Daaaamn Blends!  Back at it again with the Bones Vans!  This is the 5th release of the wildly popular “Bones Jazz Stripe” Vans to come out of the Blends camp, and this time we’ve got another banger.  Always known for keeping things clean, simple, timeless, wearable, and trendless, this time Blends chose a Peacoat navy colorway, with a black jazz stripe and laces.  The shoes have such a dark dye, that they appear to be almost black except for the natural suede on the edges of the premium leather panels, and on the back side of the inner zipper flap, where you can see a much more pronounced blue color.  That slight contrast makes for a really cool design, and I could see this sort of treatment being a new trend in higher quality releases.  The construction and make-up is still the same as all the other Blends Bones releases.  Thin non-removable footbeds with minimal branding, and muted leather tongues, with no tags or branding.  A white foxing, with black foxing stripe, and waffle sole complete the look.  I hope some of you were fortunate enough to pick up a pair, as these are pretty much still the only Vans shoe that commands an over-night camp out.  As you read this, I’m probably in line with the homies, waiting for Blends to open up.  You might think I’m crazy for doing this stuff still, but this is one of the reasons why I do the Vans thing.  The passion and the old school vibe sneaker culture is still there, and that still makes it fun for me.  Thanks to the Blends family for always making it easy for me to get my hands on these.  I’m forever grateful!  -Guamstyles

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Last weekend had a few big releases, which was kicked off with the DQM “The Halves” Pack.  With a focus on minimalism, DQM chose to let the materials and monochromatic white and black colorways do the talking.  With premium tumbled leather throughout the shoe, these are classy as hell!  The most recognizable and unique feature on this release has to be the luxury high-fashion inspired tongue stitching.  I can’t think of another Vans shoe with this same feature.  The embossed jazz stripe is another nice subtle feature, for those less interested in repping brands and logos.  You may also have failed to notice that the toe is missing any perforations or stitching, which helps reiterate the statement that less is more.  If you’re still on the fence about these, then you better decide quickly.  Rumor has it, that the entire collection consisted of about 80 pairs total.  That’s roughly 20 pairs per style.  If that’s true, then these may not even be available anymore, so good luck!  I have to give a shout out to the homie Jesus Ayala (mayimbe181) for picking these up for me, as they were in-store only, and I can’t forget to thank Sophia from Vans DQM for making sure we were taken care of.  Thank you!

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The Vault by Vans x OTH (Off The Hook) x RBW (Raised by Wolves) collaboration drops tomorrow morning, and the homies over at OTH were kind enough to allow us to get our pairs early.  This pack is ridiculously awesome.  There are so many cool details in each shoe, and everyone likes to talk about material, and that’s where this collection shines.  It’s as if there was some sort of disagreement over how they wanted to lay out the materials on each shoe, so they came up with a compromise by inverting the suede and premium leather on the left and right feet.  This has only been done by one other Vans collabo, and that’s the Engineered Garments Classic Slip-On LX series.  These are by no means a copy-cat, as I feel there is way more going on, construction wise, with a Sk8-Hi Reissue Zip LX and an Old Skool Zip LX.  Each shoe looks absolutely perfect in it’s own right, and if these came in either mock-up, I would still buy it in an instance.  You might think that an all black colorway is getting quite tiresome, but when you focus on high end materials and minor details like the triangle stitching on the lace eye rows, the red stripe on the MTE outsole, and the dual-branding on the tongue tag and zipper pulls, then you’ve definitely got something that’s not quite so common anymore.  Each pair comes with black flat waxed laces, 3M rope laces, and white flat waxed laces.  To top off this release, each shoe comes in a heavy duty drawer box with dustbag, and there’s even a cool bottle opener key chain!  If you’re on the fence, I hope my realistic iphone pics and angles in natural outdoor lighting will help you decide if you will be copping a pair, but honestly don’t sleep.  I don’t think these will be around long.

Keep checking these sites for the release:

Off The Hook (11 AM EST / 8AM PDT)

Raised by Wolves (11 AM EST / 8AM PDT)

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