Quick and Dirty
IN-STORE NOW
FALL/WINTER Magazine
catalog cover
SCENE1425
Fall/Winter 2010 program
features the cream of the crop of musical acts
 
MUSIC: PHOENIX
All over it.
 
Pointer
A lo-fi kind of shoe brand.
pointer

Shirts, pants, skirts, dresses, leotards, lederhosen, onesies; none of these articles of clothing matter, if you want to get a true measure of someone’s personality you have to take a long hard look at what they are wearing from the ankle down. If an individual’s footwear of choice includes tie died multicolored fluorescent blinding $400 a pair trainers, they will most likely have a very “pay attention to me, I’m really great…I promise.” personality. However if you take a look at an individual’s feet to find a set of understated, classic, well detailed, moccasin inspired sneakers you will most likely stop and have a chat. Pointer is made for individuals who prefer the latter, “that guy who probably came from an arts school background or a lo-fi music background or a skateboarding background, kind of well educated and looking for something different” is how Gareth Skewis, one of the brains behind Pointer, describes the clientele of the line. Little Burgundy recently got to hang out with Gareth and have a chat.

Timeless
Based out of London, Pointer was launched in late 2004. “I always wanted to make footwear and I had done three different treatments for different styles of brands, Pointer being one of them,“ after sorting out distribution deals Gareth assembled a crew. “It’s a really small team five people, its really hands on, lo-fi kind of shoe brand, that’s the history of it.”

The shoes Pointer makes can best be described as clean and casual, “my whole thing about making product is that if you can design something, and somebody looks at it now or in 5 years or in 25 years and can’t tell you the date it was made, that to me is good design. We obviously try to create something that is timeless.” Creating timeless shoes also means you wont find a pair of all-over print camouflage Pointers. “If everyone is going ‘you got to make turquoise glow in the dark shoes this season, because everyone is doing it’-we wont. That’s the whole idea behind pointer- you’re not chasing a sportswear market or your not chasing a traditional market, what you’re trying to do is define your own middle tier market. Its almost anti fashion.” Along with not following hype or trends Pointer is also looking to make shoes that are, “something new and a lot more cleaner and sophisticated that you could wear to the pub on a Friday night and not have all your mates tease you. You need to pass the pub test.”

Brand conception
A major part of what makes Pointer stand out, beyond actual shoe design, is how Gareth and his team conceive brands, “It doesn’t matter if you’re a margarine brand, or a bread company, or a computer company, brands are only used to sell consumer based things. Obviously the products are the brand and we make footwear, but there are also ways of using brands as vehicles to work on interesting projects like publishing art books, just doing less of what people expect.”

Pointer has a lot of exciting projects on the horizon, designing bags in collaboration with sought after Japanese brand Porter, collaborating with Comme Des Garcon and making shoes for Karen Walker. Collaborations of this magnitude are fairly distinguished accomplishments, especially for a company that has existed for a little over five years. Achieving this while remaining an independent company makes Pointer a line to watch.