In our new blog series 'Homegrown' we highlight homegrown fashion and sneaker brands. Studio Hagel is one of the most popular studios when it comes to experimental footwear design and was founded in Amsterdam. Besides being a studio, the Hagel brand has also been releasing its own sneakers since early 2022. At the end of January, it was time for the release of the SHROUD in 'Black Sand' at Oallery and we were there.
Studio Hagel
Studio Hagel was founded in 2015 by Mathieu Hagelaars. Hagel has built a high reputation and is known worldwide as the studio for experimental footwear design. Their portfolio includes a lot of well-known brands. For example, Studio Hagel has collaborated with BOTTER, Valentino, Off-White, Moncler, Suicoke, Moon Boot, and Takashi Murakami, among others.
The designs for BOTTER made their debut on the catwalk at the SS23 show in Paris in September 2022. The fashion brand wanted to bring water to the runway with their SS23 collection, called 'The Plastic Sea'. Hagel added a new sole made of transparent resin to the iconic adidas Predator soccer shoe. This makes it look like the shoe is floating through still water.
MAKERSMONDAY
Studio Hagel is driven by experimentation. Mathieu has created MAKERSMONDAY for this reason. A concept where Mathieu gives himself thirty minutes on Mondays to experiment with different materials, sneakers, and colors. With this idea, Hagelaars gets a lot out of his own creativity and inspires others to create as well.
Several sneaker models got a makeover during MAKERSMONDAY. These have included the Air Max 95, Clarks Wallabee, adidas Superstar, and Nike Blazer. Unfortunately, these concepts are not for sale.
The SHROUD silhouette
Hagel's SHROUD silhouette is inspired by a car shroud, a cover you often put around your car to protect against snow, rain, or cold. "We do a lot of research on elements that are not related to shoes at all. During this research, we came across really cool car shrouds and took inspiration from them," Hagelaars says.
The idea of adding a shroud to a sneaker all happened this MAKERSMONDAY in 2017. Mathieu gave the classic Nike Cortez a unique look by applying the inspiration of a 1980s car cover to the lacing system. The smaller cover is made from an old raincoat. The drawstring allows you to tighten and loosen the shoe.
From this concept, the SHROUD, as we know it today, continued to evolve. In February 2022, the shoe brand launched the silhouette for the first time in an orange colorway. The upper of this sneaker is made of leather.
"During the design process, I especially learned that development is really spicy. We found out that the construction of the SHROUD is very difficult. Together with Ecco, we developed all this, even the leather was developed together with Ecco. We actually pushed on everything and that's just not possible except with a good manufacturer. The product could never have been the way it is today if we didn't have a good factory," Mathieu told Sneakerjagers at the release event.
In late June 2022, the SHROUD came in a white color scheme. The upper of this silhouette is all white with some light gray accents. Shortly after this release, Hagel already posted a first sneak peek on Instagram of the very latest colorway.
January saw the release of the SHROUD in a 'Black Sand' color scheme. Like the previous colorways, the upper is made of leather. On this pair, the upper is complete in black with white accents. On the side of the shoe is a Hagel label, also made of leather. The midsole of the new colorway is white. Around the midsole forms the outsole in a light beige color.
Hagel SHROUD release at Oallery
Friday, January 27, marked the release of the SHROUD in the black sand colorway. In the evening the release was celebrated at Oallery on the Nieuwe Spiegelstraat in Amsterdam. The event featured the release of the new SHROUD colorway and one of Mathieu's fascinations: the gabber subculture.
"The gabber subculture is one of my fascinations. When I was young I thought gabber was really cool. I never went to one of those hardcore parties myself, but my brother had a lot of those flyers and they were really the shit. At the fair, near the punching bag, there were often scary tough guys too and they were gabbers. In terms of subcultures, I think this is one of the coolest subcultures in the Netherlands."
Mathieu Hagelaars
Mathieu was able to express this fascination with the release event. In the Oallery store, there were three large grabbing machines as if we were at the carnival. Besides stuffed animals, you could get a lot of different items from the grabbing machines, with the main prize being the SHROUD. Inside the balls were key chains, stickers, and discount codes. Each machine had a different colorway of the SHROUD.
The Hagel SHROUD in 'Black Sand' is available at Oallery, as well as through Hagel's own website.
