A Meeting of Minds and Methods to Explore the Future of the Workboot
Collaboration between Cat and both footwear companies is turbocharging workwear.
Posted: January 12, 2024
As we charge ever forward into the world of tomorrow, there are always new pathways to forge. Sometimes, those paths are taken alone: pushing tirelessly into the unknown, innovating for the future. But sometimes, those paths converge, uniting like-minded forces en route to the road ahead.
Recently, two innovators didn’t just cross paths – they created a new one. Turbocharging workwear for tomorrow, the AW23 Cat Footwear x both collaboration marks a meeting of minds and methods.
Based in Paris, both is a frontrunner in the city’s progressive fashion scene, exploring the endless possibilities of one material: rubber. Finding commonality with Cat Footwear’s mission to break new ground on site and on the streets, a hybrid boot is created. The Gao Pioneer blends time-honored workwear traditionality with the treads of tomorrow.
This hybrid boot, powered by innovations from Cat Footwear and both, combines Cat’s classic workwear
Colorado upper but amps up the futuristic feel with an armor-like no-sew cage application and robust hardware. An overbuilt rubber toe cap amplifies the Cat workwear heritage.
The upper sits across both’s own icon – its Gao sole, in an original marbled effect. Completely unique to
the brand, this is a boldly oversized, cleated outsole that is as practical as it is bold, blurring the line
between workwear and fashion.
In its Honey colorway, the marble sole plays with warm earthy tones, with its neon branded highlights standing in future-facing contrast. In its Black colorway, the marble sole moves between black, white, and gray, allowing its neon branded highlights to stand out.