Just in from the folks at Cole Haan a few days from launch date… The new Cole Haan Lunargrand Wingtip shoes are an interesting vitally important turn for the Cole Haan brand in 2012. The shoe line has been patiently waiting for a bit of a reboot for some time. Clearly the Lunargrand is the start of that move and much of it comes from a certain freedom being afforded to the brand from their parent company, Nike, in borrowing technology on a level not often seen on the exterior of the shoes themselves. The Lunargradn is different.

If Cole Haan had simply released this series of wingtips with the Nike Air tech on the inside, rather than the Lunar sole, we would not have the visual queues that allow for the Lunargrand to be much more than another wingtip on the market.

It is rare for a classic upper to work with a non-traditional sole design, but the Lunargrand pulls it off well. More importantly, it respects the original silhouette of the wingtip while moving the the shoe form forward in a manner that is certain to offer an alternative to the original constructions found in boutiques today. Wear test aside, the look is proper. The fusion/welt is clean (we’re sure they went to some serious rounds of samples to get it right). Even Gary Warnett is a bit intrigued by it all.

Dropping February 9 at the Cole Haan SOHO store.

Photography: Selectism.com

More looks in our gallery…

The Nike CR7 collection brings a slice of Ronaldo inspired sportswear to the table. Not a hotpant or man-purse in sight, the collection includes tees, sweatshirts and polo shirts to accompany his signature boot. As Oregon HQ explains, the “CR7 collection reflects Cristiano Ronaldo’s distinctive style. For the first time alongside his Mercurial Superfly boot, Nike introduces a complete CR7 collection blending the most innovative training and lifestyle products.” We take a specific look at the apparel from the collection. More on the CR Mercurial Vapor Superfly III boot shortly.

Click for looks at the new Chrisiano Ronaldo CR7 apparel collection from Nike.

01. Report: Man buys used Chrysler minivan from Thrifty, finds $500K in cocaine

“Mercury News reports that Charles Preston, a doctor in Santa Clara, California, purchased a used 2008 Chrysler Town & Country from a Thrifty rental car office and got much more than his $14,000 paid for. After about 15 months with the minivan, Preston brought the van to a local shop to get the brakes worked on. The mechanic offered to take a look at why the windows wouldn’t roll down, and the solution presented itself in the form of $500,000 in cocaine wrapped in purple cellophane.” (autoblog)

02. Intelligentsia’s Geoff Watts (Coffee)

“As the vice president of coffee for Intelligentsia and a green coffee buyer, Geoff Watts travels the world searching for the best beans, working to build relationships with the farmers that have helped make Intelligentsia a leader in the specialty coffee industry. We recently met with Watts in Los Angeles during their three-day Extraordinary Coffee Workshop (ECW), where we talked to the coffee guru about his tenure with the brand and the journey to select the best beans from around the world.” (coolhunting)

03. More “Design Story” Videos: Nikon Shows Us CoolPix Designer

“Here’s another design video with commercial intentions, this one a bit more interesting in that it appears largely unscripted (save for one part, see below) and focuses more on the designer than the product. It’s a Nikon-produced spot looking at industrial designer Chikara Fujita, the 26-year-old behind the CoolPix P300, which has won both Good Design and iF Design awards.” (core77)

04. A New Look at Marilyn Monroe (above)

“Curated by Etheleen Staley of the Staley-Wise Gallery, many of the 62 photos — by Milton Greene, Bruno Bernard, George Barris, Sam Shaw, Richard Miller and Ben Ross, among others — are iconic, including the career-changer by Philippe Halsman that landed on the cover of Life magazine’s April 7, 1952 issue with the headline “The Talk of Hollywood.” But there are also some rare gems; for example, an unpublished shot of Monroe in a black backless Dior gown from “The Last Sitting,” Bert Stern’s famous shoot for Vogue magazine at the Hotel Bel-Air in 1962, just six weeks before Monroe’s death.”(wwd)

You’ve got the cord blazer. You’ve got the cord trousers. The only next step is to go full re-cord with these Nike Blazers. Cord on cord on cord, as the kids would say. These won’t win you any friends in the double monkstrap community. And yes, there’s an entire community of double monkstrap wearers now. We hear the Sart was their spokesman until they got tired of hearing his James Caan in ‘Thief’ inspired speeches. (End)

Working for this site allows for some unique opportunities that go beyond the runways and presentation shows housed inside the city. If it involved kicking a soccer ball around a pitch in Queens on a Thursday night, all the better. We had this opportunity this past week during Nike’s “Perfect Strike” event. The showcase was a special dual launch to the media featuring the new improved Nike T90 soccer cleat and their premier match ball, the T90 Seitiro.

More importantly, after the media event, we boarded a bus to Queens to play on one of New York City’s oldest pitches, the Met Oval.

Photography: Robert Wunsch & Anne Schilling/Selectism.com

We bring you some looks from the experience with the new Nike T90 and Nike Seitiro match ball after the click.

We’re Arsenal fans here, so putting up this Nike video (even with two our best players due to leave) was a prerequisite. Now we can only hope that we can look as good over a season as we do in a three minute video.

These aren’t shoes (not unless you’re the kind of person who calls trainers/sneakers shoes) but they’re footwear and we wear trainers as much as we wear shoes round here. Fujiwara’s not involved in these although you can scribble his name on the sole to try and fool onlookers. We’re not saying it’ll work but you can try. (End)

Let’s get this established; We’re classy fellas. Which means that we never refer to any collaboration as an ‘X’. It’s strictly a ‘for’ thing over here. And we quite like this Nike for Maharam collab. (End)

Pink, Juventus’ original home color before the switch to black and white stripe, returns for the Turin club’s away matches in 2011/2012. Juventus has hit or miss success with their pink strips – the BBC calling a mid-90s version one of “the worst football kits of all time.” The contemporary style features a bold black star, and is delightfully aggressive in overall aesthetic. Made, like all new Nike football shirts, of 100% recycled polyester.

More looks at the new pink Juventus shirt after the jump.

Starting off on an unrelated tangent here: We absolutely despise the band namesake of Kaizer Chiefs. And now, back to the story at hand. We assume you’ve recovered from the Camo monstrosity we showed you earlier. Now here’s another kit that seems to take from a current menswear trend in contrast sleeves. And in sharp contrast (excuse the pun) to the camo kit from before, we quite like this one.