Merci pour vos déchets
Thank you for your waste*
They allow me to create sneakers out of them. They enable celebrities like Monica Bellucci, Irina Shayk, Larry Clark, Kid Lari, and others to wear my creations.
2009 marks the beginning of the designer sneaker era.
I created my first line of eponymous shoes at the age of 19.
I made everything out of leftover leather from a factory that produces goods for luxury houses. You could find my sneakers at Colette, 10 Corso Como, Joyce, and Lane Crawford.
I was a young (but not a kid) person with big ambitions when I first arrived in Paris.
I quickly found success, and I kept producing my own leather scraps for the sneakers I was making.
This is how I made the decision to add a second line, «ER,» to my brand, Eugène Riconneaus. a line under the coat that I gave to my skater friends using these well-known leather scraps.
Suddenly, everything was connected extremely quickly.
ER was sold at Supreme in New York, on HYPEBEAST and even more expensive in auction rooms in Japan, and Highsnobiety mentioned it!
We were described as «sustainable,» but I had no idea what that even meant.
I was just certain that we had to keep going and keep making timeless products.
Thanks to your waste, things have happened...
Things have occurred as a result of your waste...
The E.R.CREATION STUDIO studio was established; among its accomplishments there are: The sourcing of marine waste in New Aquitaine (thanks to which I also happened to create my own material that I use today for the ER brand); The transformation of my creative workshop into a mini-lab (though it looked more like a messy kitchen in a mess than anything else); The exhibition of our artistic purpose at The Museum of Modern Art in NYC as a ready-made project.
Last but not least, I got back in touch with my father, a fisherman!
All of the first limited series were sold during the official online announcement of the ER project.
It is all crazy.
This is the ER project's narrative, which you helped to shape without realizing it.