Thrillist New York
Emailed on: Friday June 20, 2008Tretorn
150 Spring St, between Wooster and W Broadway; 646.454.9680
You look to Sweden for excellence in bikini teams, boxy-but-safe cars, and fish. Wait, make that bikini teams, boxy-but-safe cars, fish, and shoes: Tretorn.
Known for lightweight, prep-coastal slip-ons and lace-ups, Tretorn's debuting its 2nd American store (the first was in D.C., because how better to complete the prep-coastal look than with khakis and a blue blazer?). Foot finery starts with low- and mid-top lacers, from the handball-court inspired Stilig Leather, to the Hockeyboot Paninari mid-top (stitched to resemble boardshorts), to the seersucker-lined Paninari BS -- evocative of Tom Wolfe, so your feet's wit will be as withering as their stank. Also purveyed: casual slip-ons like the low-top Strand Canvas boat shoe, and the Skymra Canvas, which keeps snug via elastic straps, but still sports vestigial eyelets -- so the Swedes have progressed past marriage and God, but they just can't quit laces.
Tretorn's beachiest slip-on is the white-canvas Strand Aborre, which rocks a graphic of a perch, but only on the left shoe -- a nod to their excellent gummi heritage, or perhaps their cinematic one (My Left Fish?).


