Chuck Taylor All Star "Motorcycle"

Neighborhood has spent decades translating motorcycle culture into clothing, and the Motorcycle Chuck is one of its most direct statements on a sneaker. The Japanese label worked with Converse on a blacked-out Chuck Taylor All Star 70 high top, released in 2019, that takes the most familiar silhouette in footwear and rebuilds it around biker details. The base is jet black canvas, overlaid with premium leather on the lace panels and a midfoot strap, finished with a black midsole and an icy blue outsole that gives the dark upper a single point of contrast.

The oversized velcro strap across the forefoot is where the theme lands. It reads Craft With Pride and Shift, the latter a nod to the foot motion of changing gears on a bike, a small piece of functional language that ties the shoe to the act of riding rather than just the look of it. Neighborhood’s whole approach has always been about authenticity over costume, building garments that a rider would actually recognize, and the Motorcycle Chuck carries that into a sneaker without turning it into a novelty. The Chuck Taylor is the most reproduced shoe in history, which makes it a hard canvas to do anything new with, and Neighborhood managed it by adding restraint and intent rather than noise.