New Rocks are very impressive boots. They are big. They are covered in metal. They make the wearer at least three inches taller. A pair of calf-high boots weighs 25 pounds. Somehow, though, they are still very comfortable. Mine were broken in in about two days, as opposed to the two weeks my combat boots took.
New Rocks are made in Spain. Unfortunately, for a long time, this meant that they were hellishly expensive, around $200-250 USD, because of shipping across the Atlantic Ocean. In the last year or so, however, they have become increasingly popular in the States, and many stores, both online and physical, have started to carry them, and prices are now closer to $100 (for shoes) to $150 (for calf boots) to around $250 (for knee-high boots. But I'm just guessing on this one, as I can't find the knee-highs anywhere).
The average pair of New Rocks looks something like this:
- Black
- 2-4 inch sole (note that these are not platform boots as such, they are just really really big.)
- Metal bits on the front, back, and middle of the soles.
- Rarely solid black. They will usually have silver accents, or patent leather accents, or flames (and there's one pair with silver flames!). There are also a few that are red or purple.
- Buckles. Lots and lots of buckles.
- One of the two New Rock logos at the top of the tongue (or the center of the top of the boot}, and again in the middle of the sole. One logo is a circle with a globe in it with the words 'NEW ROCK' written around it, the other is a stylized N on top of a W.
- The laces will often go down and through the sole (of course, the laces are purely decorative anyway on most of the boots, which thankfully zip up.)
My first impression of these boots was something along the lines of "wow, the
marines in
Quake ought to be wearing those
.", and many of my friends have called them my
moon boots.
They have also expanded into making more regular looking sneakers, dress shoes, and a line of smaller boots for kids. If I ever have kids, they will so be wearing big stompy boots and scaring all the other kids in their kindergarten class :)
To the best of my knowledge, their first big introduction to the public was an interview with Gary Numan in Britain, and as the future-soldiers footwear in the (very bad) Jet Li movie, The One here in America.
The New Rocks website is at http://www.newrock.es . Unfortunately, the code is fairly IE specific, and doesn't really work in Opera. I havn't tried it with Netscape, though. It has both Spanish and English versions, although some of the javascript in the English version is broken. There is a mailorder site at http://www.newrockstore.com, or if you want a smaller (but significantly less expensive) section, http://www.vixensandangels.com is the place to go.