3sixteen x Saucony Peregrine 15 "Gesso"

Our first collaboration with Saucony utilizes the new Peregrine 15 trail shoe silhouette. Dubbed the “Gesso,” the calming neutral colors are inspired by the material that artists use to prime their canvas for painting. We included two hits of hairy suede on the heel and tongue for textural depth and to tie back to familiar materials we've used on other footwear projects. It was important for us, though, to leave most of the other technical details of the shoe as designed to ensure that the shoe’s performance remained intact. As a brand that’s been making world-class denim for two decades, we are accustomed to working with fabrics that age beautifully over time and so we carefully chose trims that would absorb color differently should you choose to dye it. And that's exactly what we had in mind when we designed this "blank canvas" - to give the wearer an opportunity to customize the shoe if they saw fit.

We've always placed a high importance on showcasing craft and slow, deliberate manufacturing in all of the clothing we design. When tasked with how to weave this core value into a factory-produced sneaker, the thought of releasing a small run of dyed shoes came to mind. This is not the first time we've sold indigo-dyed shoes; in 2013, we launched 100 pairs of Chuck Taylors to celebrate our 10th anniversary. And in 2018, we partnered with Yuketen to replease 60 pairs of Rocker Ox's featuring uppers that were handsewn in Maine, indigo dyed in PA, and then lasted back in Maine. But this is our most ambitious production run of dyed shoes we have ever released.