3sixteen x Saucony Peregrine 15 "Gesso."
Photos: Christian Flamio
In 22 years of business, one product collaboration that we've always dreamed of has been a pair of sneakers. We looked into making some on our own here and there, and have had other partnerships start and stop along the way. Almost two years ago, we finally were given the opportunity we had been waiting for; in many ways we felt fortunate that it took this long because it gave us a chance to really work on something that would really encapsulate our brand values in a special way. After months of meeting, designing, sampling, adjusting and working carefully on the rollout, we are proud to announce the Peregrine 15 "Gesso" in collaboration with legendary running brand Saucony.
Over time, we've done our best to curate our collaborative projects to align with companies that have demonstrated heritage and are woven into the fabric of our culture. Working together with brands that have stood the test of time always teaches us something new, from the precision and care of Schott NYC to the steadfast focus of Herman Miller. Saucony, a company that boasts a heritage of close to 130 years, is integral to the sport of running. Founded in 1898 in Kutztown, PA, their logo references the Saucony Creek in their hometown and the three distinct boulders it flows around. Ask a runner friend about Saucony and be prepared to be inundated with glowing praise; Saucony really is the runner's running shoe.
Our first collaboration with Saucony utilizes the new Peregrine 15 trail shoe silhouette. Dubbed the “Gesso,” the calming neutral colors are inspired by the material that artists use to prime their canvas for painting. We included two hits of hairy suede on the heel and tongue for textural depth and to tie back to familiar materials we've used on other footwear projects. It was important for us, though, to leave most of the other technical details of the shoe as designed to ensure that the shoe’s performance remained intact. As a brand that’s been making world-class denim for two decades, we are accustomed to working with fabrics that age beautifully over time and so we carefully chose trims that would absorb color differently should you choose to dye it. And that's exactly what we had in mind when we designed this "blank canvas" - to give the wearer an opportunity to customize the shoe if they saw fit.
We've always placed a high importance on showcasing craft and slow, deliberate manufacturing in all of the clothing we design. When tasked with how to weave this core value into a factory-produced sneaker, the thought of releasing a small run of dyed shoes came to mind. This is not the first time we've sold indigo-dyed shoes; in 2013, we launched 100 pairs of Chuck Taylors to celebrate our 10th anniversary. And in 2018, we partnered with Yuketen to replease 60 pairs of Rocker Ox's featuring uppers that were handsewn in Maine, indigo dyed in PA, and then lasted back in Maine. But this is our most ambitious production run of dyed shoes we have ever released.
Our partnership with Green Matters Natural Dye Company ranges back almost eight years now. Winona and her team are based in Amish Country, PA in a converted dairy barn that they have transformed into the only fully plant-based dye facility in the country. We've worked with Green Matters on small runs of product over the years and count ourselves fortunate to have access to such transformative work at small (or large) scales. As we embarked on this project, a big question was how synthetic materials would absorb natural dyes - so we sent countless pairs of sneakers over for months of testing to dial in the perfect hues. Indigo, of course, was central to the story but we sought to further showcase the beauty of plant-based dyes in this project and are proud to be releasing not one but four distinct hand dyed colorways: Indigo utilizes GOTS-certified natural indigo, Sunflower is dyed with weld flowers, Granite is a combination of cutch, iron and chestnut, and finally Rubia is dyed with madder root and chestnut.
Although these dyed pairs will be released in limited quantities, our intent is to inspire customers to customize their own pair whether it be through coffee, indigo or RIT dyes at home. In this way - much like a worn-in pair of blue jeans - no two pairs of Gesso’s will be alike.
A further intent of the dye story for this sneaker collaboration was the desire to communicate how to not only transform a new shoe but a worn-in one as well. One of Green Matters' foundational principles is demonstration how to prolong the life of a garment and reduce waste by transforming it through natural dye. Our hope is that you will buy this shoe and wear it often. When it begins to show age - as sneakers always do - instead of tossing them, you can consider dyeing them to give them new life.
Although we've been working with Winona and her team at Green Matters for almost a decade now, last month was the first time we actually had a chance to visit them and see the work up close (we filmed a video that you can watch here). Each shoe takes the dye slightly differently and indigo vats lose their strength over time; this yields a highly manual process where shoes must be dipped and left to oxidize anywhere from 6-8 separate times, with extensive rinses in between. If a shoe dries and is too light, it is brought back to dye again to match the look and feel of the rest of the batch. It goes without saying that natural dyes are beautiful in their unpredictability and thus some shoes will have small "stains" or inconsistencies in the color, but this is the kind of human mark that is left on a shoe or a garment that we especially appreciate.
We begin our rollout of the Saucony x 3sixteen Peregrine 15 "Gesso" sneakers this Thursday, July 10th with a release of the Indigo and Sunflower colorways. These dyed pairs are only available via 3sixteen.com at noon ET and our NY/LA flagship stores and pairs will retail for $190. The Granite and Rubia colorways will be released in late July.
The natural undyed "Gesso" sneakers will be released globally a week later on July 17th for $150. Alongside our website and flagship stores, select 3sixteen and Saucony stockists globally will also be releasing the sneaker. Stay tuned for a separate campaign where we'll be diving deeper into the story and intent behind the "Gesso."