Pokémon x Converse Japan Sneaker Collaboration Looks Lovely

Pokémon and Converse Japan have announced a collaboration that will see four pairs of Chuck Taylors released, each one—appropriately, given the shoe in question—paying a coloured homage to the series’ earliest roots.

There’s no garish branding or big graphic prints here, just four pairs of shoes in four different and iconic (for the franchise) colours, representing four of the most classic of Pokémon: Pikachu, Eevee, Charizard and Mewtwo. Aside from the colour palettes, the only things giving these away as Pokémon shoes is a small pixel art Pokémon on the tongue and a small biographical motif near the heel, showing that particular character’s name, height, weight and number.

Each shoe will also come with a special Poké Ball hangtag (the little plastic tags you find hanging off the laces of some shoes, like Jordans), with Sneaker Freaker saying that Pikachu gets a normal one, Eevee (or Eievui here, since these are Japanese sneakers) a Great Ball, Charizard (aka Lizardon on these) an Ultra Ball while Mewtwo gets a Master Ball.

If you haven’t been keeping track of this stuff, Pokémon likes to shuffle their license around when it comes to sneaker collabs. We’ve written about a very tasteful release with Fila a few years back, while the Adidas line from 2019 was one of the best video game sneaker tie-ins of all time, so good I ended up buying my kid multiple pairs from it.

This drop is expected to release in Japan later this month, with prices hovering around the retail mark for fancier Chuck Taylors (USD$75). Given the text has been done specifically for the Japanese market, and there hasn’t been an accompanying announcement for a Western release, I wouldn’t hold your breath if you were looking at a way to get hold of these that didn’t involve paying resale.