Bodega x New Balance 577 HYPRCAT: The 16-Bit Sneaker

Let’s be honest – sometimes learning the inspiration behind a shoe can completely alter your perception of it. Sure, the design and colors have to stand on their own before anything, but many times, it’s the story being told that gives a shoe that extra dimension of depth and intrigue needed to stand out in today’s overcrowded sneaker market. Every brand has teams of designers racking their brains to come up with interesting concepts and themes, and at this point we’ve just about seen it all. That said, there is still some room for originality in the sneaker game and nowadays, some of the best examples of design creativity have been emerging by way of collaborative projects with respected shops all over the world.

Every prominent sneaker boutique you can name has a staff of guys with a knowledge of the industry and its history and a stack of wild ideas for what they could bring to the table if given the chance. The explosion of collaborations over the last ten years has opened a lot of doors for more and more of these projects, and sneaker consumers have been reaping the fruits every step of the way. There have been plenty of hits as well as misses, but when it’s done right, the sneaker collab has produced some of the most memorable releases of all-time, and in most cases, they all started with a clever inspiration.

Boston shop, Bodega, are veterans of the collaboration circuit and have always brought a unique approach and perspective to their projects. For their latest tag team twirl, Bodega has once again joined forces with fellow Bostonians, New Balance, for a follow-up to their involvement in last year’s four-store ML581 collab capsule. Now with the spotlight all to themselves, they’ve put their special touches on the 577, using some tactfully interpreted inspiration from the cult classic ’90s video game, StarFox. The game’s polygonal 3-D graphics raised the bar when it invaded 16-Bit Super Nintendo consoles in 1993, and has had a special place in the hearts of global gamers ever since.

For their upcoming New Balance 577, Bodega is paying homage with their HYPRCAT edition, a greyed-out make-up of the shoe with some bright splashes of color derived from elements of the game and its general visual aesthetic. The most stunning aspect of the shoe is its eye-catching tongue labels featuring the “Dual Cat” graphics, a personal nod to the shoe’s co-designers, Marvin Bynoe and Randy Price. We caught up with the dual cats themselves to get the full story on the 577 HYPRCAT, so check out the interview in the following pages, and look out for the shoe releasing in-store at Bodega this Saturday, September 7th, and then online through their webstore on Sunday the 8th.

Sneaker News:  As veterans of the sneaker collab game, what was your general approach going into this project? Did you have certain colors or a concept already in mind beforehand or did you start completely from scratch?

Marvin:  Going into to this project, we had no idea of a colorway or concept. My co-designer Randy Price and I sat down to discuss some ideas and we went from there. Randy came up with the concept of the HYPRCATs and everyone at the shop loved it.

SN:  How did you guys come to the decision to use the New Balance 577 as your model of choice?

Marvin:  New Balance approached us with two models and the 577 spoke to us. The 577 has a lot of panels to play around with color blocking and we were drawn to that.

SN:  What is the HYPRCAT concept all about and what inspired it?

Randy:  The whole HYPRCAT theme is a nod to the pioneering days of 3D graphics, most notably the original StarFox game for SNES. In addition, we also enjoy more than our fair share of space opera and fantasy anime and drew a little from these genres as well. The Dual Cat graphics we used symbolizes the fact that we always tag team every project and allowed us to tie both inspirations together while cementing ourselves as characters in our own project.

SN:  Please give us a breakdown of the various materials used on the shoe and why they were chosen to represent this project.

Marvin:  We’re big fans of suede because it’s a very rich fabric and the texture of suede looks different from other angles. We also used donegal fleck, which looks subtle from afar but upon closer inspection has has a lot going on. To top it off we used the ice blue sole which is something I’ve always wanted to use and this was the perfect shoe for it.

SN:  Were there any design obstacles along the way or things you wanted to do on the shoe that weren’t possible?

Marvin:  There were not a lot of design obstacles with this collaboration. The hardest part honestly was picking the colorway out of the four awesome shoes we originally sampled.

SN:  New Balance doesn’t usually allow collaborators to place their own branding elements on the shoes, but you guys kinda worked around that with the amazing graphics on the tongue labels. Was there a concerted effort to place Bodega’s own unique and personalized stamp on the project within the allowable limits?

Marvin:  I heard of this being an issue for some when collabing with New Balance, but I didn’t let that effect the design. I’m thankful that they respected the graphic and concept we’d chosen. We knew exactly what we wanted and New Balance was great to allow us to put that into fruition.

SN:  This is now Bodega’s second shoe with crosstown neighbors, New Balance. What does it mean to you guys to be able to do these projects with a brand based in Boston?

Marvin:  It’s amazing! We love working with companies that are in our backyard. Being so close in proximity really allows for us to be more hands on. In the past, we’ve toured the factory and fabric libraries, which was a really great and helpful experience that probably wouldn’t have happened if we weren’t so close.

SN:  Where does the HYPRCAT 577 rank amongst some of the other great Bodega collabs of the past?

Marvin:  I would have to say, in my humble opinion, it ranks high. It’s a brighter colorway than our previous work, but offers a lot of character and I love the concept.

SN:  What are the benefits of participating in collaborative projects like this for your own store and brand?

Marvin:  Doing collabs lets people know that we aren’t just a storefront that only has regular shoe releases. By releasing our own shoes, we create a buzz over our own creativity, and in turn that creates a buzz around our brand.

SN:  We know you guys like to stay busy with the collab endeavors. Are there any future projects coming down the pipeline with New Balance or anyone else that we should be keeping an eye out for?

Marvin:  We’ve got a Reebok coming out in February that I’m really excited about, and as far as New Balance, we’ll just have to wait and see. But I loved working with New Balance on this and I hope we can do it again.