Mashing the formal with the casual is a dangerous game -- "business-up-front, party-in-the-back" laid low even the great Mario Lopez. For more deft style mashing, check out shoes by Clae.

Concocted by underground footwear legend Sung Choi, Clae elegantly hybridizes the comfort and street cred of sneakers with formal styling and materials; the 13 new models are named after wildly divergent, historically great men, but're all united under Choi's historically awesome mantra "driven by leisure". Casual sneaker soles contrast with delicately perforated fine leather uppers on both the subtly athletic "Miles" and the unabashedly loaferish, Marcus-repping "Garvey" (if you're going to reverse a diaspora, you need very comfortable shoes). The "Cousteau" puts docksider design on top of tennis soles and throws in candy colors that'd freak out any country club, while the hi-top "Russell" uses all-out b-ball architecture but caps it off with polished leather in off-beat earth tones like merlot (convenient, but God help you if you spill a glass of syrah).

To prove leisure can be audacious, the "Whitman" puts business up front with a wingtip toe, and sneakerness everywhere else, in colors ranging from "caramel & walnut" to "concrete" -- a colorway so bold, a mere glimpse will cause passersby to Screech to a halt.

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Track down Claes at Clae.com