ohw?
Following a successful first collaboration with Scroobius Pip, ohw? has teamed up with the British Hip-Hop and Spoken Word artist to launch a second collection.
The original collaboration boot featuring Scroobius Pip’s handwritten logo on the boot launched in September 2016. A mini collection has since been created incorporating existing ohw? models. The men’s collection borrows from the Hawkins and Deacon models whereas for women’s it’s the Keegan and Deacon that have been transformed.
All styles come in naturally tanned full grain burnished leathers. The men’s uses a rich brown/black finish with women’s having a dark gunmetal/black colourway. Each pair includes ‘signature’ detailing that is size markers on the uppers and contrast hand-stitching. ‘Brand’ details include Scroobius Pip laser cut logo on the heel tab and Scroobius Pip branding on the sock of each product.
Men’s sizing ranges from UK6 – UK12 and women’s UK3-UK8.
This exciting collab will be advertised via Scroobius Pips very own social media channels, Twitter: @Scroobiuspipyo, Facebook: @scroobiuspip, Instagram: @scroobiuspipyo and through his popular podcasts.
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The Scroobius Pip mini collection is available now through our website. Shop now! https://ohwshoes.com/collections/scroobius-pip-vii
RRP: Men: £100 – £120, Women: £90 – £110
Check out the exclusive interview with Scroobius Pip and more images below:
Tell us about yourself and what you do at the moment?
I started off 10 years ago doing music. I started with spoken word and Hip-Hop. The first song I wrote “Thou Shalt Always Kill” got in the top 40 and De La Soul ended up doing a remix of it so I spent 8/9 years doing music. I was touring the UK, America, Europe, Japan, everywhere. I’ve always enjoyed drifting off and doing whatever appeals. I’ve had a club night, I used to have a film night at the Prince Charles Cinema and I’m doing acting now. I’ve got a podcast that I do every week which has just broken 9 million downloads. The podcasts are just conversations with people, there’s not any PR. I’ve always been a big believer of trying not being one thing, like I’m not just a rapper. Merch has always been a big part of my career, like this year I’ve done swim shorts, just all sorts of shit that bands generally aren’t doing.
Originally you started off as a music artist and then from music you decided to branch out?
It’s all music, it all came from music. Before I started music I was doing street art and making short films and things like that. So my thought is that although the first thing people got to know me for was music, I’ve always been doing a load of different things. It’s just that one sky-rocketed and had me touring the world.
Give me one word that you would use to describe yourself as in terms of what you do?
Just an Artist I guess, everything I do has some kind of art to it. The name, Scroobius Pip which is what I used to use for my street art and all sorts. It comes from an Edward Lear poem. It’s about this creature who wakes up in the jungle and doesn’t know what it is. It goes and hangs with the lions for a bit and that’s cool but when he releases he isn’t a lion, he goes with the fish for a bit and realises it isn’t a fish. In the end it realises it’s a Scroobius Pip and that it can be all these other things but it’s it’s own creature. That’s defined my whole career.
How would you describe your music?
It started it off with spoken word, I grew up on Punk and Hip-Hop so it’s influenced by rap and by Hip-Hop. It’s a variation. I’ve done tours which have been just spoken word and we did them in like Punk venues, in front of 500 people, all standing up, all drunk for just a spoken word gig. Rather than saying “oh, we’re gonna do it in the theatre” I was like no lets make it show, make it a gig. It’s like trying to push boundaries and generally to do stuff that appeals to me.
So when ohw? shoes hit me up, they originally hit me up to sponsor the podcast cus the podcast has got a big following. And then they said “would you be up for designing some trainers?” I was like yes I’m a massive fan of trainers, that’s always been a big part of my tours, deciding what kicks I’m gonna wear on stage. I worked with their designers and we went back and forth and then we created the first pair that came out last year. They sold out in pre-order which we weren’t expecting at all. So they hit me back to ask if I wanted to do more next year.
So when did you first collaborate?
That was last year.
Was it Fall/Winter or Spring/Summer?
It was Spring/Summer.
What kind of style was it?
Not to get too nerdy and deep on it, but I like boots but I’m a size 12. The one’s I’m wearing at the moment are the Swizz Beats Reeboks and I like them cus most boots when you go up to size 12, they suddenly look like you’re about to go skiing or something. So I wanted to design a pair that were quite thin and sleek. I like black, I like bold. So what we went for was a slim shoe, a slim toe and slim ankle. And we went for this black…it’s called “shaggy suede” so it had extra-long suede on it. It was just before…it was the end of last year that suede really came in massively so just by chance, it was just ahead of that. It was on time. So we put that out thinking it was a one-off and it went down a treat. All we did we was guys sizes so on this range I wanted to do guys and girls.
