Trent Williams Links Up with FCTRY LAb to Release Exclusive Red Knight RNRs
If you were to fly over Levi’s Stadium, you’d know its January, as the endzones have just been dipped red to follow the club’s postseason tradition. For Trent Williams, however, he’s not waiting to log in a touchdown-leading block to get a little red on his feet.
The 11-time Pro Bowler collaborated with FCTRY LAb, an upstart footwear company to drop his own exclusive clog called the Red Knight RNR. While the shoe doesn’t look like anything revolutionary, per say — namely, it falls under the same category of many of the current offerings from Merrell, Crocs, Suicoke and 1017 ALYX 9SM, it’s novelty comes in the fact that anyone with an idea can generate a similar or entirely different shoe; not just vaulted off for your typically hoodie-clad, Vibram-wearing creative director.
Co-founded by YEEZY’s former Innovation Lab head, Omar Bailey, the Black-owned company lookes to redefine the production on footwear by providing 360 services — from ideation and consulting, sampling and manufacturing, marketing to distribution, FCTRY LAb chop the usual production phase for any given shoe to just about one to three months, as opposed to the usual eight to twelve.
“We can build anything,” Bailey told fellow 49er edge rusher Nick Bosa, when he recently visited Williams at the team’s training facility.
While at adidas, Bailey had his hand in some of YEEZY’s most innovative kicks, from the Foam Runner to the alien-like 450. His ability to work quick came at Ye’s direction to start an in-house prototyping facility to bypass the longer wait-times from Asia. “We were able to iterate and innovate very quickly to get shoes on his feet to get instant feedback,” Bailey said in a past interview. “And then we’d make those changes and get him another pair in less than 24 hours,” he added. “That allowed us to be able to move the development process at light speed and be able to get to market faster.”
When the lab had to move with the rest of YEEZY to Cody, Wyoming, the pressure to churn designs — as with the general pace of all of the label’s subdivisions — became extra magnified. “To say no when I got asked to make a crazy shoe was, like, not even an option,” Bailey recalled regarding Ye’s feverish process. “It was just, let’s figure this out. Let’s do it.” In hindsight, this aptitude for speed, without compromising on quality, is a core pillar to FCTRY LAb’s ethos. But perhaps even more integral to the LA-based venture label, is the hope to give athletes a platform to create their own shoe lines that aren’t tied to Nike, adidas or New Balance.
Releasing today only on FCTRY LAb’s website, the Red Knight RNR is a premium foam slipper created from a 3D-prined injection molding that boasts a contoured footbed that will add a little flare to the day-to-day routine, without sacrificing comfort along the way. For those looking to purchase, the V1 version of the slip-on is available to purchase for $150.
