What I'd Buy Myself - Part 3

As we continue with the Tempus Fugit "Anti-Holiday Gift Guide" format, another thing I would buy myself (and spoiler alert - I already did!), would be a pair of the new ilmia sneakers.

As I have said previously, I am a long-term fan of ilmia.  I know the CEO, he's a nice guy, and I think that the ilmia sneaker is something really special.  

What ilmia is offering is certainly something different - sneakers made by hand, in Europe, one pair at a time.  And as a child of Nike (and previously Adidas) I can tell you that there is indeed something to be said for consistency.  ilmia does not give you thousands of choices.  You can have two slightly different flavors of white, or black, or if you're particularly daring?  Brown.

Courtesy of ilmia

Not unlike the Adidas Rom or the Puma Roma, or the Nike Cortez, this is a fairly straight-forward, every day sneaker. 

I like ilmia for a LOT of reasons.  It is not flashy, it is not screaming for your attention.  You will note that you do not have to go and get an ilmia app so that you can be aware of the next "drop".  Simply put?  They've dropped!  You don't have to panic, or suffer through an unseemly case of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out).  You don't have to camp out in front of your favorite outlet overnight, in the cold, to purchase them.  There are no "signature" models... 

Okay, I take that back.  There is ONE signature model that I am aware of ; )

Now ultimately, ilmia is not for everyone.  And as my Mee-Maw used to say - "that's what makes a horse race".  

But, if you are not one to necessarily follow the crowd, and you want to treat your feet to something special?  I highly recommend them!

It's Gotta Be The Shoes! The Feel-Good, Triumphant Return of ilmia!

     Christian Gafner, Co-founder / CEO (is the handsome one on the left)

I am a sneaker-head.  There, I've said it.  It would be easy to assume that this the result of my time at the University of Oregon where Nike was in many ways born and raised.  But in fact it goes deeper.  Picture a small college town in northern Ohio back 1976.  Students coming to town from all over the country, and in fact the world.  And with the students came some worldly classmates at Prospect elementary school, who actually VISITED England, France... even Germany!  The rest of us wore Keds, or if we were really cool (which I was definitively, NOT) you might have Converse.  These kids came back wearing Adidas and Puma sneakers.  And not shoes made of canvas, but actual leather!  

As reported in an earlier Tempus Fugit missive, I begged Santa Clause (i.e. Mom and Dad) for a pair of leather Adidas.  There were a few small obstacles standing between me and Christmas happiness:
  
1.  While some kids in Oberlin had Adidas shoes on their feet, no retail stores within hailing distance sold them.

2.  The stores that sold them were so far away that you had heard of these cities on the local news, but they might as well have been in East Germany.  The roads that connected my small hometown and the metro Cleveland area were not, shall we say, advanced or well coordinated.

3.  I had what were considered at that time, seriously undersized feet for my age.  Meaning that while Adidas and Puma might make shoes in my size, those were not the sizes that specialty sports stores in Northern Ohio (or really anywhere else in the US) would likely be ordering for their stores.

Spoiler alert - somehow (hand to God, to this day I don't know exactly how), Mom came through and under the tree were a pair of size 1 Adidas Cadets. 

Shamelessly borrowed from the worldwide info web

I wore those shoes until they literally fell off of my then 9 year old feet.  And I have been devoted to sneakers ever since, but in all honesty, I had not had that same visceral, Christmas morning thrill until many, many years later when I first met Christian Gafner and bought a couple of pairs of ilmias back in 2013.  

Curious to relate, just like that 8 year old kid in Ohio, there was a whole country of kids (East Germany) young and old who loved and wanted sneakers.  And ilmia was the brand.  The Berlin Wall came down, Germany was re-unified, and ilmia tucked in for a long nap that would have been the envy of sleeping beauty, until they were awoken by a few princes, and a princess.

Which brings us nearly up-to date.  I started coming to BaselWorld as a journalist in 2011.
At the time, ilmias were a well-kept secret, and had I not seen them featured at the ochs und junior shop in Lucerne I would not have known about them.  And that is when I first met Christian and put my money on the table and put a pair of ilmias on my feet.

For those of you not aware, Christian is the designer behind the first MIH watch -

Courtesy of Embassy & MIH

He also has done design work for Eterna and Porsche Design among others.  But these days he is firmly behind the re-boot of ilmia.

So one week ago, I found myself fresh off the train from Zurich to meet him and see the new batch. And so to one of my "other offices", Caffè Spettacolo just opposite the Biel/Bienne train station, where I got to see what is up next for ilmia.  And a friendly travel tip from your old pal Henki - next time you're in-between connections at the Biel/Bienne station, or you need an easy to find rally point?  I highly recommend the Caffè Spettacolo.

