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^ Arguing with the shopkeep about whether a certain shoe was cupsole or whatever? Now this is the Ultimate Cool Guy
Someone about my age was explaining to the employee that he just had ankle surgery and needed a shoe that was more supportive. To which the employee suggested the lakai owen because it was a cupsole.
Me overhearing, corrected them. Because it isn't and that person definitely should be informed as to not fuck up their ankle further. Especially during recovery.
The shop owner jumped in and insisted that they were 100% a cupsole. Dude got literally red in the face as he was defending this. I apologized and left.
No argument, just some grown babies who are too proud to admit when they've made a mistake.
This story is extra awesome because if this was recently, then it probably was the cupsole Owen.
https://www.lakai.com/products/owen-vlk-black-suede-ms3180232a03
It was 2017ish and what you linked are vulcs. What do you think VLK stands for?
That's what I thought too until they arrived at the shop. The outsole is molded to look like a vulc but there's no wrap. It's one of those cupsole/vulc hybrid shoes, which is actually a cupsole with thin sidewalls similar to a vulc wrap. Vulcanized construction is a very specific process involving bonding the sole to the upper with the foxing, which these do not have. They are still heat bonded, but not with a vulcanization process.
Here's a review that shows/explains it well. But if it was 2017, then yes, it was the vulc version.
They haven't changed - they were VLK in 2017 as well.
It literally says in the description they are vulcanized. The process of creating the vulcanized sole might be different from traditional vulcs, but it's a vulcanized shoe nonetheless.
Yup, read that too. Notice they say a classic take on modern vulcanization... you understood what I said about how vulcanization is a process, not what the bottom piece of the sole is called, right?
I have the remake of the Herman G-Code with a similar sole. Looks like a vulc but it's actually a cupsole. These shoes are classified as hybrids, whatever that means. I'm not confident enough to just call them vulcs, especially since I've held the Owen VLK and tried it on - feels and looks like a cup. It would be cool to hear from someone directly involved in the manufacturing what they classify it as... it seems to be one piece, which would mean it's not a vulc. The foxing tape bonding process is literally what vulcanization is.
Anyway, we tell customers it's a cupsole. Haha. That would be funny if
we were wrong all along. Now I really wanna know!