Patta x Nike Air Max 1 QS Denim & Cords

PATTA [link] is a sneaker store in Amsterdam--yeah, that Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, where it's totally legal to smoke herb--that happens to be one of the 17 exclusive Nike Tier 0 shops in the world. If you don't already know, Tier 0 is the highest specialty Nike account level, with only six stores in the US, six in Europe, and three others scattered about the rest of the planet. So yeah, it's safe to say that Patta is one of the top tier, most exclusive sneaker shops in the whole world.

Founded in 2004, Patta celebrated their 5 year anniversary at the end of 2009 with a series of limited edition "Quickstrike" Nike sneaker colabs, all on the classic Tinker Hatfield designed Air Max 1 shoe, which apparently is the hotness in Amsterdam. The first four dropped in '09 but the last one, a collab with Dutch artist Parra (yeah I know, it's confusing) was delayed and just dropped this past weekend.

All of these sneakers were released in extremely limited quantities (250 to 500, thereabouts) with the bulk being sold at the Patta Amsterdam shop, so getting them here in the US is no easy task. Thankfully, the Denim & Cords model (which was one of my favorites) popped up at one of the Asian Tier 0 shops and ended up online, which is how I was able to snag them.

Patta x Nike Sportswear Air Max 1 Premium Quickstrike Denim & Cords (boy that's a mouthful of a name) has a great mix of materials; dark navy corduroy upper and tongue, denim mudguard, blue suede perf'd toebox and ankle, and a green Nike Swoosh and Patta logo. Interestingly, there's no Nike or Patta logo on the back panel. I wonder if that's because embroidery on the corduroy didn't work well? I dunno why really, but there's nothing there. Kinda cool.

All in all, I think this is an incredibly hot sneaker. It's got great materials, great colors, and it's not something you're gonna find on too many people's feet. Definitely out of the ordinary, that's for sure.