Anwar Carrots is Expanding his Palette with New Job at K-Swiss

Who doesn’t love luxury? We all gravitate toward elevated design and premium takes on beloved classics. The basic essentials are your bread and butter, of course. But what about some cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top of that toast? Better. Not all the time, but when you need some extra ummph.

It’s why Toyota has Lexus and Carhartt has WIP and Vans has OTW and so on and so on. Even the best, most dialed-in brands need to flex their premium muscle once in a while and show off what they’re truly capable of when the creative restraints are let loose. That’s exactly what K-Swiss is doing with its new Racquet Club label, led by creative director extraordinaire, Anwar Carrots. Except, by working with Anwar, K-Swiss is making their luxury line more accessible.

You may know Anwar from… Carrots, his brand that turned 10 earlier this year. Carrots was born in collaboration, making its debut at a Scion pop-up in LA highlighting young artists from around the city. Carrots, from the start, has been about growth, and simplicity. Anwar never does too much, and it’s what makes Carrots so good. Pieces from Carrots feel like they’ve been in your collection forever, and they’re perfect for everyday errands or getting off a fit. Truly one of the most versatile brands, much like the vegetable it’s named after.

I met up with Anwar at the LIC location of Extra Butter in NYC for a K-Swiss event he was hosting. The goal was to talk about him branching out from running Carrots to lend his creative vision to another brand entirely, but we kind of just caught a vibe and hung out. Phil aka Philip Post, former Y**zy designer and the mastermind behind iconic streetwear brand Dertbag from neighboring Connecticut was hanging with Anwar, attending the event after shooting photos for the upcoming KSRC lookbook. So, the three of us broke down some fresh produce Anwar graciously brought from the left coast and burned a couple while chatting about New York, the current state of sneakers and streetwear, and of course, food.

Side note, was nobody going to tell me this Extra Butter in Long Island City has a Mobb Deep-themed bar inside it called The Infamous? I’ve been to the Manhattan location a bunch of times but this other one is well worth the trip to Queens, shout out to Luke and the rest of the team at the LIC EB. Always great hospitality and even better kicks in stock… plus, sneaker-themed cocktails!

I got to Extra Butter a little early, snagged the WiFi password from Luke, and ordered one of the two specialty drinks named after K-Swiss silhouettes. The Konejo with the muddled strawberry, agave, and tequila was on-point. As I finished my drink and the email I was sending, Anwar walked into the bar. Perfect timing. We sat outside by the giant Mobb Deep mural and began our conversation.

I mainly wondered what it was like collaborating as Anwar and not Carrots, taking on a role inside another brand’s framework instead of working on one project with them from the outside. When I asked what aspects of his decade-plus of experience running Carrots to his new creative director position at K-Swiss Racquet Club, he replied simply, “Myself.”

“It’s the same thing I do for Carrots,” Anwar added. “They give me free reign to be myself. Just bringing good morals, values, and principles when it comes to branding. The biggest difference, really, is just working with a full-on team there. At Carrots, it’s just me and two or three others I’m working with. Now, I’m walking into a whole office with HR. It’s a real job, and I love saying that. Go get you a job out there.”

On his first two drops as the head of KSRC, Anwar got to add his stamp of approval to some fan-favorite K-Swiss silhouettes like the Classic 66 and Si-18, as well as some that casual fans may have never seen before like the Konejo or Slammklub. As he dives deeper into his new day job, he has clear intentions of what he wants to create with future collections.

“My main goal personally is to make great white shoes and keep it as Los Angeles as possible,” he said. “And not just to be pigeonholed as what you think of when you think of LA but the city of Los Angeles and all of its culture through [he puts up big quotation fingers and laughs] my POV.”

“We love saying POV but I’m a worldly guy and my perspective and ethos is totally different from someone else who was born and raised in LA,” he continued. “There are so many pockets of LA with so many different styles, and so many key figures who deserve to be shared. That’s my main goal, is to share.”

People obviously associate Anwar and his brand with a very specific color palette, and rightfully so, to some extent. Many of Carrots’ collaborations over the years, from his trailblazing Crocs to projects with Toyota, The Hundreds, and his other job at Def Jam, have featured the orange and green motif prominently. So, it must have felt somewhat freeing to be able to use a full spectrum of colors to express his creative vision at K-Swiss.

“It’s very nice to be able to step outside, honestly,” Anwar said with a smile. “I love having a team around me to let them cook, too. I’m the chef but every good chef has sous chefs.”

“...And also, hello people, there are more colors of carrots,” Anwar added as a PSA to potential future collaborators out there listening. “There’s yellow, there’s purple, there’s white.”

The chef’s featured dishes from his first drop under the K-Swiss Racquet Club banner were the standout Konejo mesh runner in off-white and black with hits of red on the tongue and sole, as well as a chunky Si-18 that feels ready for an intense tennis match or for a skate sesh on the same courts. The supple stomper was wrapped in beautiful white leather and accented in gold details and a gum sole.

Then, for his second drop, which made its debut at Extra Butter that day, the Konejo went full greyscale with shiny silver overlays contrasting the dark grey mesh and lighter grey midsole. Meanwhile, Drop 2’s Si-18 skipped grey altogether and went from white to triple black and looked great doing it. Download Sole Retriever to peep the rest of each collection and stay ahead of the game for future drops from Anwar and K-Swiss Racquet Club.

Drew London

Drew oversees content at Sole Retriever and hates writing in the 3rd person soooo I'm going to stop. I've written for countless blogs and magazines, from Complex to XXL and everywhere in between. Spent a long time in LA, running content and working on branded collabs at The Hundreds. Now, I'm back home on the East Coast freezing my ass off. Email me at drew@soleretriever.com with scoops, story ideas, and size 13 heat.