Most of the time, there's something sort of depressing about seeing a beloved artist's legacy compromised through mass merchandising. Do you really need Basquiat shower-curtain liners or Lichtenstein-inspired salt-and-pepper shakers? The answer is no. (Unless you're the set dresser for Girls, in which case the answer is, well, yeah, probably.)Yet there's something compelling about the Reebok x Haring collection, a collaboration between the Canton-based footwear giant and the Keith Haring Foundation, which perpetuates the late artist's legacy by funding children's and HIV/AIDS nonprofits. Maybe we love it because Haring's colorful, graffiti-influenced characters arose from his work in NYC's burgeoning '80s street-art scene — which make these just the kind of sneakers we would have loved to wear while pumping Kid 'n' Play from a boombox in our playground days. Maybe it's because the eye-catching kicks draw attention to the foundation Haring established in 1989, the year before he died of AIDS. Or maybe it's just because we're sneaker junkies who are head over heels for the bright colors, cool textures, die-cut elements, and appliqués that adorn these classic '80s-era Reebok silhouettes. Pretty sure that has something to do with it.
THE REEBOK X HARING `COLLECTION HITS SHELVES ON FEBRUARY 10 AFTER GETTING AN INVITE-ONLY LAUNCH PARTY AT BOSTON'S OWN BODEGA.
Related:
Life, love, and sneakers, Present perfect, Review: Valentino: The Last Emperor, More 
- Life, love, and sneakers
Rob Heppler got his sneaker schooling in jail: "Anyone that had super-awesome sneakers, it was for a reason. It meant you were a huge drug dealer or you were rich or somebody cared about you on the outside."
- Present perfect
For some hip-hop heads, artists like Mickey Factz represent everything that reeks in rap. Between his bypassing the rugged underground, blowing up on-line, and occasionally kicking Kanye-esque arrogance, he's an easy target for so-called purists.
- Review: Valentino: The Last Emperor
In 2008, Italian fashion designer Valentino Garavani stepped down from a spectacular 45-year career that had culminated in a wildly opulent retrospective exhibit in Rome.
- Fresh Lobsters bring the crowds
Stinking junkies weren't the only ones sleeping on Harvard Square sidewalks this past week. More than 300 sneaker heads queued outside of street-shoe mecca Concepts, on Brattle Street, for five days and nights in anticipation of last Saturday's release of the world's only 260 pairs of Nike Blue Lobster SB Dunks.
- Sunglasses: Rating the Shades
Summer used to be simple: fun in the sun.
- Review: Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky
"I want to breathe ," says Coco Chanel as she cuts off her corset.
- Review: Steampunk at the Players' Ring
Since they began gaining mass popularity in the '80s, the antique copper laser-guns, cog-studded corsets and alternate electronic empires of the steampunk genre have been buzzing the cultural circuitry ever more.
- Photos: PETA Fashion Week protest [vaguely NSFW]
PETA members protest fur as fashion at Copley Square on September 30, 2010, as a response to Boston Fashion Week.
- The changing seasons
Kids these days with their cyclical hair-stylings.
- Photos: Haute or Not: The Best of Boston Fashion Week 2010
STUFF Magazine photographers shoot the runways of Boston Fashion Week 2010, leaving it up to you to decide what's Haute and what's Not.
- Photos: Arisia 2011
Sci-fi and fantasy fans attend Arisia 2011 at the Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel at January 14-17, 2011.
- Less
Topics:
Lifestyle Features
, Sneakers, reebok, Fashion
