Allen Edmonds and Martone Cycling Create Bike-Friendly Shoe for Urban Commuters
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Allen Edmonds has teamed up with Martone Cycling Co. on a new collaboration fit for an urban professional that commutes to work on a bike.
For this tie-up, the Caleres-owned men’s footwear brand joined forces with Lorenzo Martone, founder of Martone Cycling, to update its bestselling Park Avenue Oxford shoe into a bike-friendly silhouette. The result is the new Park Avenue Velo style, that’s now available in three rich color combinations – black leather, walnut and red leather, and dark chili leather.
Made with premium calfskin, details of the new Park Avenue Velo include a harness inspired by vintage track bike racing footwear, rubber soles for flexible grip on the pedals and a separate leather strap to prevent the wearer’s pant leg from getting caught in the bike’s chain.
And according to the brand, the shoes also have received Caleres’ One Planet Standard designation, meeting the company’s measures of sustainability features, including environmentally preferred materials, sustainable sourcing practices, eco-conscious packaging and more.
As for how the duo came together, David Law, senior vice president and general manager of Allen Edmonds, told FN that the brand reached out to Martone after noticing a global trend of urban cycling happening, particularly in major cities where the brand has stores.
“We thought Lorenzo was the perfect partner for this collaboration,” Law said. “When we met, we talked about it, we shared ideas, and it happened so organically and authentically. It turned out that he was the perfect partner for us in terms of his values and his beliefs, and where we are as a brand and who we are as a brand.”
$450
Law added that when it came down to the shoe’s design It was all about adding functional benefits for true urban cycling and biking to work. “Today’s modern man is actually demanding that versatility, and I think is so important,” the executive said. “The way the modern man is living and working today, we just want to be part of that evolution.”
As part of the collaboration, Allen Edmonds also reimagined Martone’s classic bike to pair with the Park Avenue Velo. Each bike is custom hand-painted matte black with gloss white branding and features custom tires and the signature Martone Cycling red chain.
“From the beginning, bridging fashion and bikes was very much part of the goal of what I wanted to do with Martone Cycling,” Martone told FN. “So when Allen Edmonds called, I thought this was a perfect match, because we both have some of the same values around craftmanship.”
The final element of the collaboration comes together for a charitable cause. Law noted that Allen Edmonds will make a $10,000 donation to Team George Kolasa in order to aid the team’s goal of raising $1 million for Cycle for Survival. Kolasa, a beloved fashion marketing executive and a friend of Martone’s, died from a rare form of brain cancer in August. Founded in 2007, Cycle for Survival is the official rare cancer fundraising program of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK). To date, the organization has raised over $376 million for rare cancer research at MSK.
The Martone Cycling Co. x Allen Edmonds shoes will be available at the Nordstrom men’s store in New York City and Nordstrom.com, at select Allen Edmond stores and AllenEdmonds.com for $450. The Allen Edmonds x Martone bikes will be sold in limited quantities at $950.
To celebrate the collaboration, Allen Edmonds will host a cocktail event on Thursday, May 16 for consumers at the Nordstrom Men’s store in NYC.
Allen Edmonds’ new collection with Martone Cycling Co marks the fourth installment in the brand’s Legend Series, which exists to provoke the question, “what is classic now?” Past collaborators in the series also included Patrick Robinson, Raleigh Denim Workshop and Barbour. All pairs of Legend Series footwear are made in the Allen Edmonds factory in Port Washington, Wis.
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