As workwear continues to permeate street style, Noon Goons has teamed up with Keen on a boot that’s sure to attract the style-savvy.
The Los Angeles-based menswear label, with deep ties to surf and skate culture, has collaborated with Keen Utility, the brand’s work footwear arm, to reimagine the Cincinnati boot. This collaboration is Noon Goons’ second-ever footwear project and its first boot.
“A lot of my friends who are pro skateboarders are now, construction guys and they’re all wearing Keen,” Noon Goons founder Kurt Narmore told FN. “These guys want to have something dope on the work site, they want to be able to express their skateboarding and surfing roots, and I thought this was a great opportunity to blend the Noon Goons fashion side into workwear, which is actually on trend.”
He continued, “And I love the Cincinnati. You can still skate in it. Motorcycle friends that ride Harleys or Triumph, it’s a very stylish boot to wear in that sense. It’s just a dope workwear boot. And this has never been done in my eyes. No one in my space has done a classic workwear boot to this extent.”
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This also is the first-ever collaboration for Keen Utility.
“We’re trying to continue to disrupt and do things differently. If you said, ‘Go out and find a collab,’ I don’t know that this is where I would have gone, but this is exactly what we needed,” said Kevin Oberle, senior director of global insights and engagement at Keen Utility. “We found a partner that can push you into a different creative space, or a space that you may not have gone ourselves.”
He continued, “Kurt and his team have been awesome to work with, and that makes it even better. He’s somebody who cares so much about his business and is so involved with every little detail. You love having partnerships with people that that care about everything as much as you do.”
The collaboration, which pairs the “rugged functionality” of the Cincinnati work boot with the menswear brand’s signature street style, is executed with premium brown leather uppers and a brown patent crocodile-stamped leather collar.
“We’re known for crocodile leather and thought that’s a perfect way to infuse what we’re known for into the Keen boot subtly,” Narmore said. “We had gone through a couple different iterations of the boot. Should we do contrast stitching? No, that’s too much. Let’s make this a sexy boot, let’s do two-tone on the on the sole, really clean, really classic, fashionable and easy for anyone to wear. Whether it’s my customer or the average Keen customer, I don’t think it’s a difficult piece to wear.”
Also, Noon Goods dressed the Keen Utility boot with gold eyelets and fireman laces, and dual branding appears on the tongue and heel to mark the collaboration. In terms of tech, the Cincinnati features a 360-degree Goodyear rubber welt and a contrasting midsole, as well as Keen Utility’s slip- and oil-resistant outsole.
What’s more, Noon Goons tapped legendary photographer Kenneth Cappello to shoot the lookbook, which featuring models Cam Porras and Jaffar Asli. The images were captured in Huntington Beach, Calif., showcasing the marriage of Southern California subculture with workwear and street style.
The Noon Goons x Keen Utility Cincinnati work boot arrives Oct. 10 in men’s whole sizes via Noongoons.com and Keenfootwear.com. It will also be sold exclusively in the U.S. at Nordstrom. The collaborative boot will retail for $250.
About the Author
Peter Verry is the Senior News and Features Editor for Athletic and Outdoor at Footwear News. He oversees coverage of the two fast-paced and ultracompetitive markets, which includes conducting in-depth interviews with industry leaders and writing stories on sneakers and outdoor shoes. He is a lifelong sneaker addict (and shares his newest purchases via @peterverry on Instagram) and spends most of his free time on a trail. He holds an M.A. in journalism from Hofstra University and can be reached at peter.verry@footwearnews.com.