And I got the hook-up, and put my marker down for a pair of "samples". 

And as any good sneaker-head would, I got my pair signed -

1 / INFINITY.  I like that ; )

And while I got a chance to look at the new, I also got a brief re-wind through the old -

Have no doubt, ilmia made some serious athletic shoes back in the day.

And if you were a kid on what we used to think of as the "wrong side" of the Berlin Wall, and you couldn't get your hands on the Adidas Rom or the Puma Roma?  ilmia had you covered -

Now I can't speak to how the "old school" ilmia kicks fit and feel, but my pair fits well, super soft and comfy.  And to quote the youngsters hanging out at Bodega in Boston, they are:

"So drip!"

Per the Urban Dictionary:
Drip

adjective to describe your outfit similar to swag, sauce, steez, swank

dripmane - "mane my outfit is dripping right now"

by splashtonkutcher October 08, 2018

Biel/Bienne was my first stop on an horological wander that took me Switzerland and France.  The story starts with -

A Love Letter to Besançon - part 1

Stay tuned!

Summer Repeat - It's Gotta' Be The Shoes!

This originally aired several years ago.  I had the very good fortune to meet the owner of ilmia (who also happened to be the designer of the MIH watch) and buy a pair of his sneakers.  I later bought two more pairs.  

The world needs more Christian Gafners.  The world needs more romantics, more people willing to put themselves out there.  It does not need more cynical celebrity (or Outlet X chasing) brownie hounds who prostitute themselves for a quick gain.  

I don't claim to know him well, but I can say that the one quality that comes through in truckloads is sincerity.  His focus and passion for ilmia is inspirational, on a par with Phil Night traveling to Japan to try and launch Blue Ribbon, which went on to become Nike so many years later.

The world needs more dreamers - and let's hope that this is a dream that will again become a reality.  Here's to Christian, and here's to ilmia.

And now -

It's Gotta be the Shoes... and the Watch Designer!

I was the ORIGINAL sneaker nut! When I was a (younger) Northern Youth, my friends and I became obsessed by Puma, Converse and most clearly - Adidas! And to all of you "millennials" out there, this was 1976/1977 Northern Ohio - Nike was not what it is today!

So I became obsessed with getting a REAL pair of GENUINE, MADE IN EUROPE Adidas shoes. There were two small drawbacks:

1. I had a kid's size 3.5 - which meant Buster Browns or Keds, but no Adidas available in our exotic location for such small feet.

2. Being all of 8 years old, pocket money would not nearly cover such a lavish expense as $30 - $40!

So enter my mother - who secretly scoured most of Northern Ohio to find a pair of Adidas Cadet shoes in my size, and they were under the Christmas tree! MAN - I LOVED THEM! They were white leather, with red and blue stripes. Made in France - which to my way of thinking might as well have been the moon! I wore them EVERYWHERE! In the snow, in the rain, in the mud - always taking great care to clean them up after.

Years later when I worked at Tourneau, customers would often state that the high end watch they were going to buy was an investment. I would say - yes and no. It is an emotional investment for sure, and if you keep it on that level you will never be disappointed. That very small pair of Adidas Cadets was for my mother an emotional investment in me.

And now, I am older. I see things a bit more cynically. But last year while visiting the oxen space in Lucerne, I felt the first stirrings of youthful enthusiasm for sneakers again -

Courtesy of Ilmia

This the ilmia in white. A lot like the Model T, you can have it in any color you like, as long as it's white, black or brown ; ) And I like that!

Courtesy of ilmia 

I know what you're thinking - so "OLD FASHIONED"...
YES - thank goodness! There is something in all of us that wants the original - not an "homage", but the real deal, or as close as you can come. So it took a man with a bit of vision to bring back this classic.

Courtesy of ilmia  

WAIT - what has this got to do with watches??!?
I'm glad you asked!

Courtesy of ilmia  

This is Christian - watch designer formerly of Porsche Design. And here is the rest of the story courtesy of ilmia -

2004, Swiss industrial designer Christian Gafner discovered the limited-edition ilmia shoes on the Internet. It was love at first sight. Contact with the project’s Berlin initiators was quickly established and the whole story surrounding the sports shoe multinational and its injunction came out. Gafner’s practiced eye immediately spotted the shoes’ potential. Unpacking the pair he had ordered over the Internet, he breathed in a set of familiar scents: the hint of adhesive and the fragrance of leather that took him back to his childhood and the hours spent in his grandfather’s shoe making workshop.

