Los Angeles-based brand Kids of Immigrants has partnered with the iconic Vans footwear through Foot Locker’s Greenhouse app. The exclusive sneaker collection is dubbed “Work a Day in Our Shoes” and is packaged in boxes that state “We are all cut from different fabrics but together make a whole.”
Four hundred pairs of the kicks will be Kids of Immigrants first foray into sneakers and will be available on Friday, October 2nd. The $100 sneakers on the Greenhouse app, FootLocker.com, the Compton Foot Locker boutique, and KidsofImmigrants.us.
The sneaker may look familiar, it’s Van’s Lowland CC canvas sneaker which is a new style for the brand. Kids of Immigrants cofounders Daniel Buezo and Weleh Dennis took the all-white shoes and hand-distressed each pair. No two pairs are alike in the exclusive collection as they’re hand touched. “That process of touching every product and seeing it go forward is huge,” Buezo said in an interview with Women’s Wear Daily.
The sneakers are meant to be further customized by the wearer with plenty of space left to make the shoes your own by painting or embellishing them. The sneakers are sold with a complimentary toolkit that includes a paintbrush and sandpaper.
The collection is personally very meaningful for Dennis who worked in a Vans retail store before joining forces with Buezo to launch Kids of Immigrants in 2016. Their both first-generation Americans from Honduras and Liberia.
The brand unisex streetwear for adults and children. Past collections have included such as T-shirts, sweatshirts, shorts, tote bags, bucket hats, baseball caps, knit beanies, and more with empowering messages like “love has no borders”, “support your friends”, and “anything is possible.” Kids of Immigrants also raises awareness about LGBTQ+ rights with a shirt that simply reads immigrant in bold collegiate rainbow-hued letters. The brand supports the Black Lives Matters movement and hypes people up to get out and vote.