It is a thing of wonder and delight that two of our golf shoes are being featured in O Magazine this month. I am particularly happy with the shoes the editor chose to feature, because the timing is perfect for the coming spring/summer season.
LOOKING TO NATURE
You may have noticed that EQUIPT has scant ( as in, no) offerings in the range of colors typically known as ‘neutrals’. It’s strictly a function of personal preference, but saturated colors make my heart go thump. Just look at these Gerbera Daisies! They’re nothing short of hypnotic.
Maybe it’s because I am a spring baby (April born) that I love anything that hints of vibrant, new life – fresh grass, luminous forsythia, moody, fragrant hyacinths. Whatever the origin, my love affair with color has a long history and shows no signs of abating.
ECHOES OF THE PAST
In a past lifetime, long before the advent of this golf-shoe folly called EQUIPT, I designed home furnishings under my own label, annie j. You may have seen my glasses, dishes, table linens, rugs, mugs, pillows, totes and throws, like those pictured here, at the likes of Crate & Barrel or Pottery Barn or Bed Bath & Beyond. The fact is that I’ve departed very little from my housewares origins when it comes to color and unquestionably see echoes of old sensibilities informing the design of the golf shoes and golf gloves we offer on this site.
IT’S ALL ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS
Like everything worthwhile in life, color is all about relationships. You can make a color sing by pairing it with its complement or create interesting visual tension by juxtaposing a cool and warm version of the same hue. How about those vibrant pink daisies poking their cheerful mugs out of a one of my old blue and green beach totes? (A very popular item at annie j.) Looks like a party to me!
COLOR SAYS IT ALL
In the case of our Spectator golf shoe in summer sunrise colors, the challenge was to load it with all the colors you might find in a summer wardrobe, without risking its visual balance and allowing any one color to dominate the mix. I chose a warm, buttery yellow – not an acidic forsythia yellow – to balance the cool blue and warm green of this shoe. The piquant inset of rosie-pink piping is there for a touch of contrast – just enough to make you appreciate (and read) the blues, greens and yellows clearly. Believe me when I tell you that this shoe just isn’t the same without that little injection of rose.
As for our Wing Tip in summer bright colors, I wasn’t after any loftier goal than pleasing myself! I love just about any color combined with black and white and see it as one of those no-fail tricks in the realm of color management that urges the eye to read colors distinctly. In this shoe, every color (four in all) reads better, warmer and richer sitting side-by-side with this black and white check – and stands its own ground without overwhelming the others. (Sassy. Maybe that’s what I was after.)
JUST OUR WAY OF SAYING THANKS
We want to thank the editors at O Magazine for responding so enthusiastically to our product line and giving us such an amazing, incomparable platform to introduce ourselves to a broader audience. We’re saying thanks by offering a 20% discount on all our shoes and gloves until April 30th. Just type in code OPRAH when you check out and then get outside and play!
