Sneak Peek: Justin Tranter's Exclusive DKNY Sneaker Line

Fate works is very funny ways- a fact that Semi Precious Weapons front man Justin Tranter knows all too well! Only a few months after his jewelry collections began picking up momentum, a friend of a friend of a friend of someone connected to designers for DKNY footwear spotted someone wearing one of his necklaces, which led to the girls attending a concert, and resulted in a collaboration between the garage glam rocker and the classic label on an exclusive sneaker!

The sneakers, which will be officially unveiled on February 20th, are ultra exclusive: only 50 pairs will be available in the entire United States! However, since Justin and Stylehive are BFF€™s, we got a sneak peak of the shoes and got the exclusive scoop on the concept behind them, how the collaboration came about, and how you can snag a pair.

Stylehive: How did this collaboration with DKNY happen?
Justin Tranter: A few awesome women who work as designers in the DKNY shoe department became fans of the jewelry, so they saw the jewelry first at Urban Outfitters and bought it, and heard about the band and came to a show and loved it and then when they saw the high-end jewelry, they just like flipped, and couldn€™t believe it, and they convinced the company that they should do a sneaker with me. It was so weird! That has been like a year long process, so the jewelry company started like a year and half ago, and then this process with DKNY has been almost all of that - which is really crazy, how quickly it happened. But I wouldn€™t say I€™m lucky, because I€™ve worked really hard.

Stylehive: How can you get your hands on a pair?
JT: Well there are only 500 sneakers being sold, it€™s super exclusive. I did a New York Rock for Barney's, which was a rock from a street in New York with a diamond set in it, on the chain, so it was a necklace. And DKNY really loved that because it€™s €˜Donna Karen New York€™ and I€™m in a New York band, and I€™m a New York designer, so it was kind of perfect. We couldn€™t do a diamond, but on every shoe you get a bracelet, or you could leave it on your shoe. I think it€™s much cuter to be left on the shoe. So it€™s a rock with a Swarovski crystal in it, so it€™s super, super, cute. And then there€™s a heart with a hole in it and on one side it says Fetty and on one side it says DKNY. So there€™s only 500 being sold in the world. They were shown to the European markets first and they bought off as much as they possibly could, so there€™s only gonna be 50 of them sold in America. I mean, I wish there could be more, but I think it gives it a certain amazing quality.

Stylehive: How did you come up with the concept behind the shoe design?
JT: Actually, my friends at Alter - Tommy and Roy - helped me design it. Because I mean, I know how to design jewelry, but when they were like "will you design a shoe" I was like "uh, well I have ideas but I don€™t know how to actually sketch it out or any of that stuff." So Tommy and Roy's store is gonna have the sneakers, and it€™s right here in Greenpoint Brooklyn, so that€™s the only store in America that€™s gonna have it. There€™s gonna be a HUGE party, and they€™ll probably all sell out the first night.

Stylehive: How much?
JT: I think like $185, and they€™re gonna be exclusively at Alter.