No Harness Required: Village PM and Culture Crossover

Village PM premiered its flagship shoe to the world earlier this year, bursting onto the skate and fashion scene with its genre-bending take on the everyday shoe. Their current collection features two shoe silhouettes titled the 1PM and the 1.30PM. Their designs are nothing short of refreshing.

The 1PM model is a direct homage to the climbing shoe used to scale the upper slope of a cliff. In fact, the only details that differentiate the two are a walkable sole and shoe laces. They look as if you can grab a pair and start climbing the nearest crevasse with ease.

While the 1PM model has a more on-the-nose approach to its climbing roots, the upper shoe design of the 1.30 PM model is Converse-esque, revealing a solid classic look with small stitching tattered across the shoe. In addition, the sticky rubber sole of a climbing shoe creates a beautiful marriage of these two elements, complementing each other more than you might imagine.

Although two communities are intertwined, they may leave consumers puzzled by the combination of the two lifestyles and where they fit together.

Outdoor brands like Salomon, Arc'teryx, The North Face, and Keen have a primary intended purpose: to design shoes and clothing for outdoor activities such as hiking and climbing. These are brands with a hardened history, dedicated to the culture and wearers that have been just as loyal to each respected brand.

Now, the norm is to rip the context out of any specific clothing and wear it because it's stylish or the current trend. What the creators of Village_PM have done is craft a silhouette that organically weaves their obsessions into a product while staying true to the cultures it was born from.

Co-owners Basile Lapray and Bram De Kleen launched Village PM at the end of March. In an interview with Monster Children, Lapray revealed that a variety of influences had led him to the marquee design for Village PM.  

Lapray, growing up in Chamonix, France, a mountaineering hub, had experience with the outdoor climate synonymous with the brands he’d work for in the future. Bram De Kleen had similar experiences working in the outdoor fashion scene, where they both saw design features that could be integrated into a skate shoe.

Not only the design, but the philosophy of Village PM strays away from the pigeonhole of staying in one particular lane and pursues multiple avenues of interest through its design.

In an interview with Monster Children Magazine, Lapray further stated that ‘These design factors were functional but also visually appealing for us. Skateboarding footwear has always been influenced by other footwear, whether it was basketball or tennis shoes, and we thought it was time to transfer a new footwear DNA into a skateboarding shoe.’

One key component of their branch out was the timing of their product release as a whole. The launch of Village PM was during Paris Fashion Week in March. Where else can you get the world's eyes on a product solely for the sake of design? This became the final puzzle piece that solidified Village PM’s image. Village PM has fused the Alps of Chamonix, the streets of Paris, and outerwear inspiration into a shoe silhouette that is just getting started in the skate and fashion industry.