Blondey McCoy Reveals the Secret to His Success
All things considered, Blondey McCoy has had a pretty cute 12 months. He’s a new dad, he relaunched his freaky-preppy clothing brand, Thames, last winter, and he made one of the weirdest-coolest shoes in the world, a clear Adidas Superstar. (The better to see his legendary sock game, my dear!)
Now, McCoy is back with another Adidas Superstar—this one in an adorable baby blue, with spicy red laces and black accents. But instead of dropping it online like some normie, he’s raffling off all the pairs on the Thames site. “I just don’t want people who really want them to have to pay an inflated price for them because a robot beat them to the checkout,” he told GQ by email. Very paternal of him! After gazing longingly at the shoes, we spoke with McCoy about what socks he’d pair with these bad boys, the joys of fatherhood, and his upcoming plans for the Thames label. But don’t linger too long—the raffle closes on Friday at midnight, London time.
First, congrats on your baby!!! How is fatherhood treating you? Have you become a more paternal designer? (Have you been wearing your Thames Daddy shield pin everyday?)
Thanking you! Never have I ever had a better reason to come home, rather than wander the streets at night. I sleep a lot more now that I am a parent, which some might find difficult to believe. The ‘ONLY HUMAN’ shield is my favourite this week, but he wears his ‘MILK MONITOR’ one all the time.
Why'd you decide to do a raffle for these? How limited are we talking?
Limited enough to merit doing a raffle. I just don’t want people who really want them to have to pay an inflated price for them because a robot beat them to the checkout. It seems a little ridiculous to me that that is a problem that I needed to find a solution to, but it is.
This is a wild, frosty colorway—and the red laces are bonkers. Tell me about its iteration.
Well, when the clear ones and the black-and-gum ones disappeared, and I was still being inundated with messages from people who wanted them, I asked Adidas if we could do another. There's really no more interesting a reason as to why I chose to do a colourful one, than that they said I could do two. The classic black and white colour-way will come out in January. I’m sorry it’s not a more interesting answer!
You make a preeetty iconic pair of socks. What color would you pair these bad boys with?
Bright black. The shoes are colourful enough for me. But I'm interested to see what other people wear them with. They’re more transparent than they look in the product shots.
What makes Adidas superstars so gr8 for sk8ing?
They just are! Especially in plastic. You really have to skate these so hard and for so long to wear through them… if you’re reading this, and you have managed that, please send a picture to info@thamesmmxx.com and I will send you a new pair as a reward.
This is your fourth Adidas collab, right? You've made transparent shoes and baby blue shoes with psycho-red laces. What in the world will you do next?
Second, really. I suppose you could say third, if you count the 200 pairs of black and gum ones. But those are almost mythical in their non-existence.
What’s next is more THAMES. I relaunched the brand about this time last year, and that ended up being a bit of a false start. I didn’t end up getting anything out this year until July, but since then it’s gone from strength to strength. And it’s just so much fun; making what I want to, the way I want to. There are still delays in the production line, and there’s a lot of stuff that I really wanted to get out before Christmas which I wasn’t quite able to, so this January will be busy too.
Lastly, what's the secret to your success?
It’s not much of a secret… I just try. Can’t you tell? And I try all sorts of things, which increases my odds of one of those things working. I suppose that that is my strategy, if I have one. Sometimes my projects are “successful,” in that they make a lot of money or people really get them, and sometimes they are not. What matters more to me than success is authenticity. The decisions we make, once we understand that those two things are not always one and the same, are what define us as creatives.
Originally Appeared on GQ
