What Did You Wear: Travel Edition
When the boss says, "Pack some heat"
I recently made a short notice, two day, work trip to San Francisco for a team off site. I make it a point to travel light, but for this trip, I had one unexpected directive. My boss is a sneaker head, and he knows that I’ve dabbled in the SNKRS and Stockx, so he told me to “bring some heat.” I was happy to oblige.
I don’t really collect sneakers any more, but I still have a few pair in my wardrobe. With fall fully in swing, I had the perfect pair to break out and use as the lead singer of an outfit: The Nike Air Max 1 x Kasina ‘Won-Ang’.
Outside of white low-top Vans or high-top Chuck Taylors, I don’t wear my sneakers much any more, so as excited as I was to break these out, I was also apprehensive. These are just beyond my comfort zone, and wearing these to a work offsite with a handful of coworkers I hardly know was a little daunting. This made packing for the trip a bit more stressful than usual.
My day-to-day travel uniform isn’t that much different from my uniform at home: suede chukka boots or tassel loafers, olive chinos or white denim, some sort of blue oxford or poplin shirt, and a chore coat or Barbour. I added a cashmere sweater to the mix just in case it got chilly (I didn’t end up wearing it but was glad to have it).
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Using these well-known pieces as the base, it wasn’t hard to build a fit that worked with these rather…uh…loud kicks. A “suit” of olive chinos and my favorite Barbour jacket, plus a poplin button down were toned down enough to let the sneakers do all the talking for this fit. The goal was to keep the clothes neutral while leaning into the fall tones of the Won-Angs.
Because the clothes I was wearing were so familiar, the addition of the kicks didn’t feel nearly as uncomfortable as I expected. In fact, I forgot I was wearing them until my boss walked up and told me that I brought exactly the kind of heat he was hoping to see.
I don’t know that I’ll be wearing these sneakers all the time, but this was a great way to force myself out of my style comfort zone a bit. I look forward to breaking the Won-Angs out more through the fall and trying them a few other ways. I’ll report back with a fit pic or two.
—Bruce
If you’ve got an event coming up, a clothing conundrum, or general fit fatigue and want some ideas, drop it in a comment below or reply to this email (if you want a little privacy), and I might turn it into a future newsletter.