At the end of last week, Vault dealers started receiving their shipments of the Vault x Pendleton x Taka Hayashi collection, and it wasn’t surprising to see these things fly off the shelves, and leave quite a bit of people unhappy, or with empty pockets after purchasing off of resellers. When the hype monster is in full effect, the resellers come out and play. I had to do a little bit of hunting, and frantic phone dialing, but I managed to pick up an 11 from Proper, for retail, plus shipping, and after hearing a few people on the forums say that these fit TTS (true-to-size), I knew I would need a bigger size. Luckily, yesterday, I called up Conveyor in Santa Monica, and they had a 12 left! I paid slightly over retail, but you all know it’s worth it, when it’s a size you can wear! I was shaking my head, because just the day before, I was visiting the TheHundreds x Garfield pop-up shop in Santa Monica, right next door to Conveyor, and I contemplated walking in there, but decided not to. Always go with your instincts! Anyways, both pairs came today, and all I can say is, pay what you can afford for these things. The rumor out there, is that there’s somewhere around 300 pairs of the TH-Hi’s (Sk8-hi’s), but of course, nothing’s confirmed. Put it this way, even friends of ours who work for Vans, were out tracking down their pairs as well. The blanket print from Pendleton, that Vans chose for this release, was a rarer print, that there wasn’t much material to go around, so that may have something to do with the scarcity of these. The leather Taka chose for this shoe, is top-notch, and very soft. The inside is also lined with black leather, as well as the removable footbed. I also took pics of the shoe laced up in the optional off-white/beige colored laces, as well as the round leather laces. These are starting to dry up at retailers, and are starting to show up on eBay, so good luck getting a pair for a reasonable price right now. Maybe after the hype dies a little, but then again, Taka’s Native American influence is timeless and original, regardless of the collections of many other brands this season. Don’t think that he was just following the trends. It’s much more, the other way around.
more pics after the jump
