This March will see French footwear brand, PIOLA, release the first model of a co-designed collection with world wide sneaker culture legend, Bobbito Garcia. As one of the brand’s most prestigious projects since launching, the Por Fin is birthed from a 12-month design and production process and comes as a major reference to US sneaker culture.
For those that don’t know by now, Bobbito Garcia is widely known for setting up basketball competitions throughout Manhattan streets and is highly regarded as an emblem of the New York sneaker culture scene having authored the sneaker handbook “Where did you get those? New York city’s sneaker culture 1960-1987.” His knowledge of kicks ranging from obscurities like the Earl The Pearl Monroe basketball shoe to the most iconic of shoes like the Nike Air Jordan XI has garnered him respect among the most top tier OG shoe heads world wide (FYI we’re talking pre-internet days shoe heads) and so having his own shoe was long overdue.
Bobbito Garcia is also the founder and former host of the “It’s the shoes” where he interviewed American celebrities about their personal sneaker collection and of course co founder of the legendary Stretch & Bobbito Show.
The common vision of Piola and Bobbito was to combine the iconic New York’s 70’s culture background of Bobbito with the innovative development project Piola is setting up through high end manufacturing.
Says Bobbito “I named the first model for my Piola collection ‘Por Fin’ because in Spanish it mean ‘At Last.’ I’ve been drawing sneakers and logos since 1980 when I was in high school, and started customizing/accessorizing my shoes even before that,” notes Garcia. “In the last 10+ years, I’ve been blessed to do collabs with the top brands, but those have always been me putting my spin on an already iconic silhouette. Piola is very creative artistically/socially and has given me the opportunity to start from scratch, and working with them was beyond a thrill because I respect their ethos, from transparency to creating a fundamental innovation in economic development in Peru to helping independent farmers source natural rubber. They’re fresh and promising. I’m experienced and still hungry to be unique and creative. We’re a good union of minds! And something like this in my sneaker career has been a long time coming . ”
This unique retro inspired pair of kicks revisiting a 1970’s inspired silhouette and premium craftsmanship will be available March 25 in both men’s and women’s sizing and exclusively distributed in iconic sneaker and concept stores including Extra Butter.
