The Sperry boat shoe is a warm weather style staple. But since they aren’t waterproof by design, these leather or canvas deck shoes — originally designed in the early 1930s by Paul Sperry, an ardent sailor from Connecticut — normally don’t see much action during the wet season. If you want to keep wearing the treasured Top-Sider silhouette during rainy days, a new capsule collection from Sperry and Danish outerwear brand Rains will keep your feet dry in a downpour.
Employing the rubber coating used across its stripped back range of rain gear, the young Copenhagen-based label has updated two beloved Sperry styles, turning them all black and making them water-repellent. The A/O 2-Eye deck shoe now features two textures: the toe is covered in a smoky matte finish, while a semi-gloss python print adorns the upper and cuff. No need to worry about soggy shoelaces: the updated preppy classic comes with bungee laces.
The Cloud CVO tennis silhouette, meanwhile, is now more of a true sneaker. The Rains version boasts an upper that cuts dramatically down towards the vulcanized sole, which has a black rubber coating around the outside.
Given Denmark’s maritime climate and 121 days of rainfall per year, it’s not a surprise that a company such as Rains emerge from Scandinavia. It began in 2011 as a side project by two students, Daniel Brix Hesselager and Philip Lotko, who devised a simple, functional and fashionable rain jacket that was as easy to pack as it was to put on. Several prototypes later, they produced a small run of ponchos, whose popularity soon turned the informal undertaking into one of the coolest all-weather clothing labels to come out of Europe.
“Deftly defying Danish weather since 2012,” Rains is no stranger to collaborations, having previously teamed up with popular Parisian boutique Colette and Montreal retailer Off The Hook. But it’s this latest project with Sperry that seems to make the most sense. After all, both Sperry and Rains are familiar with wet conditions.
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The Sperry x Rains capsule collection is available at Sperry Top-Sider SM Aura and Bonifacio Global City, and at Felipe and Sons, San Agustin St., Salcedo Village, Makati.