I sat down with the first meeting with ohw? to discuss the girls’ shoes. I said I don’t want to change it much cus the fact is, all the women asking for it were asking for it because of the guys’ design. So I was like “I don’t wanna put…pink laces in it” (laughs).
What can we expect from the upcoming collaboration? What’s the difference?
As much as I loved the “shaggy suede” and all that, it’s suede and on shoes which is tough for actually being easily wearable. But again I didn’t wanna just go basic so on these we’ve gone for leather, the same kind of slim design but we’ve burnished them so that they’re kind of dipped and has a burnt look. It goes from dark in to a lighter brown that fades beautifully on the guys’ ones. On the girls’ it’s a black in to grey. Cus the originals were black and I was happy to change the guys’ ones but we can’t have the originals out there and not available to girls.
It’s finding all the details, on the insides of the last ones…I’ve got a record label. The slogan is “we may not be for you and that’s fine” so I wanted to make sure that’s on there.
We may not be for you? What does that stand for?
It’s the slogan of the label. It annoyed me for a while that like on tour between 2000-4000 people, which is mental for me, a bloke from Essex. Yet you constantly have people go like “you’re so underrated” I don’t like that. I don’t believe in that, I don’t think anyone is underrated. I just think some stuff isn’t for the mainstream and some stuff is and that should be ok. I hate hearing bands that keep saying “oh we’re underrated”, no your fans proper rate you. I’m always grateful, the fan base I’ve got they proper rate me so for me to say I’m underrated it’s like I’m saying “fuck you guys, we want this.” So it’s what the label was built on, it’s putting out records and not looking whether this will be a commercial hit or not. It’s more concerned with putting out a good record.
Because I’ve got earnings coming in from all over the place so on the record label I kind of go “look, if we lose money on this it’s fine as long as it’s a great record” rather than worrying about it turning a profit constantly. That’s kind of like the motto of everything I do now, not trying to bend and break the mainstream but equally appreciating the people that are in to other stuff.
What’s the relationship like between ohw? and yourself?
They hit me up originally about sponsoring my podcast so I looked at their shoes and I loved them. They’ve got good quality materials, bold but flat designs, not over complicated just really well made and slick looking. It’s gonna sound stupid but it had kind of the bold, flatness of Yeezys and shit like that, that was blowing up. But no offence to Yeezys and shit like that, the quality isn’t there. This is a proper boot; it feels like they’ve hand made it for you. So I loved that and when they suggested a collaboration I was like “yeah, that’s dope.” It was a case of going through and sorting fabrics and matching up the soles.
Are you guys going to do more collaborations in the future?
I don’t know, as with everything now, it’s all dependant on how these things go. I never like to think too far ahead on things cus I want to be completely in on this. Like I want these to be as dope as they can, I don’t want to be thinking “oh let’s hold off on a little bit of dopeness for the next range.”
When do they come out?
These come out Augst 30th. So for guys and girls there’s a shoe and a boot. We’re doing four in total.
Is there more than one colour?
The girls’ are the grey in to black, and the guys’ is a dark brown in to a lighter brown.
There’s no black for guys this season?
There’s no black for guys this season.
Why did you decide to do that?
Well part of that was the fact that that first range sold out so quickly, I don’t want to cheapen that and release another 1000 pairs or whatever. It’s like that’s dope and it was a limited thing. Again we’re taking the same design but changing a little bit. I don’t like that either, if you build something on a limited run and if it does well they’ll make more.
With the last range we had signed Polaroids with every pair, every pair was special and individual. With this one I’ve just signed about 100 Polaroids so the first 100 will have a signed Polaroid.
For girls and guys?
Yeah, that was something I wanted to do. It feels like it’s personalised.
How much do they cost?
The shoes come in at £90 and the boot I think is come in at £100, £110 roundabout. I’m terrible to all the financial side of it, I don’t really pay attention. I’m excited about having my boots out there.
What three words would you use to describe the collaboration?
That’s tough man, on the spot. I’ll go with “functional but dope.” When I was touring a lot, Reebok and a few other places would often say “just help yourself to any shoes you want” to me and Dan le Sac. He’d be drawn towards these crazy ones that look absolutely insane and are limited edition, ones you can never get anywhere else. But you’d never end up wearing them man. They’re too out there, they don’t go with anything. So with this, not that I wanted to make them boring in any way but I wanted them to look dope and actually be kicks that you can wear day in and day out.
“functional but dope.”
