Behind the Scenes: Jeff Johnson’s Latest SeaVees Collab
COOL HUNTING spoke with the adventure photographer-designer about his Beyond & Back Boot V2’s design, how Patagonia’s founder will forever inspire him and what it means to execute a creative vision
Jeff Johnson keeps a running list of ultimates in his head—the ultimate board short, the ultimate pair of pants, the ultimate shot—and every so often one of them is actually created. At Patagonia, where he spent 13 years mostly behind a camera, the habit produced the Rover, a stripped-down running and climbing shoe that won Outside‘s Gear of the Year.
When Steven Tiller, founder, CEO and chief designer of SeaVees, reached out in 2020 to ask about a collaboration, Johnson had his answer, and the general outline of a boot, ready.
The two had met roughly a decade earlier, when Tiller wanted to see the skateboarding pictures that became Johnson’s 2018 book, Way High Kick Turn. They liked each other, both lived in Santa Barbara, where SeaVees is based, and agreed to make something together, without knowing what.
Raised in Vans, Johnson moved on to SeaVees, which he calls “growing up a little.” He already owned pieces of what would become his co-designed boot: the Coronado, a one-off Chelsea boot, and the Mariners, with its vulcanized rubber foxing running high up the leather. Combined is the basis of the Beyond & Back Boot, a plain slip-on with the profile of a 1950s sandlot sneaker and the build of a modern boot.
It was meant to be a single run. It is now the brand’s best-selling style and has sold out faster than anything in SeaVees’ history. A handful of seasons in, V2 adds the Vibram sole Johnson wanted from the beginning and pair of new colors. COOL HUNTING spoke with him about design, both for and beyond the boot, how Patagonia’s founder will forever inspire him and what it means to execute a creative vision.
COOL HUNTING: The original Beyond & Back Boot had a non-negotiable burst of orange. Why?
Jeff Johnson: I really love orange. It’s one of my favorite colors; I wouldn’t wear an entirely orange outfit, but I like little hits. And so, Steven mocked up this pair that was a light-colored leather with the orange on the gore, the stretchy gore that runs up the side of the shoe. And I go, “Oh my God, that looks great. I love these.” And he’s like, “Okay, we finally put the design to bed, and the color and everything.” And I didn’t sleep that night, because I always follow my heart. I’m not like a business-minded person. And I was thinking, “who the hell’s going to want orange?” I called him late at night. I’m like, “Oh my God, I think we’re blowing it. Who the hell is going to wear orange on their shoes?” And he goes, “No, the whole point of this is we’re making the ideal shoe for you.”
CH: That vote of confidence had to feel good?
JJ: Yes, we did it, but I think he and I both thought this would be a one-off, cool project, maybe just do one run and be done. And we were both totally surprised with the results and how well they did.
CH: The Beyond & Back Boot has become SeaVees’ best-selling style. It’s sold out multiple times, and faster than any other style in the brand’s history.
JJ: I remember we were having lunch one day, and Steven’s like, “I can’t believe we’re selling these boots in the summer.” That’s not normally even something they do. And they ended up having to buy some emergency stock because sales were good in the summer. It’s just been this shoe that’s blown both of our minds. Like I said, we thought this was just going to be a one-off, and now we’re in our fifth season or something. So yeah, it’s just been such a fun project. We’ve gotten to play around with a lot of different colors, some better than others.
CH: Talk to us about the sole.
JJ: From the get-go, I wanted to have Vibram rubber. And we just couldn’t do it, because with Vibram, you must use their molds and they didn’t have a Vibram mold that was vulcanized, which was surprising. So, Steven was like, “I’m not even going to go there. It’s just too impossible.” And then last year he’s like, “Look.” He approached Vibram, they knew about the shoe, and they said, “Hey, let’s do a custom Vibram sole for you guys that is vulcanized,” which was so exciting, because we are such big fans of Vibram.
CH: Not everyone is fluent in vulcanized rubber. What does it do for you in practice?
