And they come with extra-long laces so you can hang yourself...

Joy Division sneakers in the works

06/07/2007 7:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Dotmusic

From a press release:

A pair of sneakers inspired by Joy Division are set for production, it has been confirmed.

The manufacturer, New Balance, isawaiting final clearance on making the shoes, which are based on the artwork to the band's landmark 1979 album Unknown Pleasures.

The sneakers feature the distinctive ripples on the sole and tongue and are embossed with the catalogue number Fact 10, after Joy Division's seminal record label, Factory Records.

American artist Dylan Adair has designed the sneakers, which, if released, will coincide with a new film based around the life of Joy Division singer Ian Curtis.

The premiere of Control, directed by Anton Corbijn, received a rapturous critical reception at the Cannes Film Festival last month.

 

Never heard of them. Had to do an Internet search just to discover who they were.

 

Alley - Joy Division is the band that started the post punk/Manchester scene. They influenced just about every band out of the north of England in the '80s. Rent the movie "24 hour Party People" to get the story.

Nice to see Joy Division getting some much deserved attention, but how many people that know the band will buy these sneakers? Doesn't make much sense to me.

 

Now that's a quality thread head, Tigger.

 

I'm 36, so I don't know if that puts me out of the realm of needing to know who they are. However, my knowledge of bands is rather limited. I've always been a fan of a song, not a band, so stuff like this could easily have flown under my radar.

 

Also, both the names Joy Division and New Order were copped from the Nazis -- not that the bands' sympathies lied with them.

 

Sing it!

I...like walking in the park
Especially at night
In my Joy Division kicks!

 

Absolutely correct. In fact, Factory Records was the driving force behind the entire "Madchester" scene in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Joy Division was their first big act, then the band morphed into New Order after Curtis' death and became a commercial success. The scene didn't really take off, though, until the rise of Happy Mondays (a Factory band) and other Manc bands like James, Inspiral Carpets, and Stone Roses (that weren't signed to Factory.)

The scene centered around the Haçienda, a club that gave famous DJs Paul Oakenfold, Mike Pickering and Graeme Park their shot at stardom. The club was owned by New Order and actually had its own catalog number (FAC 51, IIRC). Of course, Ecstacy fueled the dancing, and soon the drugs and the gang wars forced the clientele out. Happy Mondays decided they liked heroin better than making good music, Factory went bankrupt, and the whole scene collapsed.

I went to the Haçienda numerous times on holiday (I even met the red-haired bloke from Simply Red there) and still own a long sleeve T-shirt I bought there in 1990.

(The Haçienda no longer exists; the building was sadly torn down in 1997.)

It was a fun scene while it lasted and I don't think we've seen one like it since.

 

Wow. Where the hell was I all this time? I've never heard of a single name in that post.

 

Broken clock, ya know?

 

I find this interesting because New Balance is one of the few (if only) leading sports shoe company that hasn't used celebrity endorsements. They're the only shoe I ever buy because they actually fit. If you have a foot that isn't the standard width they're one of the few that offers a variety of widths.