It is always a treat when two of your favourite companies collaborate together. So when I saw the news that DC Shoes and Magenta Skateboards were making a shoe together, I knew I was going to buy a pair before I had even seen the shoe. And it’s even better than I had originally imagined.
Since their inception in 2010 Magenta has been a massive name not only in the European scene but with riders such as Ben Gore and Jimmy Lannon they’ve been a solid fixture in the American scene too. Everything about Magenta is stylish, from the skaters, the graphics, to the videos they release. Soy Panday is a massive driving force behind the imagery, art and general stylistic nature of the brand and that has clearly influenced these shoes. Beautiful simplicity.
Taking the already alluringly designed DC Manual S and putting their own flavour on it has resulted in an incredibly desirable shoe. With the Manual S being a clean simple vulcanised shoe, the additions of hairy suede, round laces, a colourful sole and subtle gold DC detailing really sets this shoe apart from other simple vulcanised shoes. But this isn’t where the detailing ends, far from it in fact. One of my favourite things about this shoe is the split in detailing between the left and right shoe. With the shoe being a collab between DC and Magenta each shoe represents one brand with a tongue detail of the separate logos and an opposing detail to the heels of the shoes. The left shoe’s detailing on the front of the tongue is the iconic Magenta Plant logo with the DC logo on the underside, whereas on the right shoe this is reversed with the DC logo on top and Magenta on the underside.
One of the big things I look at when buying shoes is whether or not they will go with a range of clothes; will they look good with baggy clothes, slimmer trousers, shorts or trackies? I look at these DC’s and I know for a fact that these are going to go with everything in my wardrobe. It is rare that I buy two pairs of the same shoe, one for skating and one for everyday use, but this shoe is very much tempting me into getting a second pair. I originally purchased a pair for chilling but just from wearing them around, looking at them and really wanting to film a clip in them it’s looking very likely I’m getting another pair. A testament to how nice these shoes are.
