APOC Store promotes emerging designers, bringing SCRYTM Lab, EGNARTS, Hariskrishnan, and now YAKU into the crowded fashion scene. Its roster is known for challenging the status quo, and Yaku Stapleton’s eponymous label hopes to maintain this momentum with its new “Creature Shoes.”

YAKU’s design philosophy comments on and draws on Afrofuturism, connecting his own identity with escapism. As a result, everything from RPG games like Runescape to Black culture is touched on, often informing expressive and introspective clothing.

With this in mind, the designer is now introducing the “Creature Shoes,” which are still just concepts. YAKU starts with a second-hand trainer and reworks the base before adding scrap pattern paper and cotton jersey scraps dyed A bright neon green.

As a result, the sneaker looks like it’s wearing a second skin, with raw-edged fabric folds creating monstrous shapes all over. It complements YAKU’s Afrofuturistic fantasy-world study perfectly while also feeling familiar. Perhaps it’s because the puffy formations contain a “Swoosh” emblem and “AIR” text.