JJ: A lot of times I’m up in the mountains shooting on sketchy terrain where I do need sticky rubber. They’re not a technical shoe that you would climb or go do big mountains in. But I’ll just be rock hopping on rivers or standing on granite slabs or whatever, and I need a sticky shoe. With the Vibram sole, it’s just gotten better.
CH: The boot comes with one of your black-and-white prints. Why that photograph?
JJ: That’s a great question. I’ve been shooting photos for over 20, 25 years now, maybe longer, and of course I have hundreds of thousands of photos. And when somebody asks, “Hey, let’s put a photo out there for this,” I have to think of all these thousands of photos I have. But that one’s special to me, because it’s taken up at Tenaya Lake, up in Tuolumne Meadows. I’ve spent a lot of time in and around that lake and climbing on the cliffs above the lake. I’ve told my wife I want my ashes spread there when I die. I just love that area. In the last 20 years, you can see my van parked at the bottom of that cliff on the other side of the lake. That’s where I park. It’s a really special place for me. And I shot that recently with my favorite camera, which is an M11 monochrome camera.
CH: That’s a Leica rangefinder.
JJ: It is! The digital ones are just like the old ones. It’s like working a film camera, but it’s digital, so it’s as close as you can get to their heritage cameras. And that one’s unique because it only shoots monochrome, which is black and white, so there’s no color in that camera. I love shooting in black and white, and I love the commitment to it. It’s kind of like film. You don’t have choices. You don’t shoot a photo and go, “should I do color, should I do black and white?” You are getting black and white.
CH: Tell me about that photo specifically.
JJ: That angle is similar to the one Ansel Adams shot back in the day. I walked over to the other side of the lake looking for that angle that Ansel Adams shot, and I got pretty close to it. And there’s just a feeling of the people lounging on that rock in the middle of the lake. It just has this feel to it. I broke it down to about 15 photos, and then I gave SeaVees four of them, and that one’s what everybody agreed on. So yeah, there’s a lot to that photo that really means a lot to me.
CH: There’s a lot of noise right now from AI-generated everything, images, designs, etc. Good design, in photography or anything else, seems to depend on editing, simplicity and discernment. Does that resonate with you, with this photo and the boot?
JJ: Yeah, definitely. Do you know Antoine de Saint-Exupéry? He wrote The Little Prince. He was a poet, and a pilot who was running mail over Europe and Africa back in the day. Patagonia used one of his quotes for their mission statement: “Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” What I feel he’s saying is the best design is the simplest design. Patagonia really tried to adhere to that all the time, and I kind of do too. All the frivolous stuff is just taken away, and it’s just down to the basics. And it’s also that function follows form, or form follows function. If it’s super functional, it’s going to have this beauty to it.
CH: And AI can’t achieve that beauty?
JJ: I do think of that in my photography and things that I design: how to minimize stuff and how to make it really simple. In photography that’s a key component. Sometimes when you’re shooting, you’re trying to show people the busyness of something, and that’s a different approach. You’re trying to show how chaotic or hectic something might be. But I’m constantly trying to frame things out of photos and make things the simplest, and probably a little more graphic-looking. It’s just kind of a constant thing. There’s a through line that I’ve kind of been on for the last 20 years or so, of just really simplifying things.
CH: To simplify, less is more.
JJ: There’s another quote that Yvon [Chouinard] from Patagonia uses all the time: “the more you know, the less you need.” And it’s such a good one, because it’s true. If you see people out there doing their sport and they’ve got all this crap with them, you’re like, oh, they’re probably not that good at it. But when you see them and they just have a few tools and they’ve got it dialed, you’re like, oh, that’s a master. And in climbing, mainly because of weight, you’re always trying to minimize all your gear. Once you get better at climbing, the less gear you need, and the lighter you will be, and the faster you will go, and all this stuff. I try to take that with everything, even surfing. I try to surf without a leash as much as possible. I just love having just a surfboard and your board shorts, and that’s it. It’s just such a nice, simple way to go, and it’s a good exercise. It’s not like everything in my life is simple like that—I have two kids. But just keeping that in mind with everything, with photography, with my activities, with design, is just trying to keep it simple.
What are your thoughts?