2006 found Christian Gafner working for Porsche Design, designing wristwatches for the prestigious brand. Deciding to take on the challenge of ilmia, he paid several visits to Berlin and spent the following two years preparing for the brand’s definitive relaunch. As a result, the shoes continue to be handcrafted in Weissenfels (Saxony-Anhalt, Germany). Through skillful application of the rules of shoe making, every upper is hand fashioned from high-grade full-grain leather and fitted with an out sole.

The design reinforces the brand’s authenticity, steering clear of short-term fashion trends. ilmia has no graphic logo as such, preferring instead to embroider its distinctive logotype on the outer flank of the left shoe in acknowledgment of the orphaned left shoe found in the Berlin flea market – the event that triggered the brand’s rebirth.

So lace up a pair of ilmias and embrace your inner sneaker freak!

It Must be the Shoes - Part Deux

It's easy to overdose on watches at BaselWorld.  So after worshipping from afar, I finally got to check out some Ilmia shoes "in the flesh".  The brand owner, Christian Gafner was kind enough to visit me at the Naldi's area for Edelberg and he brought some Ilmia shoes.

It's Gotta be the Shoes... and the Watch Designer!

I was the ORIGINAL sneaker nut!  When I was a (younger) Northern Youth, my friends and I became obsessed by Puma, Converse and most clearly - Adidas!  And to all of you "millennials" out there, this was 1976/1977 Northern Ohio - Nike was not what it is today!





So I became obsessed with getting a REAL pair of GENUINE, MADE IN EUROPE Adidas shoes.  There were two small drawbacks:

1.  I had a kid's size 3.5 - which meant Buster Browns or Keds, but no Adidas available in our exotic location for such small feet.

2.  Being all of 8 years old, pocket money would not nearly cover such a lavish expense as $30 - $40!

So enter my mother - who secretly scoured most of Northern Ohio to find a pair of Adidas Cadet shoes in my size, and they were under the Christmas tree!  MAN - I LOVED THEM!  They were white leather, with red and white stripes.  Made in France - which to my way of thinking might as well have been the moon!  I wore them EVERYWHERE!  In the snow, in the rain, in the mud - always taking great care to clean them up afterwards.

Years later when I worked at Tourneau, customers would often state that the high end watch they were going to buy was an investment.  I would say - yes and no.  It is an emotional investment for sure, and if you keep it on that level you will never be disappointed.  That very small pair of Adidas Cadets was for my mother an emotional investment in me.

And now, I am older.  I see things a bit more cynically.  But last year while visiting the oxen space in Lucerne, I felt the first stirrings of youthful enthusiasm for sneakers again -

Courtesy of Ilmia

This the ilmia in white.  A lot like the Model T, you can have it in any color you like, as long as it's white, black or brown ; )  And I like that!

Courtesy of ilmia 

I know what you're thinking - so "OLD FASHIONED"...
YES - thank goodness!  There is something in all of us that wants the original - not an "homage", but the real deal, or as close as you can come.  So it took a man with a bit of vision to bring back this classic.

Courtesy of ilmia  

WAIT - what has this got to do with watches??!?

I'm glad you asked!

Courtesy of ilmia  

This is Christian - watch designer formerly of Porsche Design.  And here is the rest of the story courtesy of ilmia -

2004, Swiss industrial designer Christian Gafner discovered the limited-edition ilmia shoes on the Internet. It was love at first sight. Contact with the project’s Berlin initiators was quickly established and the whole story surrounding the sports shoe multinational and its injunction came out. Gafner’s practiced eye immediately spotted the shoes’ potential. Unpacking the pair he had ordered over the Internet, he breathed in a set of familiar scents: the hint of adhesive and the fragrance of leather that took him back to his childhood and the hours spent in his grandfather’s shoemaking workshop.

2006 found Christian Gafner working for Porsche Design, designing wristwatches for the prestigious brand. Deciding to take on the challenge of ilmia, he paid several visits to Berlin and spent the following two years preparing for the brand’s definitive relaunch. As a result, the shoes continue to be handcrafted in Weissenfels (Saxony-Anhalt, Germany). Through skilful application of the rules of shoemaking, every upper is hand fashioned from high-grade full-grain leather and fitted with an outsole.

The design reinforces the brand’s authenticity, steering clear of short-term fashion trends. ilmia has no graphical logo as such, preferring instead to embroider its distinctive logotype on the outer flank of the left shoe in acknowledgment of the orphaned left shoe found in the Berlin flea market – the event that triggered the brand’s rebirth.

So lace up a pair of ilmias and embrace your inner sneaker freak!

www.ilmia.com