Cult classic Nintendo game EarthBound is next Converse special edition sneaker collaboration
EarthBound / Mother characters will be plastered all over your feet in January.
Diehard Nintendo, RPG and / or Converse sneaker fans, listen up: a new limited edition pair of Converse All Stars high-tops are heading to the most exclusive part of the venn diagram that is your hobbyist life.
Converse is set to release a pair of sneakers based on the Mother series of RPG games — aka, EarthBound for anyone outside of Japan reading this. A weird, cult-classic role playing game that’s part Goonies, part Stranger Things and part Mad magazine, you’re most likely to have interacted with its characters via the Super Smash Bros fighting games, where one of its heroes, Ness, makes regular appearances.
The role-playing games themselves, top-down 8-and-16-bit affairs, have only been sporadically available in the West.
Confusing matters further? This is a 30th anniversary tie-in… for the second game in the series. Which was released as the first game in the series, Earthbound, in the West in 1995. Making it the… 29th anniversary? Whatever.
And so you can see why this particularly quirky collaboration is set to be snapped up when it goes on sale. The monochrome trainers feature the series mascot Mr Saturn printed in a pixel pattern across the canvas — eye-catching in a way that will make them attractive even to those with no knowledge of the franchise.
If you fancy a pair though, be prepared to jump through quite a few hoops to get hold of them. Not only are the trainers being made available in limited quantities, but they’re only being sold in-person via the Mother Bazaaaar pop-up in Japan. Provided you can get to Japan in person, and there’s still stock available, they’re only on sale during a limited window of time, too — January 9th through January 15th 2025. Let’s put it this way — if you manage to get a pair, you’ve definitely earned them.
