsea boot (which, naturally, took the menswear scene by storm).
While Common Projects retail for $350 and up, thankfully there are plenty on Grailed for less than $200. For shoes you can wear with everything in your closet, thats a no-brainer.
More About Common Projects:
Co-founded by business partners Prathan Poopat and Flavio Girolami in 2004, Common Projects began as a mission to explore refined iterations of classic footwear silhouettes. Reconfiguring these “common” everyday objects as high-end fashion items, Poopat and Girolami took iconic sneakers, stripped them of any logos or branding and reconstructed them in factories that traditionally made high-end leather hard bottoms. First, it began with the Achilles, a luxe take on adidas’ beloved Stan Smith. Entirely devoid of details—except for the now infamous gold lettering indicating size, style and colorway—the Achilles became an instant hit and spurred a number of additional silhouettes including the BBall Hi, BBall Low, Track, Super Track and Slip-On, with inspiration ranging from Nike’s Air Force 1s to Vans Authentics. Apart from sneakers, Common Projects is best known for its beloved and widely imitated suede chelsea boot, which helped convince an entire generation of men to expand their shoe closets beyond sneakers.
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