Long-known as one of Africa's most highly-regarded sneaker purveyors, Cape Town’s sneaker store, Shelflife teamed up with New Balance and Dr. Zulu for an exclusive 'City of Gold' 574 shoe collaboration. With the sneaker already past its South African release date (17 April), The 574s will be released globally on April 28th. The extras include custom laces, insoles, carrying bag, heel wrap pattern and a detachable center branded ‘N’ in a camo yellow and black or just plain yellow. Check out excerpts from Those NBs and the shoe designer Dr. Z's in-depth interview below for intricate details of the New Balance x Shelflife x Dr.Z 'City of Gold' 574 collaboration.
Please introduce yourself to those that don’t know you and what you do
My name is Dr.Z aka Dr.Zulu. I am an artist, designer, photographer and entrepreneur but you could also call me a kind of a visual “mad scientist” I guess.
How did the New Balance 574 ” City of Gold” project come about?
At first, it happened by casually chatting with Nick from Shelflife Store and Justin from New Balance in SA. Since 2010 (or even earlier) we would talk about how cool it would be to collab on an NB but it wasn’t until 2012, once I had been to Tokyo and met with the NB design team, that I really got the opportunity to put some ideas down. It was a huge, lengthy process but we really took our time to refine the concept.
Why the 574 model?
We wanted the 574 primarily because it’s so iconic and the model lends itself very well to the iconic themes and symbols of Johannesburg. It’s also a model NB was interested in promoting in our region so we decided to see how far we could take the 574 in terms of detailing and concept. I tried my best to highlight its strength and design integrity, it's a really hard-wearing sneaker and I wanted to present that “toughness” in the best possible light.
How long have you been designing sneakers?
I have been doing all types of sneaker-related art, graphics and branding for decades, but I got my first opportunity to apply artwork to two separate productions “Sneaker Pimps x JB Classics” shoe projects around 2006/7. Since then I have done a host of other production sneaker projects but nothing on the scale of the “CITY OF GOLD 574″
As an artist where do you get your inspiration?
Well I struggle to answer this question but I’ll try, inspiration is everywhere but I really look for honesty and truth in any task for inspiration like, direct to the source or as close as I can get to it.
Can you describe your thought process when creating/designing sneakers?
In this project, I tried to think of a solid concept that would “cover all bases” or that “ticks every box” in an interesting way. I knew the end product had to accurately represent everyone involved from every aspect and from there I reverse-engineered all elements into a single concept.
Head over to Those NBs to check out the full interview.
.jpg "New Balance x Shelflife x Dr.Z 'City of Gold' 574")
