January 5th 2024.
Growing up in the '80s in New York City, especially in the Brooklyn area, was all about Clark Wallabees. If you listened to hip-hop, you owned a pair. You could almost tell which borough someone was from by their shoes. Even those outside of NYC may remember Wu-Tang Clan's Ghostface Killah's songs that glorified Wallabees.
It's no secret that Brooklyn's own JAY-Z is a fan of Wallabees too. He's even gone so far as to get custom pairs made for his inner circle. According to Hypebeast, the footwear designer Stan Birch was responsible for making five pairs of custom Clarks Wallabees for JAY-Z and five of his closest associates: Emory Jones, Tyran "Ty-Ty" Smith, Jay Brown, Lenny Santiago, and Juan Perez.
Birch wanted to capture a real OG vibe with the colorway, but also make it unique for each person. He stated that the details of the shoes were "super personal" to each of them. Every pair was designed with a grey and black suede upper tongue, with a Paper Planes logo on the right heel. On the left heel was Birch's logo, and each shoe had the individual’s name in 22-karat gold leaf.
But that's not all; each pair also had personalized hangtags and six fobs with lyrics that JAY-Z has said about the individual it applies to on records. To top it all off, there were black-and-white photos of the crew.
Unless you're part of JAY-Z's inner circle, you won't be able to get your hands on one of the custom pairs. But you can still cop your own by reaching out to Birch via his Flou Customs Instagram page.
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