Whether you love them or just sorta pretend to love them when good-looking guys/girls are talking to you at a party while “Peacebone” remixes are blasting in the background, there’s no denying the insane amount of sway these four, three, four for sure, okay, two?, three it is, then, four guys have on indie pop culture right now. So hell. It was only a matter of time before AC clothing designs started popping up, right? Right.
As Stereogum reports, Animal Collective have designed a collection of sneakers for the cruelty-free clothing and shoe company Keep. Although Keep says they aren’t actually available until March 2011, the first pair — the Avey Tare-designed “Tobin” slip-on shoe — is up for preorder now. And the next three designs, did-up by Panda Bear, Geologist, and Deakin, respectively, will be unveiled over the next three weeks.
But just when I was reaching for my lazy news-reporting calling-card of denouncing things like this as “lame” or whatever, I read that all profits from the sales of these go to the Socorro Island Conservation Fund, a non-profit working to preserve the unique biosphere of the Revillagigedo Archipelago off Baja, California, where illegal fishing is a continual threat. “Josh and I have been scuba diving together for a number of years, and the Revillagigedos was one of the most amazing places I have ever seen,” says Geologist. “Hopefully this project will protect the animals of the Revillagigedos through at least one more fishing season and draw more attention to the global problem of illegal fishing.” See? You just CAN’T make fun of these shoes, man.
Oh. Also there’s the little matter of the “bonus cassette of previously unreleased music” that will apparently accompany all of the preorders. So… yeah… where do I sign up to buy these things, again??
• Keep: http://www.keepcompany.com
• Socorro Island Conservation: http://socorroislandconservation.org/socorro
• Animal Collective: http://www.myanimalhome.net
