Visvim Christo Lamina – Black | Available

Visvim Christo Lamina – Black | Available

Every shoe in the small Visvim lineup – which pretty much consists of a few hiking boots, a sneaker or two, a brogue here and there, a boat shoe, and the iconic moccasin-inspired FBT – is a standalone star. All the usual Visvim standards are even more evident in the Japanese company’s footwear: amazing materials, amazing attention to detail, and scarcity. And while all Visvim footwear has a strong design element and a sense of rare style, none has such an ahead-of-the-rest element as the Christo. Which isn’t surprising at all, considering the design inspiration behind the sandal hybrid: it’s named for Javacheff Christo, the genre-destroying conceptual artist, whose enormous works have seen islands draped in cloth, and more recently, 7,503 vinyl “gates” along 23 miles, arranged in Central Park for his work The Gates. Christo’s inspiration can be traced through the construction of the hybrid shoe, with it’s framework of webbing. The shoe itself has the appearance of a strapped sandal, but has a surprising sneaker-like athleticism on the foot, in part due to a Konbu baked nylon upper, and a memory footbed. Perhaps because the Christo has been so far ahead – primarily a draw for Asian markets more willing to experiment – that this version in solid black is hitting the non-Japanese market. It’s still quite avant garde, but this Christo echoes a more traditional Japanese sandal. See the detailed images after the jump. Available in extremely limited quantities at end clothing.