Everything You Need to Know About Extra Butter x Saucony "Space Race"

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When it comes to space movies, Faustino isn't a purist. "My favorite is Spaceballs. It's not necessarily space-themed and science-y. It's kind of a mockery. But it's fun, so that's my go-to," Faustino said.

Everything on the "Space Snack" was placed there to make the sneaker look like Neapolitan ice cream—except the gum sole. "The gum sole is the sneakerhead in us," Faustino said. "We tried it with all the colors that are on the sneaker, but it's one of those things. If it works with a gum outsole, we'd like it to have that."

Last year, Scotland's Hanon worked on a Shadow Master, and it influenced Extra Butter to chose that silhouette. "We were in between the Shadow 5000 and the Shadow Master," Faustino said. "We saw what Hanon did with the Shadow Master on their "Midnight Runner," and we were into that."

To coincide with the sneaker release, Extra Butter collaborated with Publish Brand, not on a pair of Joggers, but on a windbreaker. "We had asked Publish if they were interested in working in the past, and they wanted to know what some of our favorite pieces were," Faustino said. "For this collaboration, we really liked their anoraks and pullovers. They ended up putting together a hybrid jacket for us. We wanted it to emphasize the sneaker's colorblocking, and we thought it would look good as an apparel piece instead of a graphic-print T-shirt."

Time and time again, a limited-edition sneaker will release in the shop that designed it and then drop at boutiques around the world. The same thing happens for Extra Butter collaborations. "For our ASICS release, we would check the hashtag we put out for the collection. We didn't realize that European stores would get it a little bit later. They were taking their own photos and coming up with own promotions for the sneakers.  We were getting so hyped, and we couldn't even read what the captions said," Faustino said.

"The difficult part is that we don't get a list of the shops around the world that will carry our projects. But we get other shops' sneakers, too. So we only hope that they get ours. It makes their a shop a place I have to visit," Faustino said.

Before we can lace up the sneakers and wear them, they have to be designed. This is the way that Faustino and Gross go about putting together a collaboration:

"During the idea phase, we usually arrive at what silhouette we want to use very quickly. For "Aces," we both said, 'Grid 9000.' The only delay is that we have to talk to the brand to find out if they have plans on using the silhouette. If they want to push a different model, we usually don't have a problem re-incorporating our design elements to a different silhouette," Faustino said.

"As for the design, Bernie will do mock-ups and there have been times when it's been only three iterations because we're seeing the same thing. Then, from there, we're stripping it down and making it the best option. Then we have to look at color charts and get it over to the brand. It becomes an easy process. I feel like I sometimes work longer on a NIKEiD shoe. Because with these projects, we have a very clear vision. We know what we wanted to do from the beginning and we stick to that."

Lately, Saucony has been putting out killer collaborations. This is why Extra Butter chose to work with the brand:

"We've had a long relationship with Saucony. We've always carried them at Extra Butter. They're great people. They're very hands on," Faustino said. "We saw some of the other work that Saucony was doing, like the Elite collection with Bodega. Now, a lot of the kids that were lining up for Jordans and Foamposites will now line up for Sauconys. The product speaks for itself, as far as comfort, and our guy tends to gravitate to it right away. So we thought, let's cook something up."

Everyone loves to be told a story. That's partially why collaborations have a special niche in sneaker culture. For Extra Butter, working on stories comes natural. "When we're leaning towards a theme, I think it's natural for Bernie and I to examine every angle. We'll work together. He'll have an idea, and I'll have an idea. And then, suddenly, we have a story," Faustino said.

"The "Aces" is the flight through space, and then the "Space Snack" is a tongue-in-cheek take on space survival, and, lastly, it's getting to your destination. We're very thematic with the concept for our store. It's just the way we work. We think in capsules. We think in themes. Maybe in the future, we'll have a sneaker that's limited to one design. But, as for now, we're having fun doing themes."

The first piece of the Saucony collaboration for Extra Butter was the "Aces" Grid 9000, and there's a third sneaker on the way. But the idea of a sneaker based off of astronaut ice cream was the last thing that Faustino and Gross came up with.

"We came up with the idea for the first sneaker in the pack, The Aces, and it was based off of the orange flight suits. We just thought they were awesome. Then we had an idea for the third shoe in the pack, which no one has seen yet," Faustino said. "Then space ice cream came as an afterthought. We wanted to tell the story from a nostalgic point of view. When most people are discovering space, it's via an elementary school trip to a planetarium. And their fondest memory of that is the space ice cream."

Collaborations don't happen over night, and Faustino first started working on this project several years ago. Originally, the sneakers took inspiration from the stars, but that had to change. "We were always into space-themed stuff, and we started talking about ideas—most of them were of the galaxy variety. This was before Nike released its "Galaxy" All-Star Game pack," Faustino said. "It sucked, because we had a bunch of galaxy-printed Sauconys that we had to scrap."

If you look at Saucony's history, the brand used to be Hyde & Sons, and it produced a boot worn by astronauts in space. This inspired Faustino to use a space theme for his Saucony collaboration. "Me and my designer, Bernie Gross, were looking at a timeline of Saucony, and it had information about when the brand was Hyde Footwear. And they produced the first-ever shoe for a space walk," Faustino said.