Reebok Club C 85 Vintage 'Chalk Vector Blue'
Colorway: Chalk/Black/Vector Blue · Style code: GY7200 · Release date: September 16, 2022 · Price: $2482 · Availability: Available now
More colorways: Reebok x BBC Club C 85 Shoes (100285332) · Reebok x IDEA Club C 85 Shoes (100258364) · Reebok Club C 85 (AR0455) · Reebok Club C 85 'Emoji' (S29074) · Reebok Club C 85 TG (BD4759)
Two deliberate changes separate Reebok's Club C 85 Vintage from the standard Club C 85: the leather upper comes in Chalk rather than white, and the rubber cupsole is tinted yellow, so a new pair looks like one that has spent decades in a cupboard. 'Chalk Vector Blue' works within that formula and adds contrast. Vector Blue, a deep blue Reebok uses as a colour name across its range, and black take the accents, giving the aged-looking upper a sharper set of lines than a tonal Vintage pair gets. The toe keeps its perforations and the build is the usual soft leather over a cupsole; only the colouring has been aged, not the construction.
It released September 16, 2022 at $85, in line with what Reebok was asking for a plain Club C 85, so the aged finish costs nothing extra. The appeal is practical as much as aesthetic. A chalk upper and a yellowed sole are what a white Club C turns into after a year of wear anyway, and buying that state up front means the shoe never goes through the awkward phase where the sole has yellowed but the upper is still bright. With the blue and black hits it also has more in common with the two-colour tennis shoes of the mid-1980s than the all-white retro does, which is the period the Club C came from in the first place.