“I wanted to do a military-inspired story that was still related to the outdoors,” says Jon Tang, founder of the outdoorsy lifestyle brand Fronteer, referring to his newest shoe. Tang has targeted similar genre-crossing themes throughout his line of colorful canvas and leather shoes and boots that he designs to function equally well in the woods and Brooklyn. Some of those designs lean hard on mountain inspiration while others channel current trends in a way that would make a Nike designer envious.
The new shoe that Tang is referring to is the Ranger. The Ranger blends the heavyweight canvas once used in old rock climbing shoes with an equally-rugged rubber toe cap characteristic of old military boots. Its outsole is lugged Vibram rubber, which every hiker recognizes as a gold standard. Together, these elements create a functional lifestyle shoe that’s combat boot meets Converse, or Smokey the Bear meets SoHo.
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