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Category Archives: Trainers

Mods DONT wear trainers

mod-dont-wear-trainers

Mods DONT wear trainers

Facebook can be the best place in the world for like minded people to chat and interact with other, miles and miles apart, but so close in lots of other ways. And many of you reading this, would have seen someone write something where you think, ‘Really are you that daft’.

So the comment was “Mods don’t wear trainers. End of”

Now what is mod and what isn’t ? That is really a question you should only ask close friends when you have had many drinks and you can spend the rest of the evening, laughing about answers.

Paul Sawtell, top mod, & Alley club promoter said

I wear trainers. many Mods do. The main thing to remember is there are no rules in the Mod scene. Just cos I wear trainers it doesn’t make me “not a Mod” and not all people who wear trainers are Mods …….I’ll tell you something, most of the people who “make the rules” are not even Mods, they hide behind a computer keyboard and don’t go out on the scene, get my drift?

I have spoke to many people about trainers, and a lot of people love them, in terms of when to wear most agreed was a daytime look rather than an evening.

Neil Lee

I’ve always wore trainers for casual wear. Owned lots of Adidas Italia, Japan and Bowlers. Still wear them now. Also love the ivy style of Converse, Pro Keds and Sperrys.

Neil runs “Gettin To The Point” more info here https://www.facebook.com/events/1499119017009812/?ref=br_tf

And here is Neil in his trainers

mod shoes neil lee in trainers

I concede the Trainer will always be associated with the ‘Casual’ fashion from the early 80s. And a lot of these guys are just obsessive as many mods I know.

Here is just one image I found on Google image search.

adidas-trainer-collection

QUADROPHENIA LP Cover

A real obvious mod image, came straight to mind was this iconic cover

29-mod-shoes-nice-painting-of-quadrophenia

We offer a couple of pairs, and we would offer more if we could find the right kind. So far we have found these. I like them because they are reasonably plain, no 80’s style squiggles. We like the sole as it is plain and the burgundy chestnut colour ones look so cool in real life. The blue ones have many shades of blue, but nothing too showy.

01 Mod-Shoes-Mod-Trainer-Nicholas-Deakins-kendal-chestnut-01

02 Mod-Shoes-Mod-Trainer-Nicholas-Deakins-Palmer-Blue-06

 

 

 

 

 

 

But trainers, I reckon are great. There are some really cool ones out there, and some awful, but let’s stay with cool. So rather than a long written piece, I think these pictures do the rest, don’t you ?

paul-weller-in adidas

Paul Weller in Trainers !

mods in ham yard

Original Mods outside The Scene Club Ham Yard, I think 1964. Baseball Boots rather than trainers we have these days, but looks cool to me.

1-adidas-italia-1960-2010-bobbymac-kicks-box

mod shoes adidas italias green and whitecool adidas12-mod-shoes-80s-mods    fashion_mods_07_51914j lambrettas2

Mark Ellis Bass Player with The Lambrettas. Possibly the only person I have ever seen pulling off Trainers with a suit jacket !

the-lambrettas_161801

TheBirds in converse

The Birds circa 65/66 and Baseball boots again ! I think the wearer is Kym Gardner.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed the pics and words about Mods and their Trainers.

Trainers

Trainers
Are trainers MOD? And why are they on MOD Shoes. Well I suppose as much as early skinheads were a MOD extension so I see that some of the Casuals were as well.

Adidas is a very well known make and has literally 1000’s of variations. Collectors of the trainers are as obsessive as record collectors.

David Walker, on the MOD culture website, mentions these are his favourite makes: Patrick Arendal trainers; Onitsuka Tiger Nippon 60 trainers; Gola; Adidas and Walsh Bazley trainers. I think he is right.

Puma are of course old school too and certainly all the trainers have been worn by MODS. On the MOD Male website the author mentions that the trainer is very much the casual side of MOD. Certainly you see a lot of lads wearing them, me included.

More by accident than design I have had a couple of pairs of rare Adidas trainers and have several people ask me were I bought them! Certainly during the Brit Pop days trainers came through. Oasis certainly wore them a lot and Italian MOD band Kick Start looked amazing in their Adidas look. Another band that were just before Brit Pop were These Animal Men. Their look of short hair, white jeans and Adidas trainers was very MOD.

So I include Trainers on MOD shoes for that reason, but I await comments below.

Videos:

PICTURES:

mod-shoes-retro-trainers-andrew-shim--this-is-england Mod-Shoes-Mod-Trainer-Nicholas-Deakins-Palmer-Blue-06 Mod-Shoes-Mod-Trainer-Nicholas-Deakins-kendal-chestnut-07 mod-shoes-andrew-shim-this-is-england-retro-